The US Navy has been granted a patent for an advanced aircraft which resembles a flying saucer UFO.

Military inventors filed plans for a highly unusual flying machine which uses an ‘inertial mass reduction device’ to travel at ‘extreme speeds’.

What that means is that the aircraft uses complex technology to reduce its mass and thereby lessen inertia (an object’s resistance to motion) so it can zoom along at high velocities.

The patent is highly complex and describes methods of reducing the mass of an aircraft using various techniques including the generation of gravity waves, which were first detected in 2016 after being produced when two black holes collided.




These drawings were filed as part of the patent and show a craft which looks a lot like a UFO (Photo: Salvatore Cezar Pais/ Google)

‘It is possible to reduce the inertial mass and hence the gravitational mass, of a system/object in motion, by an abrupt perturbation of the non-linear background of local spacetime,’ the patent says.

The craft described in the patent features a cavity wall filled with gas, which is then made to vibrate using powerful electromagnetic waves.

This then creates a vacuum around the craft, allowing it to propel itself at high speeds.

The UFO-style ship can be used in water, air or even space.

‘It is possible to envision a hybrid aerospace/undersea craft (HAUC), which due to the physical mechanisms enabled with the inertial mass reduction device, can function as a submersible craft capable of extreme underwater speeds… and enhanced stealth capabilities,’ the patent continues.

‘This hybrid craft would move with great ease through the air/space/water mediums, by being enclosed in a vacuum plasma bubble/sheath.’

Although the US Navy applied for the patent in 2016 and it was granted last year, it doesn’t necessarily mean the craft has been built and tested.

However, the technology is further evidence of the military’s interest in developing ‘exotic’ technologies.

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Earlier this year, it was revealed that US government researchers investigated wormholes, antigravity, invisibility cloaking, warp drives and high energy laser weapons during a probe into ‘unexplained aerial phenomena’ called the Advanced Aerospace Threat and Identification Program (AATIP).

Details of AATIP were first released in 2017, including reports of a sighting made by fighter pilots from the USS Nimitz.

These pilots saw a huge patch of churning, turbulent water the size of a Boeing 737, suggesting something was beneath the surface, as well as a ‘tic tac’ aircraft which zoomed off at almost impossibly high speeds.

We spoke to Nick Pope, former UFO investigator at the Ministry of Defence, and asked if he saw any similarities between the patented design and the Nimitz Tic Tac.

‘A hybrid craft, capable of flying both in the air and underwater, is uncannily similar to what was reported in the USS Nimitz incident from 2004,’ he said.

‘There was a similar incident of a UFO flying underwater in Puerto Rico in 2013. The possible connection between the USS Nimitz incident and this patent is intriguing, and it’s interesting that the US Navy seems to be the link here.



‘It’s possible that the patent is inspired by the incident and is part of an attempt to work out the technology behind the objects that were chased by the Navy F-18s. This is known as ‘reverse-engineering’.’

Nick Pope is a novelist and global authority on UFOs (Credit: David Howard/Flickr)

He said a ‘key question’ is how the plans fit in with the wider AATIP project.

In the latest patent, author Salvatore Cezar Pais mentions Harold Puthoff, a key figure in AATIP who commissioned the 38 papers exploring exotic technologies, which were then used by Defense Intelligence Agency durings briefings filed with the US Congress.

‘The papers that got media attention related to anti-gravity, invisibility cloaking, warp drive and wormholes, but a key point is that many of the papers relate to exotic propulsion systems – not just the technology that would enable us to build a faster aircraft, drone or missile, but the technology that we’d need for interstellar travel,’ Pope added.

‘These patents might be the first steps in taking humankind to the stars.’

Two views of the Tic Tac UFO observed by US Navy pilots

A declassified document which gives details of some of the research papers produced by AATIP investigators

We asked if he believed the craft in the patent had ever been built.

This patent for a “craft using an inertial mass reduction device” is fascinating, and is one of three patents filed by US Navy scientist Salvatore Cezar Pais.

‘The other one of his patents that caught my eye was one for a “high-frequency gravitational wave generator”.

‘It’s sometimes hard to tell where the boundary lies between fringe science and science fiction. Furthermore, even if the theoretical physics turns out to be sound, aeronautical engineers still have to be able to build something, if any of this is to have any tangible effect.

‘If they have built the technology described in the patents, I’m sure the program is highly classified. The bottom line is that if any of this works, we’re in game-changing territory.’