The nuclear age gave way to a fascination in the 1950’s with space aliens, leading to the creation of Project BLUE BOOK by the Air Force to track the soaring number of UFO sightings being reported nationwide.

The CIA is now admitting that they were actually to blame for the vast majority of such sightings, confirming in a report on the U-2 spy planes that test flights over the US coincided with the mania.

The report explained that the U-2 planes flew much higher than conventional aircraft of the time, and indeed higher than most believed was theoretically possible.

“During the daylight hours, the silver bodies of the high-flying U-2s could catch the sun and cause reflections or glints that could be seen at lower altitudes and even on the ground,” the report explained, adding that the silver bodies of the planes appeared “fiery” when they caught the sun.

The phenomenon was so common that Project BLUE BOOK regularly checked with the CIA on UFO sightings, finding the bulk of them to be explainable by the U-2 flights. Into thje 1960s, when the CIA began the OXCART program to find the successor to the U-2, a similar flurry of sightings happened. The programs were secret, however, so the Air Force could not tell reportees of their findings.