As several have commented it is a nice change to see a sensible debate.

I have seen two things while aviating that I could not identify or explain at the time. One in 1963 was at height over the Boscombe area and looked like a very high level dot of an aircraft that exploded as I was looking at it. (I was at 40k and it was way above me) after which I saw debris falling on my port side. The other passed beneath me in 1954. I first saw it out on the starb side, it tracked under our RAE Lincoln and reappeared out the port side (we were about 12k) I shouted as I moved to look out the port side but nobody else in the crew saw it. I couldn’t guess how far it was below us because I didn’t know the size … but since it took a mo to appear out the other side I suspect it was fairly well below. We were over West Freugh range and dropping prototype cluster bombs from height. Range radar was calling the release. They saw nothing.

I reported both events. Both were investigated by ATC. The first was explained as the bursting of a high altitude trials balloon from Larkhill at approx 90k. The debris I saw was thought to be part of an instrumentation package.

Nobody had anything to offer regarding the West Freugh event, despite it getting people’s attention from a range safety standpoint. The shape of what I saw was best described as the front view of a Vulcan if you remove the fin. Or, if you prefer, a sphere with a couple of cones out either side where the base diameter of the cones was say 90% of the diameter of the sphere. The tips of the cones were slightly rounded. It was of uniform dark colour with no details visible, travelling one cone tip first. IF my impression that is was well below us was correct it must have been doing say 250 kts. It was broad daylight. I had my leg pulled a bit by some in the mess (we were visitors for a couple of days) but not by those in the crew who knew me.

An interesting subject I've been following for many years - it's also interesting to look at man made aircraft as potential UFO's. I revisited a book I bought in the 90s which had a description of a UFO looking like nothing the witness had ever seen flying through a valley in a remote part of the UK. She gave a very good description right down to the "alien" in the front. Reading the book again it was an almost exact description of the F117 Stealth bomber (right down to the position of the pilot) Maybe a clandestine testing mission?

Have seen a few strange things in the air - 2 stand out in particular - one in the australian outback near Pine Gap (a very bright light plummeting to the ground then reversing and shooting upwards at an angle) and one (bizarrely) at an airshow at RAF Valley which was witnessed by quite a few other people as well. The first I had no explanation for - the second was a large disk moving through clouds - my guess was a conventional airliner reflecting ice crystals (but i don't know if this would lead to it appearing as a disk)

John (Farley), This will sound terribly sycophantic but I can't tell you how thrilled this low achieving but very enthusiastic aviator is that one of his all - time heros has responded to his post !

Re your post; from your perspective, were those wing tips rounded up, down or just rounded (if that makes sense)?


Del

Sorry Del

It appears my description was not adequate. Take the front view of a Vulcan, remove the fin and give what you see on the paper a circular cross section turning the front view of the 'Vulcan' into a pair of cones with a sphere in the centrs. It had no wings and it was travelling with the tip of one cone first, then the sphere then the trailing cone. Sorry it was not exactly cigar shape - but close!

JF

JF, These are the sort of observations which I find the most interesting because (a) they are by a reliable witness whose credentials are beyond reproach and (b) they are more substantial than just 'lights' which are always suspect for the reasons discussed earlier. Out of interest, during your many flights around the Boscombe Down area did you ever spot any crop circles and what are your thoughts on that subject. I find it difficult to accept that they are all hoaxes. Some of the more spectacular examples are so complex and would have involved so much work and time that I feel it's inevitable that word would have leaked out from the conspirators. I seem to remember about ten years or so ago there was an appeal by the CAA or perhaps one of the ministries to PPLs to keep an eye open for them and, if possible, take pictures and so at least someone was taking them seriously!

Del

Fascinating topic all
I'm training as an ATCO at the moment and i am intrigued as to why so many of these objects mentioned have not shown up on radar. Are we looking at stealth technology perhaps, or maybe something not known as of yet?
Has anyone also got any pics taken from flightdeck windows??

As an aside my parents have also reported seeing a long cigar shaped object in the sky . apparently it appeared, then slowed down to a very slow speed for a few mins then sped off leaving the obligatory hazy trail behind. i have since spoken to a couple of other people who also saw the same thing from a different town that same evening. BTW this was at night and the object was "glowing orangey"
CF

Sorry Del. No crop circles - which I think are in a very different category from things one sees in the sky and cannot identify....

Derek

If you want a facinating and VERY thought-provoking read, then try this:

The DAY AFTER ROSWELL
by Philip Corso, William J. Birnes "

I read it several years ago and coulldn't put it down. It's well-written by someone with a high US military clearance, who claims he was there and was a lead figure in the investigation.

In short, he claims it was all true, and goes into great detail listing and describing all the inventions that we have seen since and as a result of reverse engineering of what they found.

A truly facinating read. If you do a GOOGLE search you will find it.

Cheers....LC

cheers LC, Will do that, many thanks, Del

On a summer evening in about 1976 my friend and I were camped on the western shore of Georgian Bay, part of the Great Lakes. It was a beautiful evening and as we looked across the bay to the east we saw a very bright white light. It was not possible to estimate exactly how far away it was but I would guess 10 or 15 miles.

At first I thought it was a helicopter with its cabin illuminated. However when it started accelerating at a very high rate and then stopping almost immediately we realised it was something else. It hovered and then seemed to come toward us, which was a bit disconcerting. Fortunately it changed direction and continued with these starting and stopping manoeuvres for a few more minutes. Next day we heard on the radio that there had been a lot of UFO sightings in our area the previous evening.

If you want a good read on the subject anything by Timothy Good is er.. good! Not sure about the Day after Roswell - I think it threw up more questions than answers.

Yonks ago, I was RHS in a PAZT from Luton to Liverpool. Just nort of LIC @3500 I saw a very bright light waverimg between my 11-12 o'clock. After 15-20 seconds, said light went from 12 o'clock to my left, and vanished in less than 5 secs.
Convesation...
Me .......... few secs later
P1 "Errm, can you see what I see?"
Me "That bright light?"
P1 "Yep, I thought that I was seeing things"
At this point, the light/object went left.
Me "It's probably the landing lights on an inbound into Manch or Liverpool"
P1 "OK"
Subsequent checks revealed no a/c inbound to either a/f +/- 45 mins of said sighting
watp,iktch

<<If you want a good read on the subject anything by Timothy Good is er.. good! >>

I used to read TG... but he seems to have disappeared from the scene and none of his "forecasts" came true.. It's happened with many books I've read... I read that "Gulf Breeze" was a fix... and the Rendlesham Forest episode seems to have been discredited.

Actually I think Georgina Bruni does a good analysis of the Rendlesham Forest episode in "You can't tell the people" . I've never subscribed to the lighthouse theory most people try and discredit it with as there were too many other happenings reported by others at the same time as the sighting.

Nick Pope is another interesting author - brought to light the incident at RAF Shawbury in the 90's - I was only a few miles from there at the time (and saw nthing!) but I spoke to him about it briefly at a book signing and he gave me the impression there was something bubbling under about this episode :eek:

A spromised, I have put togethre some notes on my (limited) experience of UFOs.. To those who may be hoping for something scary at Heathrow... sorry, the incidents were too quick to be really scary.

UFO Notes

Thanks for taking the time to post your experiences HD. :ok:

Thanks HD - very interesting stuff.

Del

Thanks for taking the time to write those up HD. The first experience you mention in North Africa certainly is weird !

Very interesting stuff! Your account of Incicdent 8 is very similar to something I witnessed over Newcastle during the summer - which was unusual to say the least!

Not had any UFO experiences - yet. But have a ghost in my house and serveral incidents in my old house which belonged to my grandparents.... but get that 'yeah right!' grin/smirk if I tell people.

Think a lot of people are in a similar situation... not sure whether to believe but DON'T disbelieve....

Can't believe that earth is only inhabited planet in the universe...

Go back 150 yrs and who would have believed we'd have aircraft or computers...

PW