Foo fighter

This article is about the aerial phenomenon. For the rock band, see Foo Fighters. For the homebuilt aircraft, see Stewart Foo Fighter.

The term foo fighters was used by Allied aircraft pilots during World War II to describe various unidentified flying objects or mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over both the European and Pacific theaters of operations.

Though foo fighters initially described a type of UFO reported and named by the U.S. 415th Night Fighter Squadron, the term was also commonly used to mean any UFO sighting from that period.[1] Formally reported from November 1944 onwards, foo fighters were presumed by witnesses to be secret weapons employed by the enemy.

The Robertson Panel explored possible explanations, for instance that they were electrostatic phenomena similar to St. Elmo's fire, electromagnetic phenomena, or simply reflections of light from ice crystals.[2]

  1. ^ Toomey, Vurlee A. (2002). Let Us Not Forget: A Tribute to America's 20th Century Veterans. San Jose: Writers Club Press: iUniverse. p. 71. ISBN 0-595-23823-8.
  2. ^ Report of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects convened by Office of Scientific Intelligence, CIA January 14–18, 1953