2,000+ cool images of strange/novel aircraft (from Michael Huntington's "Clandestine airspace" archive) + small Python/Selenium coding challenge

I’d like (ideally with a bit of help from others, particularly those with a bit more coding experience – probably, but not necessarily, with Python / Selenium…) to develop a new archiving method for UFO material. This relates to images of UFOs/IFOs and related information. I think this possibility has considerable potential to help improve some aspects of UFO research. It’s worth a try anyway...

In short, I’d like to combine code that enables reverse image search results to be generated from locally stored images with code that enables the taking of snapshots of webpages.

Since both sets of codes already exist, I’m hoping that combining the two will be relatively simple (famous last words, I know…) and allow the batch creation of an archive of the results of reverse image searches on tens of thousands of UFO/IFO images.

To help with testing of code for this idea, I've created a folder on the AFU’s website containing the photos from one of Michael Huntington's Facebook albums ("Clandestine Airspace"), with his kind permission. That album includes over 2,000 images – most of which are, I think, pretty cool.

I think that a discussion forum, rather than social media or this blog, is the best venue to push this idea forward - so have posted more details on the AboveTopSecret.com discussion forum at this link : "UFO / IFO images : Coding challenge - batch reverse image searches (Python / Selenium?)".

I'll post more about this project here at a later date ... if it works.

PDFs : "Alien Digest" (1990s), published by Ron Rummel. (Ron and his friend Phil Schneider both appear in lists of "suspicious" deaths of UFO researchers)

Ron Rummel published the "Alien Digest" newsletter in the early 1990s.  

Most of the references to this newsletter are in the context of Ron Rummel's death in 1993. That death features in many lists currently online of allegedly "suspicious" and "mysterious" deaths of UFO researchers. Those lists typically also include Phil Schneider, a friend of Ron Rummel (and also collaborated with Ron on this magazine). 

Online searches for their two names together will find many such lists of "suspicious" deaths of UFO researchers, some of which were on Ryan Sprague's "Somewhere in the Skies" podcast in an episode entitled "If anything happens to me, Investigate".

Some websites further imply that this newsletter was the cause of Ron Rummel's death.

For example, Project Camelot's website states:

"Ron Rummel, ex-Air Force intelligence agent and publisher of the Alien Digest, died on August 6, 1993, having allegedly shot himself in the mouth with a pistol. Friends say, however, that no blood was found on the pistol barrel and the handle of the weapon was free of fingerprints. In addition, according to information now circulating, the suicide note left by the deceased was written by a left-handed person. Rummel was right-handed. Perspiration on the body smelled like sodium pentothal, or so it is alleged."

"The Alien Digest ran to seven limited issues, all now very hard to acquire. One thing is certain: Rummel's magazine was touching on sensitive and unpalatable issues such as the predator/prey aspect of the alien/human relationship, and the use of humans as food and recyclable body parts. It is worthy of note that one of Rummel's friends was Phil Schneider, and the two had been collaborating".

Similarly, the Burlington News website has published a letter by Phil Schneider's ex-wife, Cynthia Schneider Drayer, which includes the following about Ron Rummel:

"I believe the main reason why Philip began to lecture was due to the "murder" of his friend Ron Rummel. Ron was found in a park in Portland in Sept. 1993. The police believed that he had committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth. However, if you read the detectives report, there is blow-back blood on Ron's hand, but NO BLOW-BACK BLOOD ON THE GUN. The only way this could happen is if Ron had wiped the gun off AFTER he had shot himself in the mouth. Ron, Philip, and 5 other people had been collaborating on a little magazine called "The Alien Digest". It was starting to get a fairly wide circulation, when Ron was found in the park. Philip felt that his friend had been murdered, and decided that it was time to get everything out into the open, so he began "spilling the beans", and ripped up his security clearance card. Pufori, through Jeroen Wierda, is one of several agencies and individuals that have taken up the call for justice in Philip's death".

4 issues of this newsletter has been uploaded to various websites (including the Project Camelot website, Scribd and elsewhere), so I presume it's okay to add them to the online archive. A couple of websites refer to up to 7 issues, so there may be an additional few issues - but none of the usual suspects have those issues in their archives.

 

UFO articles from mainstream USA magazines : Some collections expanded (e.g. "Male"), some other gaps filled (e.g. "Look", "Life") - mainly with John Keel articles

Further to my recent uploads of UFO articles from various mainstream magazines from the USA, I've now been able to obtain a number of articles to fill in gaps in those collections - including the previously uploaded collections explicitly aimed at men.

A significant number of these gaps have been filled due to the efforts of a new contributor to the UFO archive: Jerry Hamm. (Jerry's Scribd page includes many UFO articles, with a focus on material by John Keel, and he has kindly said that I can use his scans to fill in gaps in my online archive).

For example, the collection of UFO articles from "Male" magazine has now increased from a single article (which was included in a mass of material kindly provided by Russian researcher Mikhail Gershtein) to a total of 11 articles. Conversely, Jerry's collection includes two UFO articles from "Men" magazine - so I've created a folder for the "Men" magazine and started looking for additional material from it (and uploaded a UFO article provided by Mikhail Gershtein to a folder for a sister publication, "Men Annual").

Jerry Hamm's contributions have also fixed a few smaller frustrating issues. For example, my previous upload of a collection of 11 articles from "Life" magazine included an incomplete copy of one article (1966 04 01_Life) - which I've now been able to replace with a complete copy. Similarly, the collection of UFO articles from "Look" magazine includes a better copy of one of those articles.  

Although the informal network contributing to the online archive now comfortably exceeds 100 UFO groups/researchers, each additional contributor potentially results in an ability to fill in more gaps and/or obtain permission to upload more material - or identifying further potential sources of material...  

Several French researchers, particularly Pierre Lagrange and Patrice Seray, have also been continuing to help to fill in gaps in the magazines from the USA e.g. of Look magazine articles.  

PDFs: "SAGA" magazine UFO articles - mainly by John Keel (1960s-1970s)

Over 50 UFO articles were published in SAGA magazine in the 1960-1970s (as well as separate UFO publications also published by SAGA - particularly the  SAFA Special UFO Report, the SAGA UFO Annual and the SAGA UFO Report).

Russian researcher Mikhail Gershtein kindly provided me with scans of many SAGA articles about UFOs.  While looking to fill in gaps, I found that Jerry Hamm had helpfully uploaded many articles from SAGA magazine to his Scribd page.  Jerry has helpfully indicated to me that he has no objection to my using his scans to fill in gaps in my online archive. 

I have now uploaded searchable copies (adding them to the section I created for UFO articles from mainstream magazines in the USA, which is separate from the much larger section for UFO periodicals).

Many of these SAGA articles about UFOs were written by John Keel (including a regular column entitled "Ancient Astronauts, Modern Mysteries"). Other contributors included Brad Steiger, Otto Binder and contactee Ted Owens.

I'll paste below a brief indication of the SAGA articles included in this upload.

1967 02 00_SAGA - John Keel - UFO Kidnappers

1967 06 00_SAGA - John Fuller - Moon craters or secret UFO bases

1967 10 00_SAGA - John Keel - UFO Agents of Terror

1968 01 00_SAGA - John Keel - Strange Messages From Flying Saucers

1968 04 00_SAGA - John Keel - Secret UFO Bases Across the US

1968 06 00_SAGA - Brad Steiger - Unidentified Underwater Saucers

1968 07 00_SAGA - John Keel - UFO mysterious gas attacks

1968 10 00_SAGA - John Keel - Mothman Monster

1969 09 00_SAGA - Ahearn - Mankind children of the planets

1969 11 00_SAGA - Otto Binder - Underground Saucer Bases

1969 12 00_SAGA - Otto Binder - Electromagnetic Test or Extraterrestrial Maneuvers

1970 01 00_SAGA - Otto Binder - Liquidation of the UFO Investigators

1970 04 00_SAGA - Roy Norton - Herbert Schirmer worlds most incredible UFO

1970 08 00_SAGA - Otto Binder - Ted Owens Spokesman for the UFOs

1970 09 00_SAGA - Otto Binder - Ted Owens UFOs Mission to Earth

1971 03 00_SAGA - Otto Binder - Ted Owens Flying Saucer Missionary

1971 04 00_SAGA - Otto Binder - Ted Owens flying saucer prophet of doom

1972 02 00_SAGA - Ted Owens - Communicate with UFO Space Intelligences

1973 04 00_SAGA - John Keel - Americas Unrecognized UFO Experts

1973 06 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1973 07 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1973 08 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1973 09 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1973 10 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1973 11 00_SAGA - John Keel - Mystery of the Alien Submarines

1973 12 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1974 01 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1974 03 00_SAGA - Goodavage - Discoveries on the Moon

1974 05 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1974 06 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1974 07 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1974 08 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1974 10 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1974 11 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1974 12 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 01 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 02 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 03 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 04 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 05 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 05 00_SAGA - John Keel - The UFO Silencers

1975 06 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 07 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 08 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 09 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 10 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 11 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1975 12 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 01 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 02 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 03 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 04 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 05 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 06 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 07 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 08 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 09 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 10 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1976 12 00_SAGA - John Keel - Ancient Astronauts Modern Mysteries

1979 07 00_SAGA - The UFO Papers

PDFs : Canadian UFO/paranormal magazine "The Canadian Communicator" (Brian Vike, 2002-2003) added to archive

This morning, a researcher (Bob Spearing) mentioned to me a reference to a Canadian UFO/paranormal newsletter that neither Bob nor I could recall seeing: The Canadian Communicator. It was published by Brian Vike in 2002-2003.

I've now obtained permission from Brian Vike to add searchable copies of that newsletter to the online archive I've been building. I've also obtained copies of all 4 issues of that publication from links given on Brian Vike's blog. 

This newsletter included articles by Brian himself, Stanton Friedman, Dennis Balthaser, William F Hamilton III, David Sereda, Craig R Lang and others. Most of the articles relate to UFOs, with some on crop circles, Sasquatch sightings, lake monsters, the Mothman and other paranormal topics.

I've created a new sub-folder in the directory for UFO periodicals from Canada in the online archive and added all 4 issues to that folder.

UFO researchers 1950s-1990s - photos from archives of Rick Hilberg (USA) : Hynek, Gray Barker, John Keel, Betty Hill and many others

Rick Hilberg, the veteran UFO researcher in the USA, has kindly given me permission to upload copies of photos from his archives of various UFO researchers. Many of these photos were taken at the "Congress of Scientific Ufologists" and "National UFO Conference" events.  Most date from the 1950s to the 1990s.

I've created a new folder for material from the archives of Rick Hilberg and uploaded two copies of the photos to that folder. Those two copies are: unedited originals (to preserve the original versions) and copies with labels added giving the names of those in the photos (for sharing on Facebook/Twitter etc, which would strip off the file names giving relevant details).

For ease of browsing, I've also added the labelled copies to an album on Facebook.

Rick Hilberg has previously kindly given me permission to upload various UFO newsletters that he published, which can be found in the folder for UFO newsletters from the USA in the online archive that I've helped create. Those newsletters include: "The Flying Saucer Digest", "Lo!", and Rick Hilberg's "UFO Magazine".

These photographs include:

1.       Allan Manak, Donald Keyhoe - 1964, Earl Neff front yard

2.       Allan Manak, Jim Moseley, Rick Hilberg, Carol Hilberg - 1994 National UFO Conference, Cleveland

3.       Allen Greenfield, Gene Steinberg - 1976 Mysticon, Cleveland Ohio

4.       Betty Hill - 1980 National UFO Conference, New York

5.       Charles Berlitz - 1990 National UFO Conference, Miami Beach

6.       Connie Menger, Howard Menger - 1990 National UFO Conference, Miami Beach

7.       Dale Rettig, Gene Steinberg, Allen Greenfield, Rick Hilberg - 1965 second Congress of Scientific Ufologists, Cleveland

8.       David Halperin - 1965 Glassboro New Jersey landing site

9.       David Halperin, Yonah Fortner, Allen Greenfield, James Moseley - 1965 Congress of Scientific Ufologists

10.   Edward Biebel, Antonio Huneeus, Rick Hilberg - 1990 National UFO Conference, Miami Beach

11.   Edward Biebel, James Moseley, Carol Hilberg - 1990 National UFO Conference, Miami Beach

12.   ELIOTT~1

13.   Frank E Stranges - 1990 National UFO Conference, Miami Beach

14.   Gene Steinberg, Rick Hilberg, Curt Sutherly, Bob Easley - 1975 Mysticon, Parma Ohio

15.   Gray Barker - 1968 National UFO Conference, Cleveland Ohio

16.   Gray Barker - 1980 National UFO Conference, New York

17.   Gray Barker - 1980 October, Pittsburg

18.   Gray Barker - promoting his 1956 book

19.   Gray Barker, Allan Manak - 1971 National UFO Conference, Cleveland Ohio

20.   Gray Barker, Mike Mann, Jim Moseley - 1965 Congress of Scientific Ufologists

21.   Howard Menger

22.   Jim Moseley, Allan Manak - 1994 National UFO Conference, Cleveland Ohio

23.   Jim Moseley, Miss UFO - 1980 National UFO Conference, New York

24.   Jim Moseley, Tom Benson, Rick Hilberg - 1980 National UFO Conference, New York

25.   John J Robinson, Joyce Manak, Allan Manak, Rick Hilberg - 1966 National UFO Conference, Cleveland

26.   John Keel - 1980 National UFO Conference, New York

27.   John Keel, Gray Barker, Jim Moseley - 1967 Congress of Scientific Ufologists

28.   John Timmerman, Rick Hilberg, J Allen Hynek - 1978 UFO meeting in Lima Ohio

29.   John Timmerman, Walt Andrus - 2000 MUFON Symposium, St Louis

30.   Laura Mundo, Yonahd Fortner, Larry Blazey, Allan Manak - 1965 Congress of Scientific Ufologists, Cleveland

31.   Otic Carr, Gray Barker

32.   Rick Hilberg - 1970s National UFO Conference bathtub of beer

33.   Rick Hilberg - 2018

34.   Rick Hilberg - 2021

35.   Rick Hilberg with parents - 1952

36.   Rick Hilberg, Allen Greenfield - 1966 Atlanta radio interview

37.   Rick Hilberg, Edward Biebel, J Ralph Jarret - 1969 WCHS TV, Charleston West Virginia

38.   Rick Hilberg, J Allen Hynek - 1979 UFO lecture, Lima Ohio

39.   Robert Easley, Allen Greenfield, Jim Moseley, Curt Sutherly - 1994 National UFO Conference, Cleveland Ohio

40.   Ronald Pelger, Rick Hilberg - 1970 late fall National UFO Conference, Cleveland Ohio

41.   Stanton Friedman, Robert Sheaffer, John Keel, Rick Hilberg - 1980 National UFO Conference

42.   Thomas Wertman and wife, David Halperin, Tim Beckley, Allen Greenfield, Bob Easley, Jeremie Hilberg, Rick Hilberg - 2015 National UFO Conerence reunion, Cleveland

43.   Tim Beckley - 1966 Congress of Scientific Ufologists, Cleveland

44.   Tim Beckley, T Allen Greenfield - 1994 National UFO Conference, Cleveland

45.   Wendele Stevens, Jim Moseley, Rick Hilberg, William Moore - 1981 National UFO Conference, Green Bay Wisconsin

46.   William Moore, Tim Beckley, Rick Hilberg, Jim Moseley - 1979 National UFO Conference, Green Bay Wisconsin

 

UFO articles from "73 Magazine" for Amateur Radio enthusiasts (1960s-2000s) - Wayne Green's UFO editorials, UFO Net, and Project Starlight

"73 Magazine" (1960-2003) was an amateur radio magazine which published many technical articles and lengthy editorials. A considerable number of the editorials in "73 Magazine" written by its founder and publisher, Wayne Green, over the span of several decades featured discussions of conspiracy theories and UFOs. Those editorials prompted at least one reader to write in to the magazine to complain that "When I buy a ham magazine I couldn't care less about UFOs, ESP, NOE. cold fusion, or regular reruns of your trials and tribulations in the music publishing business. I want to be fully informed on the latest state of the art in ham radio".

The articles in "73 Magazine" featured repeated discussion of using amateur radio networks to enable those interested in UFOs to communicate information, including alerting others when something is spotted and enabling "scientific teams to know immediately where a UFO has been spotted and where it is heading".  One article suggested that nothing "other than amateur radio could fit the bill".  Wayne Green's own UFO amateur radio network [UFO Net], and other similar UFO networks (including one run by MUFON) and UFO radio shows (e.g. by Art Bell) featured repeatedly in this magazine. 

Other UFO articles included an item on Ray Stanford's Project Starlight and one featuring schematics for a UFO detector.

Mikhail Gershtein, the Russian UFO researcher, had previously kindly provided me with scans of 3 articles from "73 Magazine". Looking into those articles, I found that the entire collection of "73 Magazine" has been made freely available online so I downloaded 514 issues and searched them for the keyword "UFO".  Unfortunately, due to the imperfect nature of the Optical Character Recognition used in relation to those scans, many of the hundreds of searchable results were irrelevant - but I picked out over 40 relevant items and extracted them to add to my searchable collection of UFO material.

Click on the image below for a link to the relevant folder I've created in the online archive for UFO articles from "73 Magazine".

I'll paste below a brief indication of 43 issues of "73 Magazine" featuring discussions of UFOs.

1966 01 00_73 Magazine - Editorial

1966 03 00_73 Magazine - Letter regarding editorial

1966 05 00_73 Magazine

1967 12 00_73 Magazine - Data Net

1968 04 00_73 Magazine - UFO Net

1968 05 00_73 Magazine - UFO Net

1968 06 00_73 Magazine - UFO Net

1968 08 00_73 Magazine - UFO Net

1968 09 00_73 Magazine - UFO Net

1968 10 00_73 Magazine - UFO Net

1968 12 00_73 Magazine - UFO Net and acceptance

1969 01 00_73 Magazine - Russia

1970 10 00_73 Magazine - UFO Cartoon

1971 08 00_73 Magazine - DX from the stars

1973 08 00_73 Magazine - UFO net

1975 04 00_73 Magazine

1977 04 00_73 Magazine - Walt Andrus - MUFON

1978 12 00_73 Magazine - Project Starlight

1979 12 00_73 Magazine - Cincinnati UFO Net

1980 04 00_73 Magazine - Radio hams

1980 08 00_73 Magazine - UFOs again

1983 03 00_73 Magazine - Editorial

1986 05 00_73 Magazine - Aliens land

1989 04 00_73 Magazine - SETI and UFOs

1990 04 00_73 Magazine - MUFON net manager

1995 06 00_73 Magazine - Comment on editorials

1996 01 00_73 Magazine

1996 03 00_73 Magazine - Editorial

1996 06 00_73 Magazine - Wayne Green editorial

1996 10 00_73 Magazine - Editorial

1996 12 00_73 Magazine - HALO balloon UFO

1997 02 00_73 Magazine - Colombia

1997 10 00_73 Magazine - Editorial

1998 01 00_73 Magazine

1998 05 00_73 Magazine - Editorial

1999 02 00_73 Magazine - UFO Detector

1999 03 00_73 Magazine - David Jacobs

1999 05 00_73 Magazine - War of the Worlds

1999 06 00_73 Magazine - War of the Worlds

1999 09 00_73 Magazine - Art Bell

2000 12 00_73 Magazine - Editorial - SETI

2001 08 00_73 Magazine - UFO Watchtower

2002 02 00_73 Magazine - Coast To Coast

PDFs: OMNI's UFO articles : By/about Oberg, Sheaffer, Vallee, Hynek, Jerome Clark and many others

I have now added over 175 UFO articles from OMNI magazine to the online archive.

OMNI was a popular science and science fiction magazine in the 1970s-1990s, published in the USA and UK. It published numerous articles about science, space, aliens and parapsychology.

UFO articles in OMNI included a column about UFOs that appeared in most issues - many of which were written by veteran UFO skeptic James Oberg, Jerome Clark (author of the most comprehensive UFO encyclopedia among other books), Dennis Stacy and Paul McCarthy.  The articles also featured interviews of, or articles about, various prominent ufologists - including Hynek and Vallee.

I much prefer to upload material where I have managed to obtain express permission from the copyright holder (and I have been successful in getting such permission for hundreds of sets of UFO periodicals etc...) or where the material is clearly in the public domain.  I'm currently not 100% clear as to the status of material in OMNI magazine but scans of a full set of OMNI magazine were made available online about a decade ago and are on various websites, so presumably there is no real problem with my including a relatively small proportion of OMNI's content in the UFO archive. Since one of the largest proportions of UFO material is from James Oberg, I have checked with him that he personally has no objection to my including his OMNI material in my archive. Of course, if anyone claiming to be a copyright holder wants anything removed then I will do so promptly.  (Also, of course, if anyone is in a position to give, or obtain, any permission to upload any further UFO material then I'd like to hear from them as I have a lot more digitised UFO material I'd like to be able to include in the online archive...). 

Russian researcher Mikhail Gershtein kindly provided me with scans of about 70 articles from OMNI. I have spent a bit of time searching my digital copies of OMNI for additional OMNI articles about UFOs. Those efforts have added about another 100 (mainly from the "UFO Update" columns that appeared almost on a monthly basis in OMNI). Unfortunately, the quality of some of the further scans I obtained were not of the usual high standard of those supplied by Mikhail and other members of my informal network of UFO groups/researchers. The articles are readable but the text recognition results of some items are affected by the quality of those scans, so while I have (of course...) sought to make the scans searchable the results are not as good as I would like.  

Click on the image below for a link to the relevant folder.

I'll paste below a brief indication of the files that I have been uploaded so far to that OMNI folder:




1. 1978 10 00_OMNI - Oberg - UFO Update

2. 1978 11 00_OMNI - Betty Hill - Oberg

3. 1978 12 00_OMNI - Coyne-Oberg controversy

4. 1979 01 00_OMNI - Coyne case - Oberg

5. 1979 01 00_OMNI - UFO controversy

6. 1979 02 00_OMNI - Oberg - UFO Update

7. 1979 03 00_OMNI - Oberg - UFO Update

8. 1979 04 00_OMNI - UFO Photo Gallery

9. 1979 05 00_OMNI - Lebelson - UFO Update

10. 1979 05 00_OMNI - Monteleone hoax

11. 1979 06 00_OMNI - Counter-Earth

12. 1979 06 00_OMNI - Gatti - UFO Update

13. 1979 07 00_OMNI - Hendry - UFO Update

14. 1979 08 00_OMNI - Oberg - UFO Update

15. 1979 09 00_OMNI - Oberg - UFO Update

16. 1979 10 00_OMNI - Oberg - Tunguska

17. 1979 11 00_OMNI - Illegal aliens

18. 1979 11 00_OMNI - Lebelson - UFO Update

19. 1979 12 00_OMNI - Wilsom - UFO Update

20. 1980 01 00_OMNI - Mutilations

21. 1980 01 00_OMNI - Vallee interview

22. 1980 02 00_OMNI - Oberg - UFO Update

23. 1980 03 00_OMNI - Gordon Cooper UFO Int

24. 1980 04 00_OMNI - Lebelson - UFO Update

25. 1980 05 00_OMNI - Oberg - UFO Update

26. 1980 06 00_OMNI - Berlitz - UFO Update

27. 1980 07 00_OMNI - Oberg - Russian UFOs

28. 1980 08 00_OMNI - Oberg - Repeaters

29. 1980 09 00_OMNI - Carl Jung UFOs

30. 1980 10 00_OMNI - Oberg - MN UFO Attack

31. 1980 11 00_OMNI - Soviet UFOs

32. 1980 12 00_OMNI - Lebelson - UFO Update

33. 1981 02 00_OMNI - Oberg - Space UFOs

34. 1981 03 00_OMNI - UFO Debates

35. 1981 05 00_OMNI - China UFOs

36. 1981 06 00_OMNI - Cohen - UFO Update

37. 1981 07 00_OMNI - Oberg - UFO Hoaxes

38. 1981 08 00_OMNI - UFO Detector

39. 1981 09 00_OMNI - Pine Bush UFO

40. 1981 10 00_OMNI - UFO Religions

41. 1981 11 00_OMNI - Allan Hendry - Betty Hill

42. 1981 12 00_OMNI - Hecht - UFO Update

43. 1982 01 00_OMNI - Lee Spiegel - UFO Update

44. 1982 02 00_OMNI - Jack Thornton - Cash Landrum

45. 1982 03 00_OMNI - Jeff Wells - Travis Walton

46. 1982 04 00_OMNI - Mars Face

47. 1982 05 00_OMNI - Al Furst - Alien abductions

48. 1982 07 00_OMNI - Peter Gersten

49. 1984 01 00_OMNI - Stringfield

50. 1984 03 00_OMNI - Robert Sheaffer

51. 1984 04 00_OMNI - Hynek

52. 1984 05 00_OMNI - Oberg

53. 1984 06 00_OMNI - Hynek vs Oberg

54. 1984 07 00_OMNI - Maurer

55. 1984 09 00_OMNI - Freitas

56. 1984 10 00_OMNI - McCabe

57. 1984 11 00_OMNI - Lawren

58. 1984 12 00_OMNI - Doug Curran

59. 1985 01 00_OMNI - Saucer Smear

60. 1985 02 00_OMNI - Hynek Int

61. 1985 03 00_OMNI - City on Mars

62. 1985 04 00_OMNI - Ellen Crystal

63. 1985 05 00_OMNI - About Hynek

64. 1985 06 00_OMNI - Japan

65. 1985 07 00_OMNI - Heppenheimer

66. 1985 08 00_OMNI - Jerome Clark

67. 1985 09 00_OMNI - Owen Davies

68. 1985 10 00_OMNI - Betty Hill

69. 1985 11 00_OMNI - Dennis Stacy

70. 1985 12 00_OMNI - Rith Montgomery

71. 1986 01 00_OMNI - Sherry Baker

72. 1986 02 00_OMNI - Scott Rogo

73. 1986 03 00_OMNI - Robert Freitas

74. 1986 04 00_OMNI - Dennis Stacy

75. 1986 05 00_OMNI - Alien UFO landing

76. 1986 06 00_OMNI - Owen Davies

77. 1986 07 00_OMNI - Hynek obituary

78. 1986 08 00_OMNI - Celebrity sightings

79. 1986 09 00_OMNI - UFOs and NDEs

80. 1986 10 00_OMNI - Jenny Randles

81. 1986 11 00_OMNI - Jerome Clark

82. 1986 12 00_OMNI - Jerome Clark

83. 1987 01 00_OMNI - Oberg

84. 1987 02 00_OMNI - Censoring paranormal

85. 1987 02 00_OMNI - Oberg

86. 1987 03 00_OMNI - Dennis Stacy

87. 1987 04 00_OMNI - Jerome Clark - Communion

88. 1987 05 00_OMNI - Jerome Clark - Budd Hopkins

89. 1987 06 00_OMNI - Goldpluss

90. 1987 07 00_OMNI - Bill Lawren

91. 1987 08 00_OMNI - Oberg

92. 1987 09 00_OMNI - Sherry Baker

93. 1987 10 00_OMNI - Channelers

94. 1987 10 00_OMNI - Jenny Randles

95. 1987 11 00_OMNI - Jerome Clark - MJ12

96. 1987 12 00_OMNI - Abductions

97. 1987 12 00_OMNI - Paul McCarthy

98. 1988 01 00_OMNI - Chris Rutkowski

99. 1988 01 00_OMNI - Hudson Valley

100. 1988 02 00_OMNI - Patrick Huyghe

101. 1988 03 00_OMNI - Biblical UFOs

102. 1988 04 00_OMNI - Patrick Huyghe

103. 1988 05 00_OMNI - Dennis Stacy

104. 1988 06 00_OMNI - Patrick Huyghe

105. 1988 07 00_OMNI - UFO Magazines

106. 1988 08 00_OMNI - Dennis Stacy - Gulf Breeze

107. 1988 09 00_OMNI - Jerome Clark - Aztec crash

108. 1988 10 00_OMNI - Lizard men, UFOs ets

109. 1988 10 00_OMNI - Michael Luckman

110. 1988 11 00_OMNI - Dennis Stacy

111. 1988 12 00_OMNI - Patrick Huyghe

112. 1989 01 00_OMNI - UFO Forum

113. 1989 01 00_OMNI - Valentich

114. 1989 02 00_OMNI - Patrick Huyghe - UFO cancer

115. 1989 02 00_OMNI - UFO Forum

116. 1989 03 00_OMNI - Vicki Cooper

117. 1989 04 00_OMNI - Patrick Huyghe - UFOs and stealth aircraft

118. 1989 05 00_OMNI - Scott Rogo

119. 1989 06 00_OMNI - Paul McCarthy

120. 1989 07 00_OMNI - Jerome Clark - Hessdalen

121. 1989 08 00_OMNI - Sherry Baker

122. 1989 09 00_OMNI - John Lear

123. 1989 10 00_OMNI - Thomas Bullard

124. 1989 11 00_OMNI - Paul McCarthy - Russia

125. 1989 12 00_OMNI - Cattle mutilations

126. 1990 01 00_OMNI - Oberg - Russia

127. 1990 05 00_OMNI - Vallee

128. 1990 06 00_OMNI - Roswell

129. 1990 07 00_OMNI - Martin Cannon

130. 1990 08 00_OMNI - Patrick Huyghe

131. 1990 09 00_OMNI - Budd Hopkins

132. 1990 10 00_OMNI - Africa

133. 1990 11 00_OMNI - Paul McCarthy

134. 1990 12 00_OMNI - Crop circles

135. 1990 12 00_OMNI - SETI

136. 1990 12 00_OMNI - UFO Issue

137. 1991 02 00_OMNI - Ken Ring

138. 1991 03 00_OMNI - Fake UFO photos

139. 1991 04 00_OMNI - Long Island

140. 1991 06 00_OMNI - Paul McCarthy - Alien implants

141. 1991 07 00_OMNI - Belgium

142. 1991 08 00_OMNI - 900 number

143. 1991 09 00_OMNI - Paul McCarthy - UFO Investigators

144. 1991 11 00_OMNI - Paul McCarthy - UFO Investigators

145. 1992 10 00_OMNI - Frank Drake - SETI

146. 1993 02 00_OMNI - Oberg - MIT Conference

147. 1993 08 00_OMNI - Earthquakes

148. 1993 09 00_OMNI - Dark side of UFOs

149. 1993 10 00_OMNI - Paul Stonehill and Russia

150. 1994 03 00_OMNI - UFO CD ROM

151. 1994 04 00_OMNI - Abductions

152. 1994 04 00_OMNI - Military UFO Insiders

153. 1994 04 00_OMNI - Oberg - Soviet Saucers

154. 1994 04 00_OMNI - Stacy - Cosmic Conspiracy - Article 1 of 6

155. 1994 05 00_OMNI - Stacy - Cosmic Conspiracy - Article 2 of 6

156. 1994 06 00_OMNI - SETI

157. 1994 06 00_OMNI - Stacy - Cosmic Conspiracy - Article 3 of 6

158. 1994 06 00_OMNI - Stacy - Cosmic Conspiracy - Article 4 of 6 - INCOMPLETE

159. 1994 06 00_OMNI - UFO articles

160. 1994 08 00_OMNI - Mars Face

161. 1994 08 00_OMNI - Stacy - Cosmic Conspiracy - Article 5 of 6

162. 1994 09 00_OMNI - Stacy - Cosmic Conspiracy - Article 6 of 6

163. 1994 10 00_OMNI - UFO religion

164. 1994 11 00_OMNI - Project Open Book

165. 1994 12 00_OMNI - Behind the X-Files

166. 1994 12 00_OMNI - Hoagland int - Mars

167. 1995 00 00_OMNI - OMNI - Roswell issue

168. 1995 00 00_OMNI - Project Open Book - Abductions - 1995 Winter

169. 1995 00 00_OMNI - Roswell - 1995 Fall

170. 1995 00 00_OMNI - UFO Foundation - 1995 Fall

171. 1995 01 00_OMNI - What you say to alien

172. 1995 02 00_OMNI - Abductions

173. 1995 02 00_OMNI - Anatomy of abductee

174. 1995 03 00_OMNI - Project Open Book - UFO crash

175. 1995 04 00_OMNI - Project Open Book

176. 1995 04 00_OMNI - Spy saucers

400 photos of UFO researchers - from the archives of Philip Mantle (veteran British ufologist)

Philip Mantle has kindly sent me scans (which I have now, with his permission, uploaded) of about 400 photographs of UFO researchers - including many familiar faces (in some cases looking a bit younger than today!).

I've uploaded those photos to a folder on the AFU's website under Philip's name, as I did in relation to scanned copies of files from the archive of Elaine Douglass (and am tempted to invite other ufologists to send me scans of photos and/or correspondence for me to create similar folders for their material under their own names...):
https://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=.%2FDocuments%2F0%20-%20UFO%20Researchers%2FPhilip%20Mantle%2FPhotographs%20of%20UFO%20researchers

For ease of browsing, I've also created a Facebook album containing labelled copies of this collection of photos from Philip Mantle's archives.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=isaac.koi&set=a.10219206080132448

If anyone has scanned their collections of ufological photos or correspondence (or wants help getting them scanned), just let me know and I can probably sort out organising them and getting them online fairly promptly.

Huge APCIC archive of UFO newsclippings now online [taking the current total to several tens of thousands of UFO newspaper articles in the archive]

Prior to the Internet, newspaper articles about UFO sightings around the world were supplied to UFO researchers by several newsclipping services. The longest running UFO newsclipping services were the "UFO Newsclipping Service" founded by Rod Dyke (1969-2011) and a similar service offered by the Aerial Phenomenon Clipping Information Center ("APCIC") (1970s-1990). The latter is less well known within ufology.

I have now uploaded 164 of the APCIC newspaper clipping bulletins, with permission from two surviving leaders of APCIC - Ron and Richard Smotek (after somewhat protracted attempts to locate and contact them during the last few years). 

My thanks once again to a Russian colleague, Mikhail Gershtein, for helpfully providing these scans of 164 issues of the APCIC bulletin. I am hoping to receive a few additional issues to fill in a gap at the beginning of the collection from a veteran researcher in the USA, Barry Greenwood. Ron Smotek himself has also kindly offered to try to help with any remaining gaps.

These 164 issues total (according to the TTFA PDF page counter) 4,835 pages. The number of clippings per page various between 1 and about 6 or 7.  Taking a rough average of, say, 3 clippings per page then this is over 10,000 newsclippings.  

These 164 issues of the APCIC clipping service join all 505 issues of the "UFO Newsclipping Service" which I have previously uploaded. Rod Dyke kindly gave his permission for me to upload his "UFO Newsclipping Service" bulletins after requests from me and related negotiations over a span of about, oh, 7 years or so. Sometimes patience is (eventually...) rewarded. :)   Those 505 issues totalled (according to the TTFA PDF page counter) 9851 pages. Taking a rough average again of about 3 clippings per page then that's another few tens of thousands of UFO newspaper articles (which overlap with the APCIC collection, but to a surprisingly limited extent).

I have also previously uploaded a chronological list of about 30,000 other UFO newsclippings in my collection. I uploaded a sizeable sample of UFO clippings from the 1980s from that collection a few years ago. Both sets were part of a small demonstration of methods I had developed of quickly merging and assimilating different UFO collections into one searchable chronological set as a source for all of ufology. That formed part of my call for wider cooperation and coordination on making such UFO newspaper cuttings freely available online in a searchable and sortable format. There was, um, limited interest in any such collaborative exercise. Hey ho, what can you do... At least things are _slowly_ improving (although frankly I think we could move at several times the current speed with just a tiny bit more coordination).  

Okay, these are relatively small numbers compared to the couple of million pages of transcripts of UFO podcasts/documentaries which I have uploaded, but newspaper articles are a significant part of the history of ufology and often provide details that are omitted from summaries in books or podcasts. 

  

The organisers of APCIC included Harry Cohen, Ron Smotek and Richard Smotek. The former two are shown in the photo below.  This week I was finally able to get in touch with Ron Smotek and he said that they had no objection to my making APCIC bulletins freely available online.  

As usual, the material I have uploaded is searchable.  I have previously written about some free PDF software that can search a directory (or full hard drive) of PDFs quickly and present the results in a format that can be reviewed extremely quickly.  For example, the APCIC bulletins can quickly be search for - say - "triang" to find stories referring to triangle/triangular shaped UFOs - with some samples being included below.

 

"Playboy" and "Catholic Digest" UFO articles added : includes material by Hynek, Carl Sagan, Arthur C Clarke and other leading ufologists/scientists

"Playboy", the "Entertainment For Men" adult magazine, has featured a number of articles about UFOs (including by some leading scientists and ufologists, e.g. J Allen Hynek, Carl Sagan and Arthur C Clarke).

Hynek's article "The UFO Gap" (in the December 1967 issue of Playboy) discussed his fear that he would open a newspaper and see the headline "Russians Solve UFO Mystery". His view was the USSR "may have been studying UFOs with dispassionate thoroughness for years" and that the USA was "only now beginning to consider treating the problem seriously".  In the same article, Hynek discussed the possibility of automated cameras being used as part of a hunt for UFOs in "hot" areas. 

Another issue of "Playboy" (in January 1978) featured a "debate" about UFOs between member of the "Playboy Panel", in which many of the biggest "believers and skeptics on flying saucers" - including Phil Klass, Hynek, Vallee and others.  It's been very rare in the history of ufology to have ufologists and skeptics of this calibre engage in panel discussions of this type.  The relevant UFO material occupied over 20 pages in that issue.

I have currently uploaded searchable versions of 8 UFO articles from "Playboy", including the 2 referred to above.  

I have a further 3 UFO articles from "Playboy" that I have not currently uploaded because of the nature of the photographs of women on the cover and/or in the relevant UFO articles.   I'm not sure whether to upload those further articles from "Playboy" (or material from other adult magazines with similar images). On the one hand, I want the archive to be as comprehensive as possible (particularly in relation to articles by leading researchers/scientists in a magazine with a sizeable readership). On the other hand, I don't want to offend anyone.  

(I've previously raised this dilemma once or twice on Facebook and to the limited extent I got comments they almost universally suggested I was worrying about nothing and that no one would be offended if I simply uploaded articles which featured naked women on the cover or in the article, although perhaps any relevant post on social media should feature a censored cover or no covers).   

On somewhat safer ground, I have also uploaded 2 UFO articles from the "Catholic Digest", one of which is by a pilot entitled "The Flying Saucers I've seen" and another which argued that reports on flying saucers "add up to something more than the imagination of those who say they have seen them".

I have added both sets of articles to the folder for UFO articles from mainstream (i.e. non-UFO) publications from the USA. That folder is separate from the (much larger) folder for UFO publications that I've obtained permission to upload.

40+ UFO articles from "Fantastic Universe" (1950s) - includes articles by CSI (New York), Ivan Sanderson, Morris Jessup and others

While some ufologists have written about science fiction authors being dismissive of ufology (e.g. Stanton Friedman), in fact the relationship between science fiction publications/authors and ufology is more complicated.  Some science fiction publications have published numerous UFO articles by leading ufologists. "Fantastic Universe" was one such science fiction magazine.

In the 1950s, "Fantastic Universe" published UFO articles by Ivan T Sanderson, Morris K Jessup and other prominent ufologists. 

The UFO articles in "Fantastic Universe" included an entire series (which I had not seen before) entitled "Shapes in the sky" by Civilian Saucer Intelligence, a UFO research group based in New York. Jerome Clark has written that "Though its membership was small, what the organization lacked in quantity it made up in quality of its personnel". CSI's members included Ted Bloecher, Isabel Davis, and Alexander Mebane.

I'm grateful to Russian researcher Mikhail Gershtein for providing scans of these articles. I have added searchable copies to the folder in the online archive for UFO articles from non-UFO publications from the USA.