Fact Check: US Military Helicopter Did NOT Carry Silver UFO To Area 51

Fact Check

  • by: Sarah Thompson
Fact Check: US Military Helicopter Did NOT Carry Silver UFO To Area 51 Prototype Test

Did a U.S. military transport helicopter carry a silver disc-shaped UFO to Area 51? No, that's not true: This photo has been edited. A Swedish helicopter was carrying a European Space Program shuttle prototype of a "reusable launch vehicle" (RLV) named Phoenix. This test took place on May 8, 2004, at the North European Aerospace Test Range in Sweden. The approximately small-scale prototype was dropped from a height of 2,400 meters (7,900 feet) then guided to a landing strip with automated systems. Photos of the helicopter carrying the Phoenix have been edited to make the prototype look like a flying saucer, and to remove the markings visible on the helicopter and RLV.

This digitally edited photo of the transport helicopter carrying what looks to be a UFO dates back to at least 2013. It was widely circulated in UFO circles, as can be seen with TinEye reverse image search results. The photo was posted on Facebook by the page Uncovering Mystery on July 15, 2022. The post was captioned:

US military plane transports a UFO vehicle to Area 51

This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
rlvpost.jpg
(Image Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Jul 22 15:40:52 2022 UTC)

Many of the websites that hosted articles and photos about this 2004 test are no longer operational. An overview of the European Space Agency's launcher program's goals can be found as a .pdf document (here). On May 6, 2004, NBC reported, "Europe's space shuttle test succeeds":

An unmanned prototype for the European space shuttle glided to a successful landing Saturday after being dropped from an altitude of 7,900 feet (2,400 meters), a project spokeswoman said.

The EADS Phoenix, a German-designed prototype of the future European Shuttle, was dropped by a helicopter at 9:45 a.m. local time.

Guided by GPS satellites, the shuttle 'landed perfectly' on the test runway after a 90-second flight, said Johanna Bergstroem-Roos, of the North European Aerospace Test Range in Kiruna, 770 miles (1,230 kilometers) north of the capital, Stockholm.

Lead Stories was unable to locate the identical unedited match that would have been the source image for the UFO hoax in the Facebook post. We did locate an additional version of this hoax based on another photo from this prototype test. In this version, the vehicles' markings have also been obscured with editing, and the shape of the Phoenix simplified to appear as a smooth disc (pictured below).

mil02betteredited.jpg

(Image source: Lead Stories marked bing.com screenshot taken on Fri Jul 22 16:16:24 2022 UTC)

The original image (pictured below) shows the markings of the "Försvarsmakten," the Swedish Armed Forces, and appears in the blog thelivingmoon.com in an entry titled, "ESA Phoenix, European Space Shuttle." Thelivingmoon.com credits another source, astrium.eads.net (archived here) but no photos are included in that archived copy. The photo caption on the blog reads:

Air Drop Tests
Credit: DLR/US Air Force

milphoenix01.jpg

(Image source: thelivingmoon.com screenshot taken on Fri Jul 22 16:35:18 2022 UTC)

Additional photos of the test can be seen here and here. A photo of the helicopter lifting off with the Phoenix can be found (here) on a uppsagd.wordpress.com blog article about the North European Aerospace Test Range (NEAT) in Sweden. The video embedded below shows footage of the helicopter carrying and then dropping the RLV Phoenix.


  Sarah Thompson

Sarah Thompson lives with her family and pets on a small farm in Indiana. She founded a Facebook page and a blog called “Exploiting the Niche” in 2017 to help others learn about manipulative tactics and avoid scams on social media. Since then she has collaborated with journalists in the USA, Canada and Australia and since December 2019 she works as a Social Media Authenticity Analyst at Lead Stories.


 

Read more about or contact Sarah Thompson

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization EFCSN Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion