EarthTech–BAASS industry collaboration claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Speaker | Dr. Eric W. Davis, physicist, EarthTech International |
|---|---|
| Venue | Coast to Coast AM, hosted by George Knapp, 24 June 2018 (and other 2018 appearances) |
| Claim | EarthTech, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) and an unnamed major aerospace firm worked together to understand UFO technology |
| Related remarks | A crash-retrieval program "is still there"; AAWSAP would have sought access to it; Del Rio named as a crash |
| Evidence | None offered; company unnamed |
| Date | 24 June 2018 |
| Topics | Government programs (topic) |
| People | Eric W. Davis, Harold Puthoff |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 190 |
| Year | 2018 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2018 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
In June 2018 the physicist Eric Davis said on the radio show Coast to Coast AM that three organizations had worked together to try to understand UFO technology. These were Hal Puthoff's company EarthTech, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) and an unnamed major aerospace firm.[1] Davis had worked on the Pentagon-funded AAWSAP program and wrote several of its technical reports.[3][7] He gave no further evidence, and the company was never named.[1][2] His 2018 remarks were among the first public hints, from someone involved in AAWSAP, of the claims about industry-held material that later became central to the 2023 congressional hearings.[3][10]
Eric Davis
Davis earned a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Arizona in 1991. He became chief science officer of EarthTech International and its Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, which Puthoff founded in 1985.[2] His listed research interests included breakthrough propulsion physics, warp-drive and wormhole spacetimes, and directed-energy weapons.[2] In 1996 he was one of three full-time scientists hired by Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science, along with Colm Kelleher and George Onet.[5]
Under AAWSAP, the Defense Intelligence Agency program that BAASS ran from 2008, BAASS contracted Puthoff to commission about 38 position papers across twelve technical areas.[5] Davis led one of them, "Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy".[3] On Coast to Coast AM on 28 January 2018 he confirmed that 38 such "Defense Intelligence Reference Documents" had been produced. The DIA released 37 of them in March 2022.[7] The DIA's own FOIA reading room could not be read because the site blocked access.[6]
The June 2018 broadcast
Davis appeared with George Knapp on 24 June 2018, in a show also featuring the astrophysicist Adam Frank.[1] According to the program's summary:[1]
- The programs. Davis said BAASS and the Pentagon UFO program were "honest and legitimate programs". Their aim was to use the observed properties of UFOs to determine whether they "could be utilized or back-engineered with present or near-future technology".
- The white papers. He and others had been asked to research "white papers" on whether, within 50 years, humans could build aircraft with the observed characteristics. He said the objects appeared to be "tech that is not made on Earth by humans".
- Pilots. He defended pilots as observers: "these guys cannot afford to have poor observational skills".
- Critics. He criticized online sceptics who "won't take 'yes' for an answer".
- The paranormal. He said "poltergeist or psychic phenomena are a major aspect" of encounters.
An archived note on the broadcast quotes him on the crash-retrieval program: "it's still there. And we would have gotten into the crash retrieval program using the legal authorizations". That access "would have exponentially increased our knowledge base", he said, "since we don't have a Tic Tac in possession right now".[1] The program's published summary does not itself mention the three-way collaboration with an aerospace firm. That detail comes from accounts of what Davis said on air.[1]
The Del Rio remark
In September 2018 the researcher Kevin Randle examined a related remark Davis had made to Knapp on Coast to Coast AM.[2] When Knapp said that made it "sound like there is something to analyze or reverse engineer", Davis replied with three points:[2]
- The cases. "If you're going to throw your bets on Roswell, your bet's really good. Del Rio, Texas, that was a 1950s case, that was another one, and the other ones I won't bring up because those are still classified."
- Crash retrievals. "We have crash retrievals and they've been analyzed".
- Limited understanding. Laboratory technology, materials science and physics "were not advanced enough to be able to make heads or tails of what it is".
Randle traced the Del Rio story solely to Robert Willingham. Willingham invented the tale in 1968 and moved its date from 1948 to 1950 to the mid-1950s, and he was neither a colonel nor a fighter pilot. Randle concluded that Davis's reliance on it "calls some of his other comments into question".[2] His emails to Davis went unanswered. Readers of Randle's post noted another inconsistency: in an earlier appearance Davis had said the crash-retrieval program ended in 1989, yet now said AAWSAP would have gained access to it.[2]
Context
The public learned of the Pentagon program through The New York Times on 16 December 2017. That article could not be read because the site blocked access.[3][4] Later news reports repeated Davis's claim that an "off-world vehicle" might be in U.S. government possession.[3] In Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, the 2021 book by the program's insiders, Puthoff is called an AAWSAP BAASS "consultant and contractor".[9] The book's own Pentagon prepublication review took more than a year.[8]
Assessment
Davis gave no evidence for the collaboration, and the aerospace company was not named.[1] In March 2024 the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office reported no evidence that any hidden "UAP reverse-engineering programs" exist "either in the U.S. government or in private industry". It called claims about specific people, places and documents "inaccurate" and largely the result of "circular reporting".[10][11] The former AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick acknowledged that the findings would be criticized by those who believe the Pentagon and private aerospace companies are hiding crashed alien technology.[10]
People and topics
- Eric W. Davis — Physicist who worked on AAWSAP and has said the U.S. holds recovered craft.
- BAASS — The Bigelow Aerospace division that carried out the AAWSAP contract.
- EarthTech International — Hal Puthoff's research company in Austin, Texas.
- Coast to Coast AM — The late-night radio show known for paranormal topics.
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
On the Timeline
- Area 29 and Omega operations claim (30 May 2018) — A remote viewer claims targets were linked to 'Omega' operations involving advanced propulsion.
- Eric Davis on an existing crash-retrieval program (24 June 2018) — Eric Davis says a crash retrieval program still exists.
See every 2018 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Robert Bigelow — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Skunk Works — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- Eric Davis on Coast to Coast AM, June 2018 (transcript) — UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- Dr. Davis confirms Del Rio UFO crash? — Kevin Randle · kevinrandle.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP/AAWSAP) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Glowing auras and 'black money': the Pentagon's mysterious UFO program — New York Times (2017) · nytimes.com · archived copy
- The origins of AAWSAP — Metabunk · metabunk.org · archived copy
- DIA FOIA reading room (AAWSAP technical reports) · dia.mil · archived copy
- AAWSAP documentation (FOIA) — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Documents on the vetting of 'Skinwalkers at the Pentagon' — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: book review — Bad UFOs (Robert Sheaffer) · badufos.blogspot.com · archived copy
- AARO historical report finds no evidence of alien technology (2024) — Space.com · space.com · archived copy
- AARO Report on the Historical Record, Volume I — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP/AAWSAP)”, 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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