TRESTLE facility and Ron Blackburn
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 4
| Date | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Nuclear & missile sites (topic) |
| People | Jacques Vallée, Ron Blackburn, John B. Alexander, Robert Bigelow |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 106 |
| Year | 1990 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1990 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 9 |
TRESTLE facility and Ron Blackburn — A Lockheed engineer tells Vallée he helped build the TRESTLE facility.
Ron Blackburn was a former Air Force officer who worked at Lockheed's Skunk Works in the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to Jacques Vallée's journals, in 1990 Blackburn told Vallée about his involvement in advanced projects, including building the TRESTLE facility.
TRESTLE was a huge wooden structure at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, completed in 1980. It was used to test the effects of electromagnetic pulses (EMP) from nuclear explosions on large aircraft such as B-52 bombers, and is documented in Air Force and Energy Department technical reports.
Blackburn had also taken part in John Alexander's Advanced Theoretical Physics group in 1985, and later joined Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). His connections show the overlap between defence-industry engineers and private UFO research in this period.
People and topics
- Lockheed Martin — The aerospace company whose Skunk Works built the U-2, SR-71 and F-117.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Ron Blackburn — Former Air Force officer and Lockheed engineer linked to the ATP group and NIDS.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Kirtland Air Force Base — The Albuquerque air base at the center of the Bennewitz affair.
- Department of Energy — The U.S. department that runs the nuclear weapons laboratories.
- John B. Alexander — Retired Army colonel who organized the 1985 Advanced Theoretical Physics group and wrote UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities.
- Advanced Theoretical Physics group — Advanced Theoretical Physics group
- Robert Bigelow — Businessman who founded NIDS and Bigelow Aerospace and ran the AAWSAP contract.
- NIDS — Robert Bigelow's research institute (1995–2004) that studied UFOs and other anomalies.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
- Jim Goodall and Groom Lake black programs (1990) — Writer James Goodall says at least eight secret programs fly from Groom Lake.
- Project Blue Heaven claim (1990) — A physicist claims he worked on Project Blue Heaven at Edwards AFB.
See every 1990 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- National Institute for Discovery Science — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- goodreads.com · goodreads.com · archived copy
- apps.dtic.mil · apps.dtic.mil · archived copy
- osti.gov · osti.gov · archived copy
- apps.dtic.mil · apps.dtic.mil · archived copy
Further reading
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Skunk Works — 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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