Scotland | Exo News

UK Proposes the Creation of a Space Command

January 18, 2021
ExoNews Editor

Article by Nicholas Puschman January 5, 2021 (lexology.com)

• Since the 1967 Outer Space Treaty established the international legal framework for space activities, space has become recognized as a potential domain of warfare. Satellites are increasingly viewed as essential components of critical communications for military and defense purposes, and space-faring countries have made clear the importance of space and space technology to their current and future defense posture.

• In 2019, space was recognized by NATO as the latest operational domain (along with air, land, sea and cyberspace). In October 2020, NATO announced that it would establish a center for space operations at Ramstein airbase in Germany to increase deterrence and defense. While many countries have had space-related functions within existing military branches, both the US and France have recently established new military branches devoted to the strategic and military importance of space. In 2019, the U.S. established Space Force and France formed a new Space Command (Commandement de l’Espace), which supersedes the previous French military service dealing with space.

• In recent years, the UK government has been considering how to develop its capabilities in using space technology and ensuring that space is part of its national defense strategy. In 2019, the UK Ministry of Defence announced several new military space initiatives and published plans for a Defence Space Strategy, noting that “satellites and space-based services are vital to modern life” and that “there would be severe consequences from any disruption, whether by natural or man-made hazards, or intentional threats from hostile states”.

• On November 18, 2020, the UK announced its proposal to establish a new military command dedicated to space. (see previous ExoArticle here) The proposal of a new Royal Air Force (RAF) space command was part of an announcement by the UK Government of the largest defense budget since the Cold War of £16.5 billion over the next four years. The full details of how this new UK space command will be composed, and what it will do, remain to be seen.

• The potential opportunities of a new UK military space command will likely be of interest to industry players, and in particular those involved in the UK spaceport market in relation to commercial spaceflight and spaceports, such as those being established in Scotland. In announcing the new defense budget, Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that “we will establish…a new RAF space command, launching British satellites and our first rocket from Scotland in 2022.”

Space has long been recognised as a potential domain of warfare – indeed, it was one of the major motivating factors in establishing the international legal framework for space activities in the form of the Outer Space Treaty 1967. Space continues to be viewed as an area of strategic importance for military capability, and satellites are increasingly viewed as essential components of critical communications for military and defence purposes. In recent years, many space-faring countries and international organisations have made clear the importance of space and space technology to their current and future defence.

At an international level, in 2019, space was recognised by NATO as the latest operational domain (along with air, land, sea and cyberspace) and adopted a new space policy. In October, NATO announced that it would establish a centre for space operations at Ramstein airbase in Germany to increase deterrence and defence.

At a national level, while many countries have long had space-related functions within existing military branches, countries such as the US and France, as two examples, have recently established new military branches to clearly demonstrate the strategic and military importance of space. In 2019, the US established an independent military branch dedicated to space defence, named the US Space Force. In the same year, France formed a new Space Command (Commandement de l’Espace), which supersedes the previous French military service dealing with space.

The UK announces the establishment of a new military command dedicated to space

On 18 November 2020, the UK announced its proposal to establish a new military command dedicated to space, similar to the recent moves taken by allied countries such as France and the US. The proposal of a new Royal Air Force (RAF) space command was part of an announcement by the UK Government of the largest defence budget since the Cold War of £16.5 billion over the next four years.

This announcement is in the continuity of the UK’s national defence strategy

While a new military branch is new, the UK Government has in recent years been considering how to develop its capabilities in using space technology and ensuring that space is part of its national defence strategy. In 2019, the UK Ministry of Defence announced several new military space initiatives and published plans for a Defence Space Strategy, noting that “satellites and space-based services are vital to modern life” and that “there would be severe consequences from any disruption, whether by natural or man-made hazards, or intentional threats from hostile states”.

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Britain’s New Space Command

November 29, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by James Bickerton November 22, 2020 (express.co.uk)

• Will Whitehorn, president of UK space industry trade association UKSpace, argues: “If we’re going to put billions and billions of pounds of assets into space, which secure the future of this country, then we’re going to have to defend those assets.” It’s vital Britain is able to defend its commercial assets in space.” Whitehorn even predicted that “… there will come a time when we will have a Royal Space Force…”.

• On November 18th, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a “once in a generation modernization” of Britain’s armed forces, with massive funding in military research and development, new warfare technologies, and space and cyber capabilities, and the official launch in 2021 of the UK Space Command.

• A Space Command Center, likely based at RAF High Wycombe (which currently houses Headquarters Air Command), will be rededicated to the new RAF space command, artificial intelligence, launching British satellites, and to“further enhance coordination of the UK military and commercial space operations”. The Space Command plans to launch its first rocket from Scotland in 2022.

• UKSpace’s Will Whitehorn commented: “I am delighted Space Command is to be established and have long argued for it in order to bolster the UK’s ability to defend both the freedom of space and our sovereign assets in space. An important part of that ability will include a sovereign launch capability in the UK, and UKspace will work closely with the government to play our part in achieving launch capability in the north of Scotland and Cornwall. We will also work to ensure that our country becomes the global centre of excellence for the satellites and other space industrial assets of the future.”

• There are a number of proposals to build the UK’s first vertical launch space port in Scotland with sites in Sutherland, North Uist and the Shetland Islands on the short list. A new spaceport in Newquay, Cornwall is also under development with the support of Virgin Orbit. The plan is for ‘Cosmic Girl’, a Virgin Orbit Boeing 747, to take off from Newquay airport then launch an attached rocket which will carry satellites into space.

• The UK Government wants Britain to account for 10 percent of the global space economy by 2030.

On Wednesday Boris Johnson announced a “once in a generation modernisation” of Britain’s armed forces with an additional £16.5bn in funding over the next four years. This money will be invested in space and cyber capabilities as well as conventional forces.

As part of this programme a UK Space Command will be launched next year, potentially based at RAF High Wycombe.

The move was welcomed by UKSpace, an umbrella group which represents the British space industry.

The body said it will “further enhance coordination of the UK military and commercial space operations”.

Will Whitehorn, president of UKSpace, argued it’s vital Britain is able to defend its commercial assets in space.

He commented: “I am delighted Space Command is to be established and have long argued for it in order to bolster

the UK’s ability to defend both the freedom of space and our sovereign assets in space.

“An important part of that ability will include a sovereign launch capability in the UK, and UKspace will work closely with the government to play our part in achieving launch capability in the north of Scotland and Cornwall.

“We will also work to ensure that our country becomes the global centre of excellence for the satellites and other space industrial assets of the future.”

Mr Johnson also said plans are in place for a British rocket to be launched into space from Scotland in 2022.

There are a number of proposals to build the UK’s first vertical launch space port in Scotland with sites in Sutherland, North Uist and the Shetland Islands being considered.

These will launch satellites, and potentially one day people, into space from British soil.

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Scottish ‘X-Files’ Kept Secret for Years by CIA Are Released

July 26, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Andy Shipley July 17, 2020 (dailyrecord.co.uk)

• Declassified CIA documents have revealed “the global scope of CIA activities and the evolution of its interests… from assessments of the Soviet economy, to public perception of the Vietnam War abroad, to perceived communist influence in Latin America, to the rise of the terrorist threat, and more eccentric issues like UFOs and psychists,” said an expert in intelligence and international security at the University of Glasgow, Damien Van Puyvelde. “All of these can be linked to the broader context of the Cold War.”

• In particular, the documents show the extent that the American CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) have kept tabs on Scotland. Some of the weirdest records relate to the controversial Stargate program, which is credited for influencing the 2009 movie: The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor, in which US special forces attempt to harness paranormal powers as a weapon – by trying to explode the hearts of animals just by looking at them.

• A 1964 report by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) research group lists UFO sightings across the globe and includes a mysterious case in Wigtownshire on April 4, 1957 when three Scottish radar posts tracked a UFO that “dove and circled” at between 60,000 and 14,000ft. Wing Commander and eyewitness, W P Whitworth, is quoted as saying, “Quite definitely this was no freak. It was an object of some substance and no mistake could have been made.” The report’s recommendations include boosting attempts to communicate with extraterrestrials and even drafting ‘space law’ to govern how humans interact with ET. “On the basis of the evidence in this report, NICAP has concluded that UFOs are real and that they appear to be intelligently controlled. We believe that it is a reasonable hypothesis that UFOs… are manifestations of extraterrestrial life.”

• In the 1980s, the CIA took an interest in the work of leading Edinburgh University parapsychologist Deborah Delanoy. With a hidden camera, Delanoy exposed a 17-year-old self-proclaimed metal-bender named Tim as a fake. A report reveals that “Tim confessed to deceptive behavior. He said that he was a practicing magician who had wished to see if it were possible for a magician to pose successfully as a psychic in a laboratory.” According to Van Puyvelde, the CIA took an interest in the Scottish spoon-bending teen after rumors that the Soviet Union was interested in psychics in the 1970s. “The CIA’s own conclusion by the mid-1990s was that the entire program was not useful to its operations.”

• On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down over the Scottish village of Lockerbie. By 1990, the investigation was still ongoing and it would be another year until two Libyans were indicted. According to CIA notes, on June 7, 1990, a psychic was tasked with describing a photo of the reconstructed baggage carrier which held the plane’s bomb. In 22 pages of scrawled notes and sketches, the psychic revealed: “There is a bomb in the box and it explodes. It makes me think of a bomb blowing up a person. I can see red, fire and jagged flames. Something about the target makes my eyes burn.”

• Another pair of ‘secret’ reports from August 1951, shows how meticulously US intelligence monitored the industrial output within the Soviet bloc to detect any military or technological use. The reports focused on the production of screws and bolts in what was then Czechoslovakia. An order from 1950 was made for ‘one tonne of two-pointed rivets imported to Prague from Dieck’s Ltd in Glasgow’. The CIA found it suspicious that “There is a complete lack of all sizes of winged screws. There are none at all in stock”. An evaluation of the material was ordered.

• A memo marked ‘confidential’ from August 6, 1964 – the day after a report was made to Congress on the notorious (and later debunked) Gulf of Tonkin incident which led to the US escalation of the Vietnam War – examined Scotland’s reaction to US retaliatory airstrikes in North Vietnam. The memo said that the escalating crisis in South East Asia was front page news in the UK – with most media backing US action. “The only anti-American incident reported was in Glasgow where demonstrators daubed slogans outside the US consulate.”

• A terrorism review from 1983 delves into a rise in letter bombs in the UK by groups such as the Scottish National Liberation Army. The report was deemed so sensitive, it was only released in 2010 in a “sanitized” form. The review identifies targets of letter bombs sent in 1982 to include government offices in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, unnamed political party headquarters, and the offices of the British Industry Secretary and the Prime Minister in London. They conclude: “In the attacks to date, the letter bombs have contained only small amounts of explosives, probably to avoid personal injury and to preclude discovery by security measures.”

• Another ‘secret intelligence report’ from 1984 tackles European, including Scots, support for communist regimes in Central America. With the Soviet Bloc’s “massive propaganda and disinformation” campaign, the leftist guerillas appeared to be winning the propaganda war in the west. Insurgents were coordinating their international ‘peace movement’ activities through Mexico City. “There is no way a small Central American country or even Cuba could mount a worldwide propaganda campaign of this kind,” said the report.

• Other CIA documents include an analysis of Social Democrat Roy Jenkins’ ‘Glasgow by-election’ victory in 1982, overturning a Tory majority; a ‘terrorist’ attack on the US consulate in Edinburgh with three “gasoline” bombs hurled against the building; and Pakistan’s move into a Scottish and Indian dominated jute fiber production industry.

• Van Puyvelde notes that, “Overall, it is quite remarkable that the CIA is making all of this material available online. By comparison, the (British) Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) does not make its records available at The National Archives or its website. This is a missed opportunity to improve public understanding of intelligence.”

Incredible evidence has emerged of the extent that American CIA agents have kept tabs on Scotland.

Declassified documents range from paranormal research to political intrigue – lifting the lid on the Scots ‘X-files’.

Dusty files locked away include UFO sightings, psychic powers and Cold War espionage over decades of spy games.

Some of the weirdest records relate to the controversial Stargate programme which has long fascinated conspiracy theorists.

The shadowy work was widely credited for influencing the 2009 movie The Men Who Stare at Goats – starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor.

In the film, US special forces attempt to harness paranormal powers as a weapon – by trying to explode the hearts of animals just by looking at them.

Lecturer in intelligence and international security at the University of Glasgow Damien Van Puyvelde said: “The references reflect the global scope of CIA activities and the evolution of its interests.

“From assessments of the Soviet economy, to public perception of the Vietnam War abroad, to perceived communist influence in Latin America, to the rise of the terrorist threat, and more eccentric issues like UFOs and psychists.

“All of these can be linked to the broader context of the Cold War.”

Buried in the historical files is a 1964 report by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena research group – which included retired armed services chiefs.

Kept in closed CIA files for nearly 40 years, the 186-page document lists UFO sightings across the globe and includes a mysterious case in Wigtownshire on April 4, 1957.

It tells how three radar posts tracked a UFO which “dove and circled” at between 60,000 and 14,000ft.

The close encounter was described by Wing Commander W P Whitworth, based in Scotland, as: “Quite definitely this was no freak.
“It was an object of some substance and no mistake could have been made.”

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Is the Air Force Flying Planes Developed From Alien Tech?

June 30, 2019
ExoNews Editor

“E15 Is the Air Force Flying Planes Developed From Alien Tech?”
June 21, 2019 (survivalupdate.com)

• Top Secret super high-tech experimental airplanes that are tested over notorious air force bases such as Wright-Patterson, Groom Lake, and Area 51 have often been mistaken for UFOs. In fact, UFOs and secret military aircraft have been so intimately related that it is thought that they were actually “reverse engineered” from crashed and captured UFOs.

• No such story is better known among UFO circles than the fabled “Project Aurora”. In the late-1980’s/early 1990’s, the futuristic “Aurora” aircraft was being flown out of Area 51 under distinctly covert circumstances. The large, black-colored, triangular-shaped aircraft was said to be able to fly and maneuver at incredible speeds – over 6000 miles per hour – and could out-fly just about anything else on the planet. But according to the U.S. Government, the Aurora does not exist and has never existed.

• In March 1990, an article in Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine revealed that the term “Aurora” had appeared in the 1985 U.S. budget, possibly appearing by mistake as the program was so “Top Secret” that its very existence had to be denied at all costs. The rumored $500 million development cost for the aircraft had been paid to those at Area 51 working on an experimental “alien inspired” aircraft. By 1987, the budget for “Project Aurora” had soared to over two billion dollars.

• In the early 1990’s there were a string of sightings of large triangular shaped crafts over Scotland. Recently released documents show that Members of the United Kingdom’s Parliament had looked into rumors that the Aurora was operating secretly out of RAF Machrihanish Air Base at the tip of Kintyre, Scotland. Briefing notes to defense secretary Tom King on March 4, 1992 report, “[I]t would not surprise the relevant desk officers in the Air Staff and (Defense Intelligence Staff) if it did exist.”

• Chris Gibson, an aircraft expert having 12 years’ experience with the Royal Observer Corps, said he saw a triangular plane flanked by two US fighters being refueled in flight by tanker while he was working on the Galveston Key oil rig (Texas) in 1989. The plane was unlike anything he had ever seen and reported the sighting to Jane’s Defense Weekly in 1992.

• Predecessors to the Aurora triangle craft were the US Air Force’s SR-71 Blackbird spy plane from 1964 to 1998, and the U-2 spy plane in the late 50’s/early 60’s. In the late 1990’s, journalist Nick Cook of Jane’s Defense Weekly traveled to Lockheed’s ‘Skunk Works’ to interview its head, Jack Gordon, and tour the facility. Cook writes,“Just before I left the [Skunk Works] building, I stopped in front of a large chart on the wall of the lobby area. It proudly illustrated the lineage of every Skunk Works aircraft since the XP-80. Past the picture of the U-2, past the SR-71 Blackbird and the F-117A Stealth Fighter, past the YF-22 and DarkStar, and there was something called ‘Astra.’” Cook asked Lockheed’s press representative what “Astra” was, and weeks later he was told it was a 30-year-old concept for a “high-speed airliner.”

• In 2013, Lockheed announced that it had in development the SR-72, the successor to the famous SR-71 Blackbird. In 2017, observers reported the first sightings of a demonstrator model of the planned SR-72 high-speed aircraft. Rob Weiss, executive vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs, hinted that progress towards an optionally piloted SR-72 was proceeding on schedule. Weiss is quoted as saying “[W]e, along with DARPA and the services, are working hard to get that capability into the hands of our war-fighters as soon as possible.”

• So the SR-72 is definitely a thing, and it and may just owe its lineage and pedigree to a plane named “Aurora” or “Astra” that supposedly does not exist, sitting atop a famous Family Tree.

• [Editor’s Note] In Dr Michael Salla’s latest book: US Air Force Secret Space Program, Shifting Extraterrestrial Alliances & Space Force, Dr Salla states that Edgar Fouche, who spent 12 years working at Area 51 in the 1980’s and 1990’s, confirmed that the SR-71 Blackbird had indeed been replaced by Aurora-class aircraft, e.g.: hypersonic aircraft that employs anti-gravity and stealth technology. (see chapter 15) Said Fouche, “The Aurora comprises the SR-75 capable of speeds above Mach 5, and acts as a mother ship for the SR-74 that can travel at speeds of Mach 18 or more into space to deliver satellites.”

Fouche also revealed that there is a third vehicle belonging to the Aurora Program called the TR-3B, code named ‘Astra’, which was the most highly classified program that he and other workers at the Groom Lake/Area 51 facility were aware of. The triangular shaped and nuclear-powered Astra is the most classified aerospace development program in existence. The TR-3B Astra also incorporates three rocket engines using conventional fuel sources like hydrogen, oxygen and/or methane. The anti-gravity system is a “Magnetic Field Disrupter” which rotates highly pressurized mercury-based plasma around a circular accelerator ring. MFD technology reduces the craft’s weight by a factor of 89%, which allows it’s conventional jet propulsion system to provide the necessary thrust to make the TR-3B outperform conventional vehicles. The TR-3B is a high altitude, stealth, reconnaissance platform with an indefinite loiter time. Fouche references Scotland as one of the locations where an operational TR-3B was based. Hundreds of witnesses reported black triangle craft in the skies over Scotland and Belgium from November 1989 to April 1990, including a very well-documented incident on March 30, 1990 involving Belgian F-16 fighters attempting to intercept a flying triangle.

Corey Goode asserts that the TR-3B was a “hand me down” to the USAF’s military space program from an even more advanced and classified space program when covert US and German corporations combined to build a vast fleet of vehicles for the Antarctic German “Dark Fleet” space program throughout the 1960’s and early 70’s. The TR-3B was among the vehicles that were developed during this period. According to Dr Salla, as of September 2017 the USAF has abandoned its Deep State/ Antarctic German/ Reptilian/ Corporate allies and have now joined with a rival Nordic ET faction to reveal to the public its advanced air/space craft and low orbit space platforms under a forthcoming ‘limited disclosure’ scenario.

Over the years, mysterious military aircraft and UFO sightings have always marched in lockstep. Test flights of Top Secret or experimental airplanes have very often been mistaken for UFOs, and such research and development of these super high-tech airplanes is often conducted at the very air force bases most often associated with UFO lore, such as Wright-Patterson, Groom Lake, and of course, Area 51.

In fact, UFOs and secret military aircraft are so intimately related, it has often been suggested that such airplanes — for example the F-117A stealth fighter — were actually “reverse engineered” from crashed and captured UFOs.

No such story is better known among UFO circles, then the fabled “Project Aurora,” a project that has led to the development of actual military aircraft, some that to this day, officials still refuse to admit exist.

Aurora’s Origins

It all started back in the late-1980s/early 1990s, when rumors began to circulate among the aviation world that a highly secret, futuristic aircraft was being flown out of Area 51 – and under distinctly covert circumstances. The supposedly large, black-colored, triangular-shaped aircraft was said to be able to fly and maneuver at incredible speeds – as high as Mach 8, or over 6000 miles per hour – and could outfly 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.
The name “Aurora” was first ascribed to the mysterious super-plane in March 1990. That was when the well-respected magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology (AW&ST) had a cover story featuring the “non-existent” aircraft.

The article within 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 “Top Secret” that its very existence had to be denied at all costs. And speaking of costs, it was rumored that around $500 million had been provided to those working out at Area 51 on secret, futuristic, some would even say even, “alien inspired,” aircraft.

AW&ST suspected that “Aurora” was not the name of any one single plane, but a “code-name” for any number of aircraft under development that were both radical in design and technology. Later investigators, though, concluded that Aurora referred to just one type of aircraft. AW&ST learned that by 1987 the budget for “Project Aurora” had soared to an excess of two billion dollars.

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West Lothian Council Create ‘UFO Trail’ at Site of Famous Close Encounter

October 15, 2018
ExoNews Editor

September 30, 2018 (scotsman.com)

• In November 1979, Bob Taylor was left injured and traumatized after encountering a UFO in the Dechmont Woods outside of Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland (just west of Edinburgh). Now the encounter will be officially recognized by the West Lothian Council with a “UFO trail” in those woods, with marker posts and a display board in the woods to point the way for visitors to see the spot where the incident occurred.

• On that day in 1979, Taylor, a forestry worker, was walking through the forest with his dog when he came across a large dome shaped craft hovering in a clearing. Suddenly, two smaller spheres with spikes protruding from them came out and grabbed his legs, dragging him towards the craft. Taylor recalls smelling an acrid odor and a hissing sound before passing out and woke up twenty minutes later, dragging himself back to his truck which mysteriously wouldn’t start.

• Taylor managed to walk a mile back to his house. His trousers were ripped and he had grazes on his chin and thighs. Upon seeing his disheveled state, his wife called police and a doctor came out to check him over. Forensic tests on Taylor’s clothes showed it was likely they had been ripped by a sharp upward pull, such as a mechanical device. Police initially treated the incident as an assault, but after visiting the scene they discovered two “ladder” indentations on the ground and forty small circular holes that followed the path of the mine-like objects.

• Tom Conn, Executive Councillor for the Environment, said, “The Dechmont Woods encounter is Scotland’s most famous alleged UFO incident, and has featured in a number of books and TV programmes.” Dechmont Woods is the only officially recognized UFO site in Scotland, and the only UFO incident in the UK that resulted in a criminal investigation. It made headlines around the world.

• Mr Taylor, who was well respected in the local community, never deviated from his story right up until his death in 2007 aged 88.

The scene of a close encounter with a UFO is set to attract visitors from across the world after being officially recognised by a council.

West Lothian Council has created a “UFO trail” in woods where a forestry worker claimed he was attacked by a craft from outer space almost 40 years ago.

It remains the only such incident in the UK to have led to a criminal investigation and made headlines around the world.

Bob Taylor said he was left injured and traumatised after the close encounter in Dechmont Law Woods in Livingston in November 1979.

He claimed he was walking through the forest with his dog when he came across a large dome shaped craft hovering in a clearing. He said two smaller spheres with spikes protruding from them came out and grabbed his legs before dragging him towards the larger object.

He recalled smelling an acrid smell and a hissing sound before passing out and woke up 20 minutes later, dragging himself back to his truck which mysteriously wouldn’t start. He managed to walk a mile back to his house. On seeing his dishevelled state, his wife called police and a doctor came out to check him over. His trousers were ripped and he had grazes on his chin and thighs. Police initially treated the incident as an assault but after visiting the scene, they discovered two “ladder” indentations on the ground and 40 small circular holes that followed the path of the mine-like objects.

Forensic tests on his clothes showed it was likely they had been ripped by a sharp upward pull, such as a mechanical device.

Various theories have been put forward to explain the bizarre encounter, from an epileptic seizure to the planet Venus.

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Scotland’s Greatest UFO Mysteries

August 7, 2018
ExoNews Editor

by Susan Swarbrick July 22, 2018 (heraldscotland.com)

• Here are some of the more famous UFO sightings in Scotland:

• On November 9, 1979, forestry worker Robert Taylor came across “a huge flying dome” in a woodland clearing near Dechmont Law in Livingston, Scotland. Taylor described it as a circular sphere, approximately seven yards (6.4 metres) in diameter, hovering above the forest floor. It was made of “a dark metallic material with a rough texture like sandpaper”. The outer rim was “set with small propellers”. As Taylor approached the sphere, two smaller spheres, each about three feet wide with protruding metal spikes “similar to sea mines”, dropped down from the mother craft and rolled towards him. Taylor claimed to have experienced an acrid smell “like burning brakes” and the sensation of being dragged. Taylor then lost consciousness and awoke, with his head pounding and a bitter taste in his mouth, to find the objects were gone. Taylor was unable to walk or talk. He crawled to his van but couldn’t start it and had to walk the mile to his Livingston home. Taylor was disorientated and disheveled with scrapes on his legs and chin, and torn work pants. The police returned to the site with Taylor where they found “ladder-shaped marks” in the soil where the craft was said to have hovered, and further marks following the path of the mine-like objects. The case is unique in British history as the only example of a UFO sighting becoming the subject of a criminal investigation. Taylor, who died in 2007, never sought publicity or financial gain – and always stood by every word of his account.

• In October 1996, Barry MacDonald captured a video of an orange oval light in the skies above Falkirk, Scotland. He watched as the UFOs changed from “big, black and cigar-shaped” to “a bright light criss-crossed by stripes of different colours”, and then becoming the classic white disc “flying saucer”. Falkirk continues to be a UFO hot spot with an accumulation of incidents stretching from the early 1990’s right up until last year.

• In April 1984, Sid and Gwen Freeman from Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland saw a UFO hovering over their garden. They were then visited by twelve men dressed in black. The town often gets reports of strange balls of light in the sky, and it is the location of Scotland’s first ever crop circle in 1990.

• In 1767, the Annual Register reported a pyramid-shaped object that moved “with great speed and disappeared a little above Blairgowrie (Scotland)” leaving a partly destroyed house and bridge.

• On August 17, 1992, Garry Wood and Colin Wright were travelling on the A70 near Harperrig Reservoir when they saw a two-tiered, disc-shaped object above the road. When they passed beneath the UFO, it appeared to emit a “curtain of white light” and the pair reported being temporarily enveloped in a black void for what felt like 10-15 seconds. Their car began shuddering and they emerged to find themselves driving on the wrong side of the road, with several hours were unaccounted for. Later, under hypnosis, both men recalled an alien abduction and being subjected to a medical-type examination.

• On October 7, 1990, at the Forth Rail Bridge just west of Edinburgh, Lyn Livingston caught sight of a circular object with a base made up of intermittent red, white and blue lights in the sky. The UFO was said to have rotated and appeared to change shape, forming a projecting cone of white-colored lights. It stayed in position for 15 minutes before drifting off towards the Fife coast. There were a number of witnesses and the incident received a lot of publicity.

• In December 1983 in Glasgow, Scotland, Tom Coventry saw what looked like a railway carriage-shaped object passed 20ft above his head. Coventry could see three windows at the front of the craft and swirling yellow smoke inside. He also said that everything stood still for a moment.

• In 1955 in west Glasgow, a UFO was reported at Belhaven Terrace children playing outside saw several ‘entities’ dressed in long white clothes and floating above the ground. In 1976, in nearby Westbourne Gardens, several people saw this silver disc-shaped object hovering about 100ft above the ground.

• In 1992, David Evans began seeing UFOs regularly flying over his home from a ‘base’ inside hills near Dunblane, Scotland. Evans also believed that something had come into his house and disturbed various things.

• One of the puzzles of the UFO phenomenon is that people do report different shaped objects and types of aliens. In one case, a 10-year-old girl walking in the woods in Meigle, Perthshire, Scotland, came across a group of small, blue beings. She was beamed up into a spacecraft where the beings looked at her and then beamed her back down. She had been gone for hours.

Ahead of the Scottish UFO and Paranormal Conference 2018 in Glasgow next weekend (July 28), we recount some of the most intriguing unexplained cases of flying saucers, strange lights in the sky and alleged alien abductions.

West Lothian: The Livingston Incident

Forestry worker Robert Taylor found himself at the centre of one of Scotland’s most famous UFO mysteries when he stumbled across a “a huge flying dome” in a woodland clearing near Dechmont Law in Livingston on November 9, 1979.

Taylor was checking the progress of new saplings when he saw what he described as a large, circular sphere approximately seven yards (6.4 metres) in diameter, hovering above the forest floor.
He said the object was “a dark metallic material with a rough texture like sandpaper”. The outer rim was “set with small propellers”.

As he approached, two smaller spheres, each about three feet wide with protruding metal spikes “similar to sea mines”, dropped down from the mother craft and rolled towards him. Taylor claimed to have experienced an acrid smell “like burning brakes” and the sensation of being dragged.

Taylor said he then lost consciousness and awoke to find the objects were gone. Head pounding and with a bitter taste in his mouth, Taylor was unable to walk or talk.
Eventually he managed to crawl to his van parked nearby but couldn’t start it and had to walk the mile to his Livingston home.

Taylor’s wife, shocked by his disorientated and dishevelled appearance, called the police and a doctor. There were grazes on Taylor’s legs and chin, but no other signs of injury; although the heavy work trousers he had been wearing were ripped.

The police returned to the site with Taylor where they found “ladder-shaped marks” in the soil where the craft was said to have hovered, and further marks following the path of the mine-like objects.
The case remains unique in British history as the only example of a UFO sighting becoming the subject of a criminal investigation. Taylor, who died in 2007, never sought publicity or financial gain – and always stood by every word of his account.

There would later be suggestions that he had suffered an epileptic seizure, mini-stroke or hallucinated after ingesting deadly nightshade berries. Yet, Ron Halliday, co-organiser of the Scottish UFO and Paranormal Conference 2018, gives short shrift to such theories.

“There was no evidence that Bob had any illness before he had this encounter,” says Halliday. “He was always personally convinced that he had seen something ‘out of this world’. Everyone agreed that Bob was a sincere person. He hadn’t made anything up. Something had happened to him.

“He definitely did see something ‘out of this world’ because I don’t know what else can explain what he saw. There was physical evidence that something had been there and clearly something had happened to him.

“I would say that of all the Scottish cases it is the one that seems to me that gives the most direct evidence of contact from another world.”

UFO capital: Bonnybridge and the ‘Falkirk Triangle’

The phenomenon of the “Falkirk Triangle” – which includes Bonnybridge and Camelon – was first reported in 1992 and the area continues to register more UFO sightings, around 300 a year, than any other place on Earth.

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‘UFOs Are Real’ Ex Air Force Pilot Makes Bombshell Claim After Chasing ‘8000mph’ Craft

May 3, 2018
ExoNews Editor

by Callum Hoare April 20, 2018 (dailystar.co.uk)

• George Filer III, 82, (pictured above as a young pilot) served over 20 years as a US Air Force pilot and intelligence officer and is currently the New Jersey director of MUFON, investigating UFO sightings.

• As an Air Force pilot stationed in Scotland during the Cold War, Filer was once instructed to intercept an object that appeared on radar to be as big as a bridge. Filer recounts, “When we got closer, we could see lights off in the distance – kind of like a cruise ship you would see at night, with multiple lights across it… As we got, I don’t know, about 5 miles from it – it went up into space… We were doing over 400mph and I would say it was doing 10 or 20 times our speed, and it was this huge object.” “It looked like a long cylinder.” “We were convinced that it was something that was not ours.”

• [Editor’s Note] Watch 10:10 minute video of Neil Gould, Founder of Exopolitics Hong Kong and a Director with Dr Michael Salla’s Exopolitics Institute, interviewing Major George Filer USAF (Ret) in February 2011. Filer discusses his interactions with extraterrestrial beings as a child when he and another boy boarded an extraterrestrial spacecraft. They were mentored by highly evolved beings with respect to human behavior, nuclear issues, and man’s inhumanity towards man.

George Filer III, 82, serves as the New Jersey director of MUFON – am American based non-profit organisation that investigates UFO sighting.

But he has more than 20 years first hand experience in the skies – and he has revealed some of them are unexplainable.

When Filer was stationed in Scotland during the Cold War, he recalls flying a military aircraft that attempted to intercept such an object that appeared as big as a bridge on radar.

He revealed: “When we got closer, we could see lights off in the distance – kind of like a cruise ship you would see at night, with multiple lights across it.

“As we got, I don’t know, about 5 miles from it – it went up into space.

“We were doing over 400mph and I would say it was doing 10, 20 times our speed and it was this huge object.

“So we were convinced that it was something that was not ours, let’s put it that way. … to me, it looked like a long cylinder.”

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UFO Came Within 100 Feet of Passenger Plane over Glasgow, Says Official Report

September 8, 2017
ExoNews Editor

by Mike Merrit September 1, 2017 (eveningtimes.co.uk)

A UFO came within 100 feet of a passenger plane over Glasgow, an official report has revealed.

The incident happened on May 26 and involved an Airbus A320, which can carry around 200 passengers.

A report to the UK Airprox Board, which probes near misses, said the pilot saw an “orange light” above the plane as he was coming into land.

The crew thought it may have been a drone but the identity could not be determined and was officially classed as “unknown object.”

Tag: Scotland