Hangar 18 (film)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7

| Date | July 1980 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Barry Goldwater |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 92 |
| Year | 1980 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1980 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 18 |
Hangar 18 is a 1980 science-fiction thriller from Sunn Classic Pictures, starring Darren McGavin and Robert Vaughn, about a government cover-up of a crashed alien spacecraft. It dramatised the legend that alien craft and bodies were stored in a "Hangar 18" at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.[1][2]
Plot

In the film, a UFO collides with a satellite launched from the Space Shuttle and crashes in the Arizona desert. Two astronauts who witnessed the collision uncover a government plan to hide the craft and its dead occupants in a hangar at an Air Force base, against the backdrop of a presidential election.[1][3]
The legend

In a radio interview on 11 October 1974 writer Robert Spencer Carr claimed that bodies from a 1948 crash at Aztec, New Mexico, were held in Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson. The Air Force said there was no such hangar and noted the similarity of his story to a 1968 novel, The Fortec Conspiracy. The legend was also fuelled by Senator Barry Goldwater's account of being refused entry to a restricted room at the base.[2][4]
Production and influence

In November 1979 local newspapers reported that Roswell was being scouted for the film. Its director, James L. Conway, described it as a modern dramatisation of the Roswell incident, and folklorist Thomas E. Bullard called it an example of "nascent Roswell mythology". The film was a modest commercial success and, with press coverage of Carr's claims, helped bring the crash-retrieval idea into popular culture; it later inspired a 1990 Megadeth song. There is no evidence that the government influenced the production.[2][3]
People and topics

- Hangar 18 — The legendary hangar at Wright-Patterson said to hold alien craft and bodies.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — The Ohio air base that housed Project Blue Book and is linked to the Hangar 18 legend.
- Barry Goldwater — U.S. senator and Air Force Reserve general who said he was denied access to UFO material at Wright-Patterson.
- Crash retrieval — The alleged recovery of crashed non-human craft by governments.
On the Timeline
- Doty's psychological operations claim (1980s) — Doty says an Air Force unit ran psychological operations on people who saw secret aircraft.
- Andrew Basiago and Project Pegasus (1981) — Andrew Basiago claims he took part in a secret time-travel project.
See every 1980 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Hangar 18 (film) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Hangar 18 (conspiracy theory) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Hangar 18 (1980): lookback and review", Den of Geek · denofgeek.com · archived copy
- Sarah Pruitt, "Hangar 18" (on Wright-Patterson UFO legends), History.com · history.com · archived copy
- Before Disclosure Day there was Hangar 18 — Film Stories · filmstories.co.uk · archived copy
- Hangar 18 (1980) review — Moria · moriareviews.com · archived copy
- Hangar 18 — Encyclopedia of Science Fiction · sf-encyclopedia.com · archived copy
- Hangar 18 — Rotten Tomatoes · rottentomatoes.com · archived copy
- The senator and the UFOs (Thurmond withdraws Corso foreword) — Government Executive, 1997 · govexec.com · archived copy
- The Day After Roswell — Publishers Weekly review · publishersweekly.com · archived copy
- Stanton Friedman's review of The Day After Roswell · medium.com · archived copy
- Paul Bennewitz — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Beta (Greg Bishop, 2005) — Goodreads · goodreads.com · archived copy
- Project Beta — Anomaly Archives · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Mirage Men (2013 documentary) — Internet Archive · archive.org · archived copy
- The Paul Bennewitz affair — Michael Heiser · drmsh.com · archived copy
- latimes.com · latimes.com · archived copy
- gnosticwarrior.com · gnosticwarrior.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Stargate Project — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Stargate collection — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Linda Moulton Howe — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Philip J. Corso — 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.
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