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UFOs A to Z: B.


Click! B-2
Click! Bariloche
Click! Base Camp
Click! Basel 1566
Click! Bassett, Stephen
Click! Battelle Memorial Institute study
Click! Belgium flap
Click! Bellefontaine
Click! Bennewitz, Paul
Click! Bentwaters
Click! Berliner, Don
Click! Berlitz, Charles
Click! Bermuda Triangle
Click! Bethune, Graham E.
Click! Beverly, 1966
Click! Bieri, Robert, Prof.
Click! Bikini
Click! Black Projects
Click! Blackburn, William
Click! Black-out
Click! Blakeslee, Donald J.M, Col.
Click! Blanchard, Col. William
Click! Blip
Click! Blue Book
Click! Blum, Howard
Click! Bradytes
Click! Brown, Thomas Townsend
Click! BUFORA
Click! Bush, Vannevar
Click! Byurakam meeting

B-2

The US Air Force B-2 Stealth Bomber is often mentioned - sometimes against all common sense - as a possible explanation of UFO sightings.

Bariloche

In early August of 1995, a remarkable sighting of a UFO occurred at an Argentine airport. In early August, a UFO appeared over Bariloche Airport, about 1,400 kilometers from Buenos Aires. The luminous object was spotted by an Aerolineas Argentinas flight crew landing at the airport as well as ground crews. The airport's control tower personnel informed reporters that their instruments acted strangely in the presence of the UFO and that all the lights in and about the airport went out when the object departed. Interference with electrical appliances (e.g. the airport's lights, the control tower's instruments) is a common trait in UFO reports. Ground crews reported that the UFO had shining lights on its belly.

Base Camp

Base Camp is one among many top secret test locations of the US Air Force.

Basel 1566

In 1566 a group of UFOs was seen by the citizens of Basel, Switzerland, and the story and drawing was published.

Bassett, Stephen

Stephen Bassett is a political activist, a congressional "UFO lobbyist". In 1996, he founded a "Paradigm Research Group" and is the "Executive Director of the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee". He runs the "Paradigm Clock" website which claims to show how little time there remains before the "truth" on UFOs will be revealed by governments who supposedly hide hit. He frequently appears on radio talk shows in the US and in "exopolitics" conferences and organizes an annual "X-Conference" in Washington, D.C. an annual gatherings of ufologists of the "exopolitics" kind in the United States.

Battelle Memorial Institute study

The Battelle Memorial Institute received the task to review US Air Force UFO cases from the Air Force in 1954. Their results, summarized in Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 were markedly different from the conclusions by the Robertson Panel one year ago. Whereas the Robertson Panel, set up by the CIA, spent only twelve hours reviewing a limited number of cases, the Battelle Institute had four full-time scientific analysts working for over two years analyzing 3201 reports. Classifying a case as "unknown" required agreement among all four analysts, whereas a "known" or conventional classification required agreement by only two analysts. Still they concluded 22% of the cases remained unsolvable, which means, with no other solution than that of extraterrestrial visits. The percentage climbed to 35% when considering only the best cases and fell to 18% for the worst cases. Not only are the percentages of unknowns much higher than those for the Robertson Panel, but the higher percentages for the better cases are directly opposite one conclusion of the panel that their remaining 10% of unknowns would disappear if further investigated and more information was available. Furthermore, the Battelle study had already thrown out cases they deemed to have insufficient information to make a determination (9% of all cases). Thus, the fact that a case was classified as "unknown" had nothing to with lack of information or investigation.

The study also looked at six characteristics of the sightings: duration, speed, number, brightness, color, and shape. For all characteristics, the knowns and unknowns differed at a highly statistically significant level, further indicating that the knowns and unknowns were distinctly different classes of phenomena.

Despite this, the summary section of the final report declared it was "highly improbable that any of the reports of unidentified aerial objects... represent observations of technological developments outside the range of present-day knowledge." A number of researchers have noted that the conclusions of the analysts were usually at odds with their own statistical results, displayed in 240 charts, tables, graphs and maps. Possibly the analysts simply had trouble accepting their own results. Others conjecture this was another result of the Robertson Panel whose conclusion were probably written in advance, and defined the negative conclusions to write to satisfy the new negative political climate within Project Blue Book following the panel.

Bellefontaine

On August 1, 1952, the radar station of Bellefontaine, Ohio, USA, tracked an unidentified radar target and sent two F-86 after the supposed UFO. The jets observed, filmed and tracked a high altitude object; however the investigation by USAF's Project Blue Book discovered that it was a series of coincidences that lead to the interception of what was merely a weather balloon.

Belgium flap

Between 1989 and 1990, a massive series of sightings occurred over Belgium.

Bennewitz, Paul

In the late 1970's, an Albuquerque businessman named Paul Bennewitz started to monitor unusual electromagnetic pulses from what he thought were UFOs flying above the nearby Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility near Kirtland Air Force Base. He came to the conclusion that these pulses may be controlling implanted abductees, so he started attempting to decode the pulses, and thought he was on the right path. He contacted APRO about his theory, but they wouldn't believe him, so he contacted AFOSI in October 1980, where he was put in touch with Richard Doty. He filled out a few forms and sent in some tape he had filmed of some UFOs over the Nuclear Storage Facility and Doty started to feed Bennewitz disinformation about the US government's involvement with the UFO phenomenon, including tales of US/alien pacts, alien bases in various places around the world, and of experiments that the aliens carried out with humans to create hybrids and androids. Bennewitz believed all of it. Doty then got William Moore to pass on more disinformation on to him, and Bennewitz got more and more paranoid and eventually went insane. Bennewitz told John Lear what he had heard and Lear took this into account when he wrote his dark side hypothesis.

Bentwaters

The multiple radar visual case of Bentwaters, 1956 establishes the evidence that UFOs are for real, and that the denial by the military and scientific community is a shame.

Berliner, Don

Don Berliner is a US ufologist who served as chairman of the non-profit Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR), a staff writer for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and is a delegate to the UFO Research Coalition. He is co-author with fellow ufologist Stanton Friedman of the 1997 book "Crash at Corona" about the Roswell affair, in which the faked "Majectic 12" documents appeared. He also wrote "UFO Briefing Document" with the "abductee" Whitley Strieber.

Don Berliner has written more than 300 magazine articles and 25 books on aviation history and space. He is a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Society of Air Racing Historians, the International Association of Aviation Historians.

  

Berlitz, Charles

A controversial author who wrote about the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, the Philadelphia Experiment and Noah's Ark.

Bermuda Triangle

Area southeast of Florida which exhibits alleged strange properties: ships and planes disappear and never return, compasses and other electronic equipment don't work, etc. Though lots of rumors have been spread on the subject, it seems rather unlikely that anything stranger than in other areas happens there. Though, it became the right place for insurance crooks who make they old ships sink there, taking advantage of the rumor.

Bethune, Graham E.

U.S. Naval Reserve Lieutenant Graham Bethune, co-pilot on Flight 125 from Keflavik, reported:

"While flying in the left seat on a true course of 230 degrees at a position of 49-50 North and 50-03 West, I observed a glow of light below the horizon about 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the water. We both observed its course and motion for about 4 or 5 minutes before calling it to the attention of the other crew members... Suddenly its angle of attack changed, its altitude and size increased as though its speed was in excess of 1,000 miles per hour. It closed in so fast that the first feeling was we would collide in midair. At this time its angle changed and the color changed. It then [appeared] definitely circular and reddish orange on its perimeter. It reversed its course and tripled its speed until it was last seen disappearing over the horizon. Because of our altitude and misleading distance over water it is almost impossible to estimate its size, distance, and speed. A rough estimate would be at least 300 feet in diameter, over 1,000 miles per hour in speed, and approached to within 5 miles of the aircraft." Complete dossier on this encounter here.

Beverly, 1966

A completely baffling case involving nine witnesses took place on April 22, 1966, in Beverly, Massachusetts. This dramatic close encounter is regarded as being among the most persuasive arguments for the extraterrestrial hypothesis, and it is almost certainly the most solidly unidentifiable report from Massachusetts in the sixties.

Bieri, Robert, Prof.

Professor Robert Bieri, an expert on evolution, wrote an article entitled "Humanoids on Other Planets?" that was published in the American Scientist, in December 1964. He points out that man is extremely well built to meet the requirements of an intelligent organism capable of using tools, mastering fire, built machines with complex parts, and developing a high intellectual capacity. For example, if we would not have hands or if we would walk on our hands, this would not have been possible. Similarly, it would not have been possible if we did not have sense organs located to the front and close to the brain, elevated some distance above the ground. Professor Bieri and other scientists in the field of evolution explained why we should not be too surprised in encountering humanoids in an extraterrestrial spaceship, yet some scientists that are ignorant on the subject of UFOs but insist that none is an alien spaceship still repeat the invalid argument that it is not possible that UFO occupants would look one bit like us.

Bikini

Bikini Island Site of the first test of the atomic bomb. UFOs were seen fleeing the site and before the test, the natives reported lots of problems with their animals being mutilated (claimed by Schneider).

Black Projects

Government projects that are considered as technological secrets. About $US50bn are invested in US black projects a year.

Blackburn, William

On January 19, 1965, William Blackburn, industrial designer and resident of Waynesboro, Virginia, USA, was working at the Augusta County Archery Club off Route 250, near Brand's Flats, when at approximately 05:40 p.m., he saw two objects in the sky. Blackburn estimated that the larger one was hovering at about 900 meters and was 60 meters wide at least. The smaller one, cone or pyramid-shaped, descended to the ground and landed approximately 20 meters from him. Three 3-feet tall beings of extraterrestrial appearance floated out. They were dressed in clothes of the same shiny and weird color than the object. One had an extremely long finger on one hand. The witness was very impressed by their penetrating eyes, feeling that "they seemed to look through you." As the creatures approached within 12 meters from him, he froze in fright. The beings uttered some unintelligible sounds and reentered the object through a door that appeared to "mold itself into the ship." The object then ascended and disappeared. After he told about his sighting to the local newspaper the Waynesboro News-Virginian, Blackburn said he was visited by members of an undetermined government agency he claimed told him not to say anything more about his sighting. Richard Hall and other NICAP members investigated and found strong evidence to support his report of being asked to keep his mouth shut, which he did not: residents of the village confirmed that a car with Federal plaques very noticeably appeared in town.

Black-out

UFO observations are sometimes coincidental with power supply black-outs. One of the most dramatic case occurred in 1965 when 30 millions people across 8 US states experienced it.

The term has also been used in French ufology as an equivalent to "cover-up."

Blakeslee, Donald J.M, Col.

Colonel Donald J.M Blakeslee of the US Air Force, a WWII ace, was flying an F-84 jet fighter at 27,000 feet on 29 December 1952 over northern Japan. He was listening to communication between the nearby Air Force base and an F-95 flying in the area at the time. The conversation was about a call from a B-26 plane reporting a UFO like a cluster of lights, red, white and green a few minutes before. The UFO had been detected on USAF radar but the B-26 was too slow to intercept it and an F95 was scrambled and confirmed the sighting. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Blakeslee's own wing commander sighted the red, white and green object and ground control asked him to attempt an intercept. Blakeslee climbed and switched off his lights. At 35,000 feet and much closer to the lights, Colonel Blakeslee could see that it was a saucer-shaped object revolving in a counter-clockwise direction at something between eight and twelve times a minute. Although there was this movement there was also the stability of three white, constant, unmoving beams and it appeared that only pan of the saucer was rotating. Blakeslee pushed his plane up to full power, something like 500 miles per hour, but the saucer easily pulled away and was out of sight within seconds. Five minutes later the wing commander spotted the object again, this time moving parallel with the F-84. Colonel Blakeslee left his lights on and tried to close in but the object fled again. The object had also be seen by five ground observers of the US Air Force.

Blanchard, Colonel William

William Blanchard
  

The officer at Roswell Army Air Field who asked for the press release that they had found the wreckage of a crashed flying disc.

Blip

Luminous spot on a radar set screen representing the position of a body that reflected the waves emitted by the radar.

Blue Book

Project Blue Book was the last publicly acknowledged USAF investigation into UFOs, and something of a controversial one, which started in March 1952. Its aims were to find explanations for UFO sightings, to assess whether they were a threat to national security, and to determine if the UFOs used advanced technology from which the US could learn. Reports were collected, analyzed and filed according to their results. Nobody noticed anything was wrong with the project until one of the people on the investigation team sent in his own sighting. It was filed, but when he wanted to refer back to his report, it had disappeared. He then alleged that any reports that were both unexplained and could cause public uproar were siphoned off out of Blue Book to somewhere else higher up in authority, a claim that ufologists now see as fact. Blue Book was wound up in 1969 as a result of the Condon report and one of its investigators, Dr J. Allen Hynek, went on to form the first scientific based UFO group, the Center for UFO Studies, in 1973.

Blum, Howard:

Howard Blum is a former New York Times investigative journalist with a book on Nazi-hunting and another on U.S. spy John Walker to his credit. He started the book "Out There" in 1990, to address the UFO problem. He starts as a skeptic, using his journalistic contacts in U.S. intelligence. The authenticity of the MJ-12 documents is debated, with input from Bill Moore, Stanton Friedman Philip Klass, and even the FBI's counterintelligence team gets stonewalled by the official secrecy. His investigation shows that government officials, particularly the U.S. military and science advisors with security clearances above Top Secret have formed various study groups over the years while denying their ongoing interest in the phenomenon. Blum concludes that UFO knowledge is hidden by some US government officials.

Bradytes:

On February 23, 1883, famous French astronomical writer Camille Flammarion saw an object remaining stationary in the sky for some time, and he could not understand what it was. He saw many other phenomena in the sky, and wondered how these "meteors" can turn, go up and perform strange maneuvers. He called these phenomena "bradytes" and wrote several articles about it. The descriptions are unfortunately not precise enough and not much can be said about it.

Brown, Thomas Townsend

In 1956, at an informal monthly Flying Saucer Discussion Group organized by contactee-oriented newsletter editor Clara L. John in Washington, D.C., physicist Thomas Townsend Brown (1905-1985) who had been drawn interested in UFOs for what it may reveal about interstellar flight technology, came up with the idea to organize a scientifically oriented nationwide ufology group. Brown had developed his own theories about how UFO overcome gravitation by some antigravity propulsion system, and Navy physicist actually went to a demonstration he organized, but left unconvinced. As others such as Major Donald Keyhoe, USMC ret., were interested in a wide scale ufology organization, Brown thus started NICAP, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, on October 24, 1956. However, Brown was unable to manage the finances of the organization, made unrealistic expectations on funding, and after only two month NICAP was near collapse. Rather ambitious, Brown who already was NICAP's director nominated himself chairman of its board of directors as well in January 1957, but others such as Keyhoe who were concerned that NICAP was going into the wall under his poor management and was loosing scientific credibility because of Brown's unverified theories about antigravity, asked him to resign, which he did. Rear Admiral Delmer S. Fahrney was then elected board chairman, and asked Keyhoe to accept the post of director. Brown continued with no success the research on anti-gravity he had started as early as the 1920's, and died because of breathing issues cause by the excess ozone he breathed in his numerous high voltage experiments.

BUFORA

The British UFO Research Organization was the largest UFO group in Great Britain and has been going since 1964. As well as doing research into the phenomena, it published the bi-monthly journal UFO Times.

Bush, Vannevar Dr.

Dr. Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) has been, according to some documents that are dubious at best, and forged at worst, one of the members of a group called Majestic 12, that was aware of extraterrestrial visitors.

What is certain is that Vannevar Bush had leading positions in the National Defense Research Council and the Office of Scientific Research and Development before and during World War II and was head of the Joint Research and Development Board after World War II, responsible for the development of the Manhattan Project, the project that developed the atomic bomb. He was of the family of Presidents George Bush and George Bush Jr.

As a scientist, he practically predicted hypertext as now used on the World Wide Web, but he became more known for his tendency to either exaggerate or underestimate technical difficulties; in fact someone who has this tendency is now called "a vannevar" in certain Research circles! Among other errors, he thought that computers would grow as big as the Empire State Building, that the future of data storage would me microfilm, that it will be impossible to put an atomic bomb on a missile, that moon exploration will result in deaths of the Apollo astronauts.

Byurakam meeting

In 1971 in Byurrakam in Armenia in the Soviet Union, an international meeting of astronomers was held, organized by Carl Sagan and animated by Verner Von Braun and professor Sedov on the theme of the communications with extraterrestrial intelligences. Some 50 scientists of the whole world in the areas of astronomy, physics, human sciences, biology. The consensus that emerged was that the same context that allowed the emergence of life and intelligent life on Earth has almost no chance to have occurred only on our planet.

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This page was last updated on March 14, 2012.