|
|
|
Puerto Maldonado, Peru 1952 a strange "fat fuselage" shaped object with trail, published in a newspaper on 19-Jul-1952. Enlarged photo: p1, p2.
Story: The attention of Customs Inspector Sr. Domingo Troncoso was called to a very strange flying object over the river area. The big dirigible-shaped craft was flying horizontally and fairly low in the sky, passing from right to left from the observers position. It was leaving a dense trail of thick smoke, vapor, or substance on its wake. The object was estimated to be over a hundred feet long. Case file: ufocasebook, ufoevidence, ufologie Note: AFAIK there are conflicting dates for this photo in FOTOCAT - but if it was taken in Jul-1952, one should note it coincides with the major UFO wave of that period (between 13-July and 29-July of 1952), reportedly the biggest UFO wave on record, when UFOs also flew over Washington, DC. More in our UFO summary and essential reading page. Note2: The case file makes reference to a thick, white and fibrous substance on the trail left by the UFO, known as "angel hair". It was quite common in reports of the 1950s. August 19, 1998 - Associated PressMore: pravda.ru Related: A fiery silvery fat-"fuselage" / dirigible UFO was observed by NASA aeronautical engineer Paul R. Hill. Hill's second sighting occurred in 1962, also in Hampton Roads, while being driven in a car in traffic. The time was about 4:00 p.m. and a storm was clearing. A heavy cloud layer with a bottom at 3000-4000 feet lay over Hampton Roads and the lower end of Chesapeake Bay. Hill would later use the cloud layer data to calculate the acceleration and final velocity of the object. Looking out over the southern end of Chesapeake Bay, Hill said he was "surprised to see a fat aluminum- or metallic-colored 'fuselage' nearly the size of a small freighter, but shaped more like a 'dirigible'." It was maybe 1000 feet high, moving maybe 100 miles an hour, and several miles away over the Bay. At one point its orientation showed him it was round in cross-section. Hill kept looking for a wing or a tail section, but didn't see any. The big dirigibles that used to be at Langley Field had long since disappeared, and it was too cylindrical and long to be something like the Goodyear blimp. However, blimp origins soon became academic. Hill said that after a few minutes: "...it began to accelerate very rapidly and at the same time emit a straw-yellow, or pale flame-colored wake or plume, short at first but growing in length as the speed increased until it was nearly as long as the object. Also, when it started to accelerate it changed from a level path to an upward slanting path, making an angle of about 5 degrees to the horizontal. It passed us going at an astounding speed. It disappeared into the cloud layer. in what I estimated to be four seconds after the time it began to accelerate. The accelerating distance was measured by car odometer to be 5 miles."From this information, Hill again calculated an acceleration (linear instead of angular) of about 100 times earth gravity, and a speed when disappearing into the cloud layer of about 8900 miles an hour. Hill added that, "...just as astounding as the performance figures was the silent operation. Not a sound was heard." (Hill, 174-176) |
|
|
|
UFO sighting in Plutarch's "Parallel Lives"? Plutarch (46-120 CE), Greek historian, philosopher and biographer, born in Chaeronea in Boeotia. He was educated in Athens and is believed to have traveled to Egypt and Italy and to have lectured in Rome on moral philosophy.
Best known are Plutarch's "Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans" usually simply known as "Lives", a series of 46 biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen. In "Lucullus" [bio of Lucius Licinius Lucullus (ca. 118-56 BC) a consul of ancient Rome], a part during the Mithridatic wars reads like a large, fiery silvery oval-shaped object doing a low-pass over the area between the two opposing camps, just as they were about to engage in battle. Original text: "αλλ’ εξαίφνης του αέρος υπορραγέντος, ώφθη μέγα σώμα φλογοειδές εις μέσον των στρατοπέδων καταφερόμενων, το μεν σχήμα πίθω μάλιστα, την δε χρόαν αργύρω διαπύρω προσεοικός, ώστε δείσαντες αμφοτέρους το φάσμα διακριθήναι, τούτο μεν ουν φάσιν εν Φρυγία περί τας λεγομένας Οτρύας συμβήναι το πάθος"Since I'm a native speaker of Greek, I should note that in the original text version above, the object is said to be shaped like a "pithari" i.e. oval, and to come down (i.e. it's not said to crash into the ground, like a meteorite would) between the two armies. No reference to noise or explosion either. The translation into English by poet John Dryden (1631-1700), offered at all academic sites I checked, reads quite differently: "In the very instant before joining battle, without any perceptible alteration preceding, on a sudden the sky opened, and a large luminous body fell down in the midst between the armies, in shape like a hogshead, but in colour like melted silver, insomuch that both armies in alarm withdrew. This wonderful prodigy happened in Phrygia, near Otryae". -- src |
