Tim Cooper's German saucer source (1991)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7

| Date | July 1991 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic) |
| People | Tim Cooper, Horten brothers, Ryan Wood, Albert Collins |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 110 |
| Year | 1991 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1991 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
According to California researcher Tim Cooper, a retired Air Force colonel told him in 1991 that in the early years the military first thought UFOs might be secret German aircraft, possibly nuclear-powered, and that recovered craft used materials no one could identify. The account is known only through Cooper.[1][2]
Tim Cooper

Cooper became one of the most prolific suppliers of documents and informant stories in 1990s ufology. He gave researcher Leonard Stringfield the story of Albert Bruce Collins, a metallurgical engineer known by the code name "Barnabas", which Stringfield published in his Status Report VI (July 1991); Collins had died in December 1990. From the mid-1990s Cooper also said he received many documents through the mail from anonymous sources describing MJ-12 and related programmes, which Robert and Ryan Wood later analysed and published on their Majestic Documents website.[1][3]
The German theory

Suspicion that the 1947 "flying discs" might be foreign technology is plausible for the period: Wright Field's wartime T-2 intelligence department had evaluated foreign aircraft, and its successors analysed captured foreign equipment. That general background fits Cooper's source's account; the claims about unidentifiable materials rest only on the anonymous colonel.[2][4]
Assessment
Cooper's sources were generally anonymous and unverified, and most researchers regard the Cooper documents as forgeries containing anachronisms and errors. The colonel has never been identified.[3]
People and topics

- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Tim Cooper — California researcher who said he received many MJ-12-style documents from anonymous sources in the 1990s.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Horten brothers — German aircraft designers of the Ho 229 jet flying wing, investigated in 1947 as a possible source of the discs.
- MJ-12 — Disputed documents describing a secret committee managing crashed saucers.
- Ryan Wood — Researcher who published the Majestic documents with his father Robert Wood.
- Albert Collins — Metallurgist described by author Tim Cooper as having studied recovered crash material; his existence is unconfirmed.
On the Timeline

- White Sands tracking-camera saucer claim (July 1991) — A retired sergeant says tracking cameras recorded a saucer resting on the White Sands range.
- Navy linguist and the Soviet crash report (July 1991) — A Navy linguist says he decoded a Soviet report of a crash split between England and Germany.
See every 1991 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Leonard H. Stringfield, "UFO crash/retrievals: the inner sanctum", Status Report VI (Jul 1991), Earthfiles · earthfiles.com · archived copy
- Leonard H. Stringfield — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Foreign Technology Division — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- How the FBI debunked the MJ-12 papers — Atlas Obscura · atlasobscura.com · archived copy
- On the Tim Cooper MJ-12 documents (1990s archive) · geocities.ws · archived copy
- Review of Kevin Randle's 'Case MJ-12' — Stanton Friedman · medium.com · archived copy
- Cooper/Woods 'Majestic' leak grows into paper flood (archive) · oocities.org · archived copy
- Critique of the Cooper MJ-12 documents — Kennedys and King · kennedysandking.com · archived copy
- Linda Moulton Howe — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Earthfiles — Linda Moulton Howe's news site · earthfiles.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Project Blue Book — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Blue Book records — National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- Project Blue Book files — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Condon Committee — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Edward Teller — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- White Sands Missile Range — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
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.
No discussion yet.