Eric Davis on underfunded reverse-engineering

From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event

Contents 4
Eric Davis on underfunded reverse-engineering
Illustration of wreckage at a crash site
Illustration: wreckage at a crash site. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.
Date30 April 2019
TopicsCrashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic)
PeopleEric W. Davis
TestimonyShellenberger testimony, p. 193
Year2019 in UFO history
Timeline2019 on the UAP Timeline
Sources8

Eric Davis on underfunded reverse-engineering — Eric Davis says crashes happened and reverse engineering is split into small, underfunded efforts.

Physicist Eric Davis, who worked on the Pentagon-funded AAWSAP program and later as an adviser to To The Stars Academy, said in 2019 interviews that there had been UFO crashes and that efforts to reverse-engineer the recovered material were split into small, underfunded compartments at legacy aerospace companies.

Davis didn't name the companies. The testimony asks whether they might include his then-employer, the Aerospace Corporation, or companies like TRW, which have come up repeatedly in UFO lore.

In 2020, The New York Times reported that Davis had given classified briefings to Defense Department officials and congressional staff, including on "off-world vehicles not made on this earth". His claims haven't been backed by released documents, and AARO said in 2024 it found no evidence of reverse-engineering programs.

People and topics

Illustration of a jet meeting an unknown object
Illustration: a jet meeting an unknown object. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.
  • Eric W. Davis — Physicist who worked on AAWSAP and has said the U.S. holds recovered craft.
  • AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
  • To The Stars Academy — The company founded by Tom DeLonge in 2017 that released the Navy UAP videos.
  • Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
  • Reverse engineering — Studying a recovered object to learn how it works and copy it.
  • TRW — A U.S. aerospace and defence contractor often named in UFO claims.
  • The New York Times — The newspaper that revealed AATIP in December 2017.
  • AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.

On the Timeline

Illustration of a military base at night
Illustration: a military base at night. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

See every 2019 event on the UAP Timeline →

References

Further reading

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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