Tim Cooper's German saucer source (1991)

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Contents 7
Tim Cooper's German saucer source (1991)
Flying saucer from the USA National Archives and Records Administration, cropped from the original here…
Flying saucer from the USA National Archives and Records Administration, cropped from the original here… Photo: Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
DateJuly 1991
TopicsCrashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic)
PeopleTim Cooper, Horten brothers, Ryan Wood, Albert Collins
TestimonyShellenberger testimony, p. 110
Year1991 in UFO history
Timeline1991 on the UAP Timeline
Sources11

According to California researcher Tim Cooper, a retired Air Force colonel told him in 1991 that in the early years the military first thought UFOs might be secret German aircraft, possibly nuclear-powered, and that recovered craft used materials no one could identify. The account is known only through Cooper.[1][2]

Tim Cooper

Majestic 12 In 1988, two FBI offices received similar versions of a memo titled “Operation Majestic-12…” claiming to be highly classified government…
Majestic 12 In 1988, two FBI offices received similar versions of a memo titled “Operation Majestic-12…” claiming to be highly classified government… Photo: Federal Bureau of Investigation · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Cooper became one of the most prolific suppliers of documents and informant stories in 1990s ufology. He gave researcher Leonard Stringfield the story of Albert Bruce Collins, a metallurgical engineer known by the code name "Barnabas", which Stringfield published in his Status Report VI (July 1991); Collins had died in December 1990. From the mid-1990s Cooper also said he received many documents through the mail from anonymous sources describing MJ-12 and related programmes, which Robert and Ryan Wood later analysed and published on their Majestic Documents website.[1][3]

The German theory

The 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio received its first C-17 Globemaster III Jan. 21,2010. The aircraft is on loan from…
The 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio received its first C-17 Globemaster III Jan. 21,2010. The aircraft is on loan from… Photo: United States Air Force · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Suspicion that the 1947 "flying discs" might be foreign technology is plausible for the period: Wright Field's wartime T-2 intelligence department had evaluated foreign aircraft, and its successors analysed captured foreign equipment. That general background fits Cooper's source's account; the claims about unidentifiable materials rest only on the anonymous colonel.[2][4]

Assessment

Illustration of official papers and files
Illustration: official papers and files. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

Cooper's sources were generally anonymous and unverified, and most researchers regard the Cooper documents as forgeries containing anachronisms and errors. The colonel has never been identified.[3]

People and topics

National Air and Space Intelligence Center, new Foreign Materiels Exploitation (FME) center at Wright-Paterson Air Force Base.
National Air and Space Intelligence Center, new Foreign Materiels Exploitation (FME) center at Wright-Paterson Air Force Base. Photo: US Air Force. · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
  • Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
  • Tim Cooper — California researcher who said he received many MJ-12-style documents from anonymous sources in the 1990s.
  • U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
  • Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
  • Horten brothers — German aircraft designers of the Ho 229 jet flying wing, investigated in 1947 as a possible source of the discs.
  • MJ-12 — Disputed documents describing a secret committee managing crashed saucers.
  • Ryan Wood — Researcher who published the Majestic documents with his father Robert Wood.
  • Albert Collins — Metallurgist described by author Tim Cooper as having studied recovered crash material; his existence is unconfirmed.

On the Timeline

President Harry S. Truman is shown at his desk at the White House signing a proclamation declaring a national emergency
President Harry S. Truman is shown at his desk at the White House signing a proclamation declaring a national emergency Photo: Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

See every 1991 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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