The Modern UFO Era

Flashlight Theater Presents True UFO Stories will bring you tales of strange encounters with mysterious flying objects. Most of the research we are doing covers sightings from the 1940's until today. For the purposes of full disclosure, we would describe ourselves as "UFO agnostics".

Yes, there are UFOs. Hundreds of highly credible people see flying objects they cannot identify every single day. But that does not mean these objects are piloted by extraterrestrial beings. It simply means people cannot identify the flying object they are observing. Period.

Could beings from other worlds be visiting Earth? Absolutely they could be. But we certainly can't prove that. And it is not our intention to try. We are simply going to report our research.

Skeptics and Government Officials have offered many explanations for the nearly 70,000 sightings that have been reported annually since records began being kept in 1947. Possible explanations have included the planet Venus, swamp gas, weather balloons, secret government aircraft, space junk, mass hysteria, birds, meteors and, of course, hoaxes. Anyone who has spent any time viewing "UFO" videos posted on YouTube is well aware of the flood of computer-generated hoaxes.

The United States Air Force began serious study of the UFO phenomenon in January, 1948 with the launch of Project Sign. Project Sign evolved in to Project Grudge and finally the famous Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book officially concluded its work in 1970.

There have also been highly credible civilian research groups investigating strange aerial sightings over the past fifty-plus years. Three of the best known are National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon (NICAP), the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and the Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization (APRO).

Some critics have long believed that the USAF research was simply designed to debunk every sighting. Other critics felt the civilian organizations were far too willing to believe.

Let's take the middle ground. Despite the exhaustive work of these government and civilian groups, roughly 22% of all of the reported aerial sightings remain "unexplained". Again, that doesn't mean they were flying saucers from Mars. But it does mean that we will have a lot to report.