The Flying Triangle UFO: From Here or Somewhere Else?

There’s no doubt that one of the biggest enigmas in the field of
Ufology is that of what have become known as the Flying Triangles
(https://bit.ly/3rzaY3l). Just in case there’s anyone, out there, in
Ufology who hasn’t heard of them, well, they’re large, triangular
in shape, almost always black in color, and are not too dissimilar
in shape than the Stealth Fighters and Bombers that were reeled
out in the latter part of the 1980s. The fact that the Flying
Triangles look so close to our Stealth planes, has made more than
a few Ufologists - and aircraft experts, too – strongly believe they
are built by us and not by aliens. Is that really the case, however?
Well, many aircraft experts will say they are ours and they’re
hidden out at the likes of Area 51. Admittedly, all of that makes
good sense. There is, though, something else – something that many
people have overseen. Or, aren’t even aware of. It’s the fact that
the Triangles have been around as back as the 1950s. Of course,
there’s no way we were flying such advanced craft in the Fifties.
So, does that mean the FTs are extraterrestrial, after all? Let’s see.
It's not as simple as it seems.
In the early 1990s, rumors began to circulate among the aviation
world that a highly secret, futuristic aircraft was being flown out
of Nevada – and under distinctly covert circumstances. The
reportedly large, black-colored, triangular-shaped aircraft which
could fly at incredible speeds, could outmaneuver just about anything
else on the planet. It was rumored to be known as the Aurora.
Officially, at least, and according to the U.S. Government, the
Aurora does not exist and has never existed. But, that was once
said about Area 51, too. So, with that in mind, we need to tread
cautiously when it comes to official proclamations of the
controversial type.
The story largely began – publicly, at least – in March 1990. That
was when the well-respected magazine Aviation Week & Space
Technology covered the story. They revealed that the term Aurora
had appeared in the 1985 U.S. budget – and had possibly appeared
by mistake, which makes sense if the program was so highly sensitive
that its existence had to be denied at all costs. And talking of costs,
it was rumored that around $455 million had been provided to those
working out at Area 51 on secret, futuristic aircraft. AW&ST
suspected that Aurora was a codename for multiple kinds of aircraft
that were both radical in design and technology. Other investigators,
though, concluded that Aurora referred to just one type of aircraft.
AW&ST learned that by 1987 the budget had soared to in excess
of two billion dollars.
Bill Sweetman is one of the leading figures in the field of aviation
and someone who took a deep interest in the Aurora saga. His books
include F-22 Raptor, Inside the Stealth Bomber, and Soviet Air Power.
And, then there is his 1993 book, Aurora: The Pentagon's Secret
Hypersonic Spyplane. Of the Aurora, Sweetman says: “Does Aurora
exist? Years of pursuit have led me to believe that, yes, Aurora is most
likely in active development, spurred on by recent advances that have
allowed technology to catch up with the ambition that launched the
program a generation ago.” This was all very interesting for those
who follow the world of exotic aircraft, such as Bill Sweetman and
the staff of Aviation Wek and Space Technology – and it still is of
interest to them. But, where was the evidence for the existence of
Aurora? Was there any evidence? Yes, there was. And it came from
a highly credible man with an impeccable background. His name: Chris
Gibson.
It was in the summer of 1989 that Gibson had what can accurately be
termed the encounter of a lifetime. An engineer with an Honors degree
in geology and someone who’s worked focused on oil-exploration,
Gibson was also attached to the U.K.’s Royal Observer Corps. The
work of the ROC – which closed down in December 1995, after
seventy years of work to help protect the United Kingdom from attack
required its volunteers to keep a careful watch on the skies above
and what was flying in those same skies, too. As luck – or fate -
would have it, and at the time when the Aurora program may very
well have been compromised, Gibson was working on an oil rig in
the North Sea. The name of the rig was the Galveston Key. It was
August 1989, specifically, when one of Gibson’s colleagues, a friend
named Graeme Winton, who went to university with Gibson, excitedly
told Gibson to come with him to the deck. There was something
Winton needed to show him. A startled and amazed Gibson caught
sight of something incredible in the skies above. A pair of General
Dynamics’ F1-11 aircraft were shepherding a very strange-looking,
completely black aircraft. And, a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker seemed
to be fueling it. It was in the form of a triangle. For a moment or two,
Gibson pondered on the possibility that what he and Winton
were seeing was the F-117 stealth fighter. But, the design was
clearly wrong. And the aircraft was significantly larger than the
stealth fighter. Gibson knew this, as the four aircraft were not
flying high; in fact, they were fairly low. Gibson was completely
and utterly stumped by the strange appearance of the plane. It was
something he had never seen before.
Gibson said: “We discussed what to do about it but decided that if
it were reported through official channels, it would be at best
rubbished, at worst lead to trouble. Having signed the [British
Government’s] Official Secrets Act I didn’t want to jeopardize my
position in the recognition team [of the Royal Observer Corps], so
I kept my mouth shut.” Gibson did, however, contact Bill Sweetman,
who found the encounter to be of extreme interest. Gibson added:
“It is the only aircraft I have ever seen that I could not identify.”
That the Aurora – which it almost certainly was – was seen over the
North Sea, off the east coast of England, is intriguing, because
a series of encounters of a near-identical kind were reported over
mainland U.K. in March 1993. In between the time that Gibson had
his encounter midway through 1989, the Aurora had a new nickname
in the UFO research community: the Flying Triangle. Although, it’s
important to note that more than a few researchers believed that the
FTs were extraterrestrial in origin. Of one thing that pretty much
everyone was in accord with, was that the Flying Triangles and the
Aurora existed. But were/are they really ours or "theirs?" That
question is the most important one, of all.
As many students of Ufology will be aware, the last couple of decades
or so have seen a rise in reports of one particular type of UFO. It
has become known as the Flying Triangle. The FTs are triangular in
shape and very often black in color, hence the name, of course. They
often emit a low humming noise, and have a trio of lights on their
underside. They usually have rounded corners too, rather than sharply
angled edges. While digging through a whole host of formerly
classified files on UFOs at the National Archives at Kew, England
in 1996, I came across a one-page report dated March 28, 1965 that,
I confess, I almost overlooked. On closer inspection, however, I
realized that it was potentially one of the most important UFO
related documents that I had ever come across. According to the
Ministry of Defense paperwork, on the night in question a man saw
at approximately 9:30 p.m. over moor-land near Richmond, North
Yorkshire, England  something incredible: “Nine or ten objects
in close triangular formation each about 100ft long – orange
illumination below – each triangular in shape with rounded corners,
making low humming noise.”
Interestingly, the “rounded corners” and “low humming noise” are
precisely what many witnesses to Flying Triangle-style UFO
encounters are reporting today – in a world-wide capacity, no less.
Recognizing the significance of all this, I made a photocopy of the
document and set about locating the witness. Jeffrey Brown was his
name. I introduced myself and explained that I had located at the
National Archives a copy of the original report that dealt with his
sighting all those years ago. It's fair to say that Brown was
shocked, to say the least, to find that details of his long-gone
encounter had been kept on file by the Ministry of Defense for more
than thirty years. As Brown explained, on March 28, 1965 at
approximately 9:30 p.m., he had been driving through the North
Yorkshire moors. On approaching the village of Skeeby, Brown
encountered something remarkable: “I saw this light. It was about
one hundred feet from end-to-end, about one hundred feet above
the moors and shaped like a huge triangle and white, milky-white
in color. It kept coming towards me and then stopped about two
hundred yards from me over the moors. It hovered for a while
nothing came out of it, but there was a light below it that just
pulsated like a light bulb. There could have been quite a few lights
on it but from a distance the light just looked like a glow. Then
without a warning, it just took off at a speed that isn’t recognized.
Good gracious, I thought, it must be a UFO!” Brown left the best
part to the last: he said he soon saw approximately another ten
vehicles in the sky. That is, until they all shot away.
As I see it, the Flying Triangles are not ours. I would be willing to
believe they are ours if they had only surfaced since the 1980s. But,
as the account of Jeffrey Brown shows, the vehicles he saw were
flying around back in the mid-1960s. And I don’t believe we had
our very own squadron of Triangles flying over the north of England
that long ago. So, in conclusion, forget the “secret aircraft” angle.
The Flying Triangles are from somewhere else.