The UFO phenomenon is a broad subject, dealing with a variety of intricate elements and complexities. For some, the study of UFOs requires one to acknowledge the possibility that alien beings have been visiting Earth, or even that some members of the populace are being abducted by such alleged visitors. In other instances, UFOs are of interest to us because of the cultural impact they have had on not just popular media, but even religious institutions, or academic fields such as psychotherapy.

But perhaps one of the more unique aspects of the UFO enigma is the way that this phenomenon has appeared to be not only a few steps ahead of us, but perhaps many great strides in the distance beyond our known and accepted technology, for at least several decades. With this in mind, what are arguably some of the more compelling cases in the ongoing catalogue of UFO reports collected over the years stem from the early days of ufology, at a time where information and individuals seemed to operate with a degree of transparency we don’t see as much today.

A famous incident that occurred in 1945 took place near a nuclear power plant which was being operated secretly at Hanover, Washington, toward the end of the Second World War. A pilot named Roland D. Powell had been stationed at a U.S. Naval Air Station at nearby Pasco, Washington, and was one of six pilots who had been scrambled in July of 1945 after radar detected an object moving toward the nuclear plant. The craft had been observed by Powell and his company hovering over the facility at an altitude of approximately 65,000 feet, a feat which known aircraft at the time could not have managed.

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