A to Z Homeclick!
Cette page en françaisClick!

UFOs A to Z: U.


Click! U-2
Click! UAO
Click! UAP
Click! UFO
Click! UFO Times
Click! Ufology
Click! UFOnauts
Click! UGM
Cliquez! Ummo
Click! Ulkt
Click! Unarius
Click! URD (Project)
Click! USAF
Click! Uzunoglu, Basil

UAO

Acronym for Unconventional Aerial Object. Term used in the United States, by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) to define a phenomenon or an incident that cannot be explained as "commonplace and terrestrial." The expression was the "exclusive property" of APRO. They also used the term UFO to define the phenomena or incidents whose testimonies are sufficiently detailed to allow a classification.

UAP

Acronym for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. The expression was created by ATIC to indicate an aerial phenomenon whose report of observation is written in too vague terms to allow a precise identification. Was thereafter used by some ufology groups for a better acceptance of the legitimacy of their investigation, UFO being supposedly tainted with ridiculisations.

UFO

Abbreviation for "Unidentified Flying Object". In the USAF Regulation 200-2, the USAF defines a UFO as anything that relates to any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be identified as a familiar object.

UFO Times

BUFORA journal that contained many case reports from Britain and also has a section on European reports from Eurofon News. The magazine compared with the famous Flying Saucer Review.

Ufology

The study of observation reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

Note:

My definition is by no means consensual. For example, I often read that ufology is "the fan club of the aliens", or some sort of cult, or a commercial enterprise, or the study of the UFOs. I thought useful to provide, below, a part of a message on this matter I wrote in order to better clarify the meaning of the above definition.

In many discussions, I gave my point of view that ufology cannot be the "study of UFOs", and that it is rather, to me, the study of UFO sighting reports.

(As a matter of fact, in my country, France, the word "ufology" does not have a definition in the dictionaries, as far as I checked).

The difference seems important to me. For example, I do not study UFOs. I do not have any UFO. What I have is not even observations of UFOs; I made no such observations so far. On the other hand, I have reports of observations of UFOs, and this is what I study. Hence my definition (perhaps personal and criticable, but I wanted to explain it).

I must also specify another thing because a misunderstanding about it occurred during a discussion. It was thought, wrongly, that I meant to say that ufology is the study of UFO books or the study of investigation reports. Or that "report" must mean something in written form according to a dictionary in France (not so). Or even, that I should not use the word "rapport", the French for report under the motive that (one of) its meaning is "sexual intercourse between people" (!).

When I use the expression "UFO observation report", it does not mean at all that the only activity of the ufologist would be "to study reports of investigations on UFO observations", but to really to study UFO observations reports, with "report" as defined by J. Allen Hynek, report meaning a narration, a description, written, oral or by other media, from witness(es), of 1st hand ot Xth hand, with possibly "parts" such as drawings, images, photographs, measurements, measuring devices, samples, investigation reports, texts, handbooks, guides, maps etc.

Lastly, my definition does not claim to be an inventory of the possible activities of the ufologists; what is resquested of a definition is only to make it possible to differentiate things, for example here, the goal of the definition is only to make it possible to understand that the word ufology and for example the words botany or radiator or sleep do indicate differentiated things, sufficiently described so that the difference is clearly established.

Ufonauts

A term used by the UFO community in reference to the alien abductors or extraterrestrials.

Ulkt

According to Mary Sewall, a lady who attended all sorts of silly UFO conferences and befriended all sorts of alleged "contactees", Ulkt is a Martian who contacted her through automatic writing in 1982. Ulkt told her that our planet is polluted with "bad vibrations" and therefore humanity cannot join the "Galactic Federation". She said Ulkt's message is that men must stop all the wars and improve their morals and then, "their collective positive vibrations" will reach the "Galactic Federation" which will reward them accordingly.

Unarius

Unarius is a cult started in California by Ruth and Ester Norman in the 1950s. Unarius stands for "Universal Articulate Interdimensional Understanding of Science". The Normans claim that they receive information from the aliens by channelling, and that in 2001 the aliens of the Intergalactic Federation will land openly just outside San Diego, California, and bring a blissful future of peace, harmony and enlightenment, and bring back Ruth Norman, who died in 1993, and will be the new leader of Earth. Ruth Norman calls herself Uriel, supposed to mean "Universal Radiant Infinite Eternal Light". They drive a Space Cadillac, that is a Cadillac with a large model of a flying saucer on its roof, complete with flashing lights, which is to become her chariot when she returns to Earth, but in the meantime make everyone laugh in their neighborhood. The Unarians believe in Atlantis, the Lemurians, reincarnation and all sorts of silliness. So called UFO-skeptics love such cults as it facilitates their ridiculization of ufology.

  
Unarius

Unusual Ground Markings (UGM)

A broad term which includes crop circles, "tripod marks", saucer nests, burn marks, etc.

URD, Project

Project URD was founded by researcher Bertil Kuhlemann and run by the International Project URD Foundation in Stockholm in Sweden. It set out to give a clear cut answer to the question: is there really something which is well worth allocating resources to in the UFO reports? Running project URD, they decided determine whether the UFO phenomenon was real and deserving serious treatment and this is just what they concluded. By analysis of over 1,500 cases they indicated that the phenomenon existed by any reasonable scientific parameters and was deserving of scientific study. The basis of this was the repeatability of the phenomenon, i.e. similarities of unrelated reports, which could be determined by statistical analysis of well-defined cases. The International URD Foundation published several books explaining their approach, such as "Characteristics of a UFO report file" (1978), "Ufology : whence and whither" (1980), a "Codifier's manual", "A contextual discussion" "Description of a system aimed at collection, registration and evaluation of observational data regarding events possibly belonging to the ufo-category" and a "Field investigator's manual" in 1981.

USAF

United States Air Force. Before 1947, the US military aviation was just a part of the US Army, the Army Air Corp.

Uzunoglu, Basil

On July 31 and August 1, 1966, there were many UFO sightings in the general area of Washington and Baltimore, USA. Prince Georges County police watched lighted objects maneuvering erratically across the sky. In Baltimore, residents of the Country Ridge housing development were awakened early in the morning of August 1 by barking dogs. At least two families saw a hovering, egg-shaped object with flashing lights on the top and bottom. The object made a loud whirring or whining noise, according to the Baltimore News-American newspaper. That night at about 10:55 p.m, Dr. Basil Uzunoglu, a physicist and electronics researcher, was driving not far from Washington. He had passed Andrews Air Force Base when, out of his open left window, he saw a light descend and appear to hover briefly, then move rapidly to the east. Minutes later an oblong object "like a submarine" descended over a house to his left. This time the UFO was much closer, its apparent size as large as the house. Dr. Uzunoglu slowed his car and looked at the object, now an estimated 200 feet away, for about ten seconds. At this point it showed details of structure: a peaked top with a red light; an apparently rounded undersurface with red lights; and a large yellow revolving light slightly off-center (see his sketch underneath). He told NICAP: "I could see clearly the top of the body, which was a dark, non-shining material with no sharp edges. The most striking part was the eye-like object off-center to the right, with two distinct yellow regions ... [The lower region] was revolving, blinking or scanning..." He turned his attention to the highway again, noting that no other cars were in sight. When he glanced back again, the object was moving south "at a very high speed and comparatively low elevation" and he said it disappeared in seconds. He said that he had been very shaken by the encounter.

Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict



 Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home
This page was last updated on October 24, 2007