UFOs & UAPs.

What this pillar covers

UFOs and UAPs sit at an unusual intersection. On one side, this is the most active vertical in the entire archive — the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office releases new documents almost monthly, the 2026 PURSUE portal is publishing previously-classified material faster than analysts can review it, and congressional hearings produce sworn testimony with national-security implications on a regular cadence. On the other side, this is the vertical with the deepest folklore and the largest population of unreliable witnesses, hoaxers, grifters, and well-meaning people who genuinely misidentified Venus.

The case-file format helps here more than anywhere. A reader landing on a UAP file should be able to tell, immediately, whether they're looking at a sighting with radar correlation, multiple military witnesses, and FLIR footage, or whether they're looking at a single-witness 1947 newspaper account with no follow-up investigation. Both deserve files. They don't deserve the same weight.

Featured case

• File · UFOs · Updated May 2026

  The Roswell Incident (July 1947)

  The crash near Corona, New Mexico that started everything. What the 1994 Air Force report (Project Mogul) says, what the 1947 RAAF press release said, and what's still in dispute about the most-cited UFO case in history.

The catalogue

Cases planned for this pillar, organized by era and category. Files marked ✓ are published; the rest are in research or queued.

Modern UAP era (2004–present)

• The Nimitz Tic-Tac (2004) — USS Nimitz strike group; Fravor testimony; FLIR1 video.
• The 2015 GIMBAL and GOFAST Videos — USS Roosevelt encounters; released 2017.
• The December 2017 NYT Disclosure — "Glowing Auras and Black Money": the article that opened the era.
• The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP, 2007–2012).
• The UAP Task Force (2020) → AOIMSG (2021) → AARO (2022).
• The June 2021 ODNI Preliminary Assessment — 144 incidents 2004–2021.
• The 2022 House and Senate UAP Hearings.
• The 2023 Grusch Testimony — David Grusch's ICIG complaint and House Oversight testimony.
• The 2024 AARO Historical Report (Volume I) — DoD finding no evidence of recovered ETC craft. Volume II pending.
• 🆕 The PURSUE Releases (May 2026) — The new DoD UAP document portal. Fresh material.
• The Wilson-Davis Memo (alleged) — 2002 notes; Wilson denies authenticity.
• The Bob Lazar Claims (1989) — S-4, Element 115, Sport Model.

Classic government investigations

• Project SIGN (1947–1949) — The first US investigation; Estimate of the Situation.
• Project GRUDGE (1949–1952) — The debunking-oriented successor.
• Project Blue Book (1952–1969) — 12,618 cases reviewed; 701 unidentified.
• The Robertson Panel (1953) — CIA-convened scientific review.
• The Condon Committee (1968–1969) — The report that ended Blue Book.
• Project Twinkle (1949–1951) — Green Fireball investigation.

Famous sightings and encounters

• The Kenneth Arnold Sighting (June 24, 1947) — The origin of "flying saucer."
• The Mantell Incident (1948) — Kentucky pilot's fatal pursuit; Skyhook balloon now widely accepted.
• The Chiles-Whitted Encounter (1948) — Eastern Airlines pilots.
• ✓ The Roswell Incident (July 1947).
• The Maury Island Incident (1947) — Investigated by Davidson and Brown, who died in subsequent crash.
• The Lubbock Lights (1951).
• The Washington UFO Flap (1952) — Capitol radar tracks; Truman briefed.
• The Levelland UFOs (1957) — Multiple independent vehicle-stalling reports.
• The Lonnie Zamora Encounter (1964, Socorro NM) — Daylight close encounter with physical traces.
• The Betty and Barney Hill Abduction (1961) — The first widely-publicized abduction case.
• The Pascagoula Abduction (1973).
• The Travis Walton Abduction (1975).
• The Cash-Landrum Incident (1980, Texas) — Alleged radiation injuries; failed lawsuit.
• The Rendlesham Forest Incident (December 1980, UK) — RAF nights; Halt memo.
• The Belgian UFO Wave (1989–1990) — ~2,000 sightings; F-16 chase.
• The Phoenix Lights (March 1997) — V-formation plus 10pm flares; two events.
• The O'Hare Airport UFO (November 2006).
• The Stephenville UFO (January 2008) — FAA radar correlated some tracks.
• The Hudson Valley Wave (1982–1989).
• The Westall Encounter (April 1966, Melbourne) — School-yard mass sighting.
• The Tehran UFO Incident (1976) — Iranian F-4 system failures.
• The Aguadilla Puerto Rico UFO (2013) — DHS thermal video.
• The Shag Harbour Incident (October 1967, Nova Scotia) — Water-impact case.
• The Kecksburg Incident (December 1965, Pennsylvania).
• The Aurora, Texas UFO (April 1897) — Newspaper account of crashed airship and "Martian" burial.

Pre-modern (pre-1947) reports

• The 1561 Nuremberg "Celestial Phenomenon."
• The 1566 Basel Event.
• The Foo Fighters (WWII) — Allied pilot reports.
• The Ghost Rockets (1946, Sweden).
• The Battle of Los Angeles (February 1942).

Disclosure-era research and reports

• The Galileo Project (Avi Loeb, 2021) — Harvard-led search for ETC artifacts.
• The American Galileo Project Pacific Expedition (IM2 meteorite material).
• The 1947 Estimate of the Situation — SIGN's interplanetary-origin report; rejected by Vandenberg.
• The Twining Memo (1947) — "the phenomenon reported is something real."
• The Brookings Report (1960) — NASA-commissioned; consequences of life detection.
• The MJ-12 Documents — Almost certainly hoax; documented anyway.

How we handle weight of evidence

Not all UAP cases are created equal. The Tic-Tac event has FLIR footage, multiple military witnesses, radar correlation, and the testimony of named pilots given under oath. Aurora, Texas in 1897 has a single newspaper article and a gravestone that was added decades after the alleged event. Both go in the catalogue. The reader will be able to tell them apart from the file's confidence tags.

Where the modern era differs from the classic era is the documentary base. The 2017–2026 case files draw on DoD records released under FOIA, sworn congressional testimony, and primary investigative material from named office holders. The 1947–1969 case files draw, in many cases, on a newspaper clipping and a witness's later memoir. We cite both kinds and label what's what.