1987 in UFO history
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 📅 Year
Contents 5
| Year | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Events | 2 |
| Decade | 1980s |
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Military encounters (topic) |
| Timeline | 1987 on the UAP Timeline |
1987 in UFO history — the UAP Timeline records 2 events in 1987, mostly about secrecy & cover-up and crashes & retrievals. People named in these events include Bruce Maccabee, Ron Pandolfi, Jaime Shandera, Budd Hopkins, John Lear.
Overview
The 1980s were the heyday of abduction literature. Horror writer Whitley Strieber and artist Budd Hopkins were among the leaders of a new generation of UFO advocates in the 1980s and 1990s. They defended people who said they had been taken and examined by beings from another world.[1][2] See also grey aliens.
In late 1987 contractor Ed Walters began publishing photographs of a UFO in the community newspaper of Gulf Breeze, Florida, and other residents came forward with sightings into 1988.[3] Ufologist Bruce Maccabee believed the photos were genuine, but others suspected a hoax. In 1990 the new owners of Walters's former house found a styrofoam model UFO in the attic, and a reporter used it to reproduce the photos almost exactly. Walters said the model had been planted.[3] See Gulf Breeze UFO incident.
The timeline's 1987 entries are two statements. On 7 July Maccabee, a Navy physicist, said he had spoken about UFOs at CIA headquarters to about two dozen people, including Christopher "Kit" Green. He said the talk prompted some employees to use their clearances to look for secret UFO information.[4] On 29 December pilot John Lear, son of aviation pioneer William Lear, posted claims that the U.S. government had been "in business" with grey extraterrestrials since the 1960s. He said this included a 1964 "deal" at Holloman Air Force Base in which technology was exchanged for the government ignoring abductions, along with stories of saucer crashes and MJ-12.[4]
Events
- Bruce Maccabee's CIA talk (1987) (7 July 1987) — Navy physicist Bruce Maccabee says he lectured about UAP at CIA headquarters.
- John Lear's ParaNet statement (1987) (29 December 1987) — Pilot John Lear claims the government has worked with gray aliens since the 1960s.
People
- Bruce Maccabee — Navy optical physicist and leading analyst of UFO photographs.
- Ron Pandolfi — CIA scientist who appears in several UFO stories.
- Jaime Shandera — TV producer who received the MJ-12 film in 1984.
- Budd Hopkins — Artist and abduction researcher.
- John Lear — Pilot and son of Bill Lear who spread claims of alien treaties in the late 1980s.
- Paul Bennewitz — Albuquerque physicist targeted by Air Force disinformation in the Bennewitz affair.
- Bob Lazar — Man who claimed in 1989 that he worked on alien craft at S-4 near Area 51.
- George Knapp — Las Vegas journalist who broke the Bob Lazar story and co-wrote Skinwalkers at the Pentagon.
Nearby years
1986 in UFO history · 1988 in UFO history
References
- Unidentified flying object — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Budd Hopkins — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Gulf Breeze UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- UAP timeline published with Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony, entries for 1987 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Unidentified flying object”, “Budd Hopkins”, “Gulf Breeze UFO incident”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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