In the 1950s Norwegians were left stunned by a series of seemingly inexplicable UFO sightings.
Throughout the decade numerous lights in the sky were reported by members of the public and pilots alike, with some suggesting they were of extraterrestrial origin.
But now the mystery has apparently been solved, as the CIA has revealed it wasn’t ET at all - rather, it was the agency flying their secretive U-2 aircraft high in the atmosphere.
In a tweet earlier this week the CIA claimed responsibility for numerous UFO sightings over Norway in the 1950s. At the time the agency carried out a study of over 1,200 UFO sightings and found over half of them could be attributed to their secretive U-2 aircraft, which began flying in secret from 1955 at over 60,000 feet
In a tweet the CIA said: ‘Remember reports of unusual activity in the skies in the ‘50s? That was us.’
The revelation originally came about through something known as Operation Blue Book in 1969.
THE LOCKHEED U-2
Nicknamed ‘Dragon Lady’, the Lockheed U-2 is an ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF).
The first flight of one of the single-engine planes was on 1 August 1955, with regular flights beginning in 1957.
It has an operational ceiling of 70,000 feet (21,000 metres), making it well-suited for spying missions.
It was used extensively throughout the Cold War, flying over the Soviet Union, Cuba and other countries.
They did not go completely undetected, however. One infamous incident occurred on 1 May 1960 when pilot Gary Powers was shot down during a reconnassiance flight over the Soviet Union.
The event marked a deterioration in relations between the two superpowers.
Powers was held prisoner until 10 February 1962, when he was released as part of a prisoners exchange with Soviet officer Rudolf Abel.
This was a systematic study of various UFO reports that sought to discover if the sightings were a threat to national security.
0 comments:
Post a Comment