The Flying Saucers Are Real

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cover of original paperback

Donald Keyhoe, in The Flying Saucers Are Real (©1950) investigates numerous encounters between USAF fighters, personnel, and other aircraft, and UFOs between 1947 and 1950. It was printed in paperback by Fawcett Publications, Inc.

Keyhoe contended that the Air Force was actively investigating these cases of close encounter, with a policy of concealing their existence from the public until 1949. He stated that this policy was then replaced by one of cautious, progressive revelation.

Keyhoe came to the further conclusion that the Earth had been visited by beings from space for two centuries, with the frequency of these visits increasing sharply after the first atomic weapon test in 1945. Citing anecdotal evidence, he intimated that the Air Force may have attained and adapted some aspect of the alien technology: its method of propulsion and perhaps its source of power. He believed that the Air Force or the US Government would eventually release these technologies (or at least the knowledge of them) to the public when the Soviet Union was no longer a threat.

The Flying Saucers Are Real is short: only 175 pages. It is referenced by footnotes, and cites a panoply of sources: newspapers, magazines, Air Force records and press statements, and personal interviews. It is written in a dramatic, narrative style reminiscent of mystery novels and spy thrillers. (Keyhoe also wrote fiction in these genres.) The book was a huge success and popularized many ideas in ufology that are still widely held by UFO investigators today.