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Revision as of 15:10, 23 December 2024
A UFO flap is a rash of reports of unidentified airborne objects. "Flap", originally a military term to describe a "period of panic or chaos", is used by ufologists to describe surges of sightings in one geographical area. Longer surges spanning multiple countries may be called "waves". Reported sightings of UFOs, public interest in them, and news coverage are highly variable in frequency. The terms "UFO", "flap", and "wave" allow for sightings of various unrelated phenomena in the night sky to be discussed as if they are parts of the same aerial event.
Notable flaps
"Flap" has been used to describe spates of UFO reports such as:
- Mystery airship wave of 1896-1897 in the US
- Foo fighters of World War 2
- Ghost rockets of 1946 in Sweden and Finland
- 1947 flying disc craze in the US
1947 flying disc craze 
Headline from July 6, 1947Events - 1952 UFO Flap
- Great 1954 Greek UFO flap
- Michigan "swamp gas" UFO reports in the US
- 1967 UFO flap in Britain
- 1977 Colares flap in Brazil
- 1984 Hudson Valley UFO sightings in the US
- Gulf Breeze UFO incident of 1987–88 in the US
- Belgian UFO wave of 1989–90
- 1994 Michigan UFO event
- Phoenix Lights of 1997
- 2024 Northeastern United States drone sightings
See also
- Extraterrestrial hypothesis, which argues UFO reports are best explained as interplanetary or interstellar space ships.
- Psychosocial hypothesis, which argues UFO reports are best explained by social contagion
- UFO conspiracy theories
References
- Ruppelt (1956) defines "flap" as "a condition or situation, or state of being of a group characterized by an advanced degree of confusion that has not yet reached panic proportions"
- ^ Clarke, David (2015). How UFOs Conquered the World: the History of a Modern Myth. London: Aurum Press Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78131-472-2.
- ^ Jenzen, Olu; Munt, Sally R. "The Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures". Routledge. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
- ^ Eghigian, Greg (2024). After the flying saucers came: a global history of the UFO phenomenon. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 9, 83, 223. ISBN 9780190092054.
- The use of the term wave was originally based on the idea that the spikes in sightings could be connected to Earth's proximity to Mars or another planet. Attempts to predict flaps via astronomy did not support this idea. In 1967, Charles Hugh Smiley compared the 14 most ideal 10-day windows to travel between Mars and Earth and compared these periods to sightings reported to Project Blue Book; Smiley found no correlation. See: Kottmeyer, Martin (Winter 1995–96). "UFO Flaps: An Analysis". The Anomalist (3): 64–89.
- ^ Peebles, Curtis (1994). Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth. Washington, DC: The Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 978-1-56098-343-9.
- Basterfield, Keith (22 July 2024). "Aventuras de Investigación en Brasil". Marcianitos Verdes (in Spanish).
- Moran, Rick (21 October 1984). "SKEPTICAL BUT OPEN-MINDED ON THE QUESTION OF U.F.O.'S". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- Jenkins, Greg (October 2014). Chronicles of the Strange and Uncanny in Florida. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-56164-746-0. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- Swords, Michael D. (2012). UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry. Anomalist Books. ISBN 978-1-933665-58-0. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- Imbrogno, Philip J. (2010). Ultraterrestrial Contact. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 978-0-7387-1959-7. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- Redfern, Greg. "Are you really seeing drones in the sky? There are other possibilities". wtop.com. WTOP radio. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- Hanks, Micah. "Pentagon's Assessment of Recent Drone Sightings Leaves More Questions Than Answers". debrief.org. Debrief. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- McCain, Buzz. "Schar School Expert: A Statement About the Eastern Seaboard Drone Flap". www.gmu.edu/news. George Mason University. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- Wallace, Kathleen. "The New Jersey Drone Flap: Why None of the Explanations are Acceptable". counterpunch.org. Counterpunch. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
