Project Skylite
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 5 April 1970 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic) |
| People | Robert M. Wood |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 73 |
| Year | 1970 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1970 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
Project Skylite was a 1970 proposal, drafted by members of McDonnell Douglas's small in-house UFO study group, to build a "UFO simulator" that would mimic the appearance and other observable features of UFOs. It was prepared after an unnamed intelligence agency showed interest, but it never went ahead.[1][2]
Background
From 1966 McDonnell Douglas engineer Robert M. Wood ran a small company-funded effort to study how UFOs might fly, employing among others nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman and W. Paul Wilson Jr., an engineer and former private detective who interviewed witnesses. Wood later wrote in the MUFON UFO Journal (October 2008) that towards the end of spring 1970 an intelligence agency expressed interest, leading to a draft proposal to "mimic, imitate or duplicate the observables associated with UFOs".[1][2][3]
The papers
In October 2020 researcher Louis Taylor published about 30 pages of handwritten Skylite documents by Wilson, found in a barn at a former Wilson family property in Washington state. Dated from April to June 1970, they include an outline, parametric studies and charts. They describe large transparent inflatable bags, spherical or saucer-shaped, filled with ionisable combustible gas that could be lit by radar beams, radio-controlled igniters or lasers; metallic coatings to reflect radar; large weather balloons; and devices to produce sounds and magnetic fields. One note refers to "decoy & confusion factors" and observers' capabilities.[1][2]
Outcome
Wood said that, as far as he knew, the project never materialised with McDonnell Douglas, and there is no clear evidence of test flights. A Freedom of Information Act request to the CIA produced only a form reply. Taylor has questioned whether the papers were ever official company proposals, and commentators have noted that the plans read like a scheme for staging convincing fake sightings, at a time when the Air Force had just closed Project Blue Book.[1][2]
People and topics
- McDonnell Douglas — The aerospace company that ran several quiet studies of UFOs and propulsion.
- 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.
- Robert M. Wood — McDonnell Douglas engineer who ran an in-house UFO study and later promoted the MJ-12 documents.
- Civilian Saucer Investigation — A Los Angeles UFO research group of the early 1950s.
- Battelle Memorial Institute — The Ohio research institute that analysed Air Force UFO reports.
On the Timeline
- Torbitt Document (1970) — Author 'William Torbitt' claims a group ran counterintelligence for advanced aerospace programs.
- Montauk Project (January 1971) — Preston Nichols claims he worked on exotic projects at Camp Hero in Montauk, New York.
See every 1970 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Skylite: project to mimic UFOs", The Saucers That Time Forgot (Sep 2021) · thesaucersthattimeforgot.blogspot.com · archived copy
- "Project Skylite papers uploaded", UFOs Scientific Research (Oct 2020) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- "Aerospace companies and UFOs — 2", UFOs Scientific Research (Jan 2010) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Project Skylite summary — UFOScans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- Robert M. Wood on McDonnell Douglas UFO research — Patrick Gross · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Stanton T. Friedman — 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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