Long Beach undercover approach claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Source | Ross Coulthart, In Plain Sight: An Investigation into UFOs and Impossible Science (2021) |
|---|---|
| Claim | An aerospace executive in Long Beach, California, asked a source to go undercover inside the company to learn about UFO material supposedly held there |
| Detail | The source described the company as having "sprawling gardens" |
| Company | Not named; the earlier summary suggested Boeing (formerly McDonnell Douglas) |
| Verification | Source unnamed; book passage not available in the readable sources |
| Date | 1 August 2021 |
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Ross Coulthart, Robert M. Wood |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 201 |
| Year | 2021 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2021 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
According to the earlier summary, the Australian journalist Ross Coulthart wrote in his 2021 book In Plain Sight about an approach to one of his sources. An aerospace executive in Long Beach, California, had asked the source to go undercover inside the company to find out about UFO material supposedly held there. The source described the company as having "sprawling gardens".[1][2] The passage itself is not quoted in the readable sources. The source is unnamed, and the account cannot be checked. It is one of several claims in Coulthart's work that defense contractors hold UAP material.[1]
The book
In Plain Sight: An Investigation into UFOs and Impossible Science was published in August 2021, with a revised edition in 2023.[1][2] Its publisher's description says Coulthart spoke to "witnesses, researchers, scientists, spies, defence officials and intelligence insiders". It says he looks at "alleged UFO crash retrievals and secret reverse-engineering programs".[2] Reviews were mixed:[1]
- Pippa Goldschmidt found it a "balanced historical and global summary" but said Coulthart "shows signs of wanting to believe it".
- Jason Colavito called it "less a serious analysis and more of a book report on the last works of the leaders of the faith".
The company
The source did not name the company in the account as summarized.[2] The earlier summary noted that the major aerospace presence in Long Beach was Boeing, which inherited the former McDonnell Douglas operations there. Boeing (formerly McDonnell Douglas) has maintained facilities near Long Beach Airport for Douglas aircraft, and built the C-17 there until 2015.[5] McDonnell Douglas had a documented history of interest in UFOs:
- Robert Wood. The engineer worked for Douglas Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas from 1956 to 1993, and was later based at its Huntington Beach site.[3]
- The BITBR project. In the late 1960s Wood ran a small company project informally called "Boys in the Back Room", which sought to understand how UFOs might control gravity. By his account it cost about $500,000 and ended in 1970 with null results.[4]
Whether the "sprawling gardens" description fits any Long Beach aerospace site could not be checked. Nothing in the sources ties the undercover approach to Boeing or McDonnell Douglas specifically.
Coulthart
Coulthart, born in 1962, is an Australian investigative journalist who won Walkley awards for work on Australian television programs. After 2018 he turned mainly to UFOs.[1] His record on the subject:[1]
- Grusch. In June 2023 he interviewed David Grusch for NewsNation and joined him in alleging a secret U.S. crash-retrieval program.
- Criticism. In August 2023 the ABC program Media Watch questioned the lack of evidence for his claims, and Australian Skeptics gave him their 2023 Bent Spoon Award.
- An earlier inquiry. A 1995 government inquiry into a 1994 report of his on Australia's foreign intelligence service found its operational accuracy "not high".
Assessment
The Long Beach story rests on an anonymous source relaying an approach by an unnamed executive at an unnamed company.[1][2] It offers no detail that would let it be checked, and no document or second witness supports it. Like other contractor-custody claims in Coulthart's reporting, it remains unverified.[1]
People and topics
- Ross Coulthart — Australian journalist who reported David Grusch's claims.
- In Plain Sight — Ross Coulthart's 2021 book on UFO secrecy.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Boeing — The aerospace company whose Phantom Works looked at gravity research in 2002.
- McDonnell Douglas — The aerospace company that ran several quiet studies of UFOs and propulsion.
- Robert M. Wood — McDonnell Douglas engineer who ran an in-house UFO study and later promoted the MJ-12 documents.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
On the Timeline
- Coulthart on Elizondo's oversight role (29 June 2021) — Journalist Ross Coulthart says a source described Elizondo's role reviewing secret programs.
- Elizondo on rogue programs (2021) (2 September 2021) — Elizondo says he saw no UAP programs in secret program oversight; any would be rogue.
See every 2021 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Ross Coulthart — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- amazon.com · amazon.com · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, "Robert M. Wood", UFOs at close sight · ufologie.patrickgross.org
- Robert M. Wood, "McDonnell Douglas studied UFOs in 1960s", MUFON UFO Journal, Oct 2008 (PDF) · theblackvault.com
- Long Beach Airport — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Ross Coulthart”, “Long Beach Airport”, 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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