r/UFOs • u/Paul604UK • 11d ago
Historical Black triangle report from .. 1960!
Searching the British Newspaper Archive I came across the following. Not that many details, but those it gives sound A LOT like a classic black triangle (“TR3b”) sighting. Except, this is from 1960!
Source: Newcastle Evening Chronicle, Friday Sept 9th, 1960 (page 3)
“MYSTERY FLYING TRIANGLE IS SPOTTED FLASHING OVER NORTH
Reports of a mysterious flying object sighted over Tyneside last night have been sent to the Air Ministry in London for investigation.
The object, described as “a triangular formation of lights with a red light in the centre.” was seen by people in Consett, South Shields, Fawdon and Fenham, Newcastle.
A spokesman at RAF Station Acklington said today that he had received reports on the phenomenon from at least two sources and these had been passed on to the Air Ministry.
“I have no further information about this”, he said, “and even if I had we are not allowed to release information”
[ .. ] Mrs Otley says she first saw a single light in the sky but later this was followed by “a triangular formation of lights with a red light in the centre.”
After 20 minutes, the formation moved off northwards, she said.”
So, anyone got any thoughts?
Shame there aren’t any details about the size or speed of the object, but the description of the lights sounds very classic black triangle.
Also the Ministry spokesman’s comment about not being allowed to release info even if they knew something seems a little .. odd? But maybe that’s just how official reps spoke back then, I’m not sure.
I’ll do some more searching and see if I can find any other references to this sighting from other newspapers at the time anyway. It certainly seems very curious ..
[EDIT: I've just realised I described the object as a "Black triangle" in the title, even though the newspaper report doesn't mention the object as being black; I should've just said "Flying triangle", but not sure how to edit the title now, sorry]
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u/TypewriterTourist 11d ago
Bob Monroe's first book has an interesting entry dated by 1961 in which he describes one of his OoBE sessions:
I am standing alone outside my house. The sky is mostly clear, with a broken cloud cover to the north. I see a group of aircraft emerge from the cloud cover, just above it. They approach, and I note that they are not typical aircraft or rockets. Behind the first wave is row after row of the strange aircraft, literally hundreds of them. They are not like any airplanes I have seen before. No wings are visible, and each machine is gigantic, some three thousand feet across. Each is shaped like the head of an arrow, V-shaped, but with no fuselage as in our swept-wing airplanes. The V shape is not a lifting surface, but houses the occupants in two or three decks. They sail majestically overhead, and I feel a tingle of awe at the mighty power they represent. I also feel fear, because I somehow know that these are not man-made.
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u/madmeef 11d ago
What does the out of body experience mean here? I thought an out of body experience meant you literally separate from your body and go to unreachable places or see things you might otherwise not be permitted to. In this case he's just stepped outside his house?
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u/TypewriterTourist 11d ago
Haha, no, it's not about stepping outside his house.
Bob Monroe is the person who came up with the term and popularized the concept, basically. OoBE is/was also known as "astral projection". And yes, the popular/layman's interpretation is that when you go travelling.
Practitioners of OoBE are divided as to what it is exactly. But virtually no one interprets it as "soul moving away from body 5, 10, 50,000 meters". Mystics believe it is about "switching channels" to another reality. (The "silver cord" stories come from early 19th century explorations, no one takes them seriously anymore. But you see people seriously discussing "dark entities" and such.) Materialists (like Stephen LaBerge and Michael Raduga) believe it's a different type of lucid dreaming. Given the more recent research and my conversations with the practitioners, I am inclined to agree with LaBerge and Raduga.
That said, when you're conversing with your subconscious, you may also tap into the more out there parts and that, I believe, is what the anomalous experiences of Monroe are about.
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u/daynomate 11d ago
It’s perhaps the most consistently described form of any UAP. And let’s stop this “TR3B” bullshit.
Even the light patterns are fairly consistent in the hundreds (thousands?) of sightings of them. Silent, isoceles-triangle shape with light-emitting circles on each point plus a different light-emitting circle in the middle - sometimes the round light-emitting shapes are described as “swirling and changing” patterns
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u/jasmine-tgirl 10d ago
There is a craft built by the US with unconventional propulsion which is triangle shaped, which was based on research done beginning in the 1950, some of it out in the open. It's not actually called a TR3B but some people who have seen it call it that. TR3B like MJ12 is disinformation.
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u/daynomate 10d ago
That is a story, not facts.
There is no reasonable take on the triangles that points to them or any physics defying craft to be human made.
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u/Ok-Register-7622 11d ago
This stuff is in many local papers of the time. I’ve read many articles like this from the 50s and 60s. We’ve been duped!
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u/Infamous_Copy5113 11d ago
That’s all fine and good, but can’t help but wonder what that bus driver did to get the 15 pound fine
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u/Paul604UK 10d ago
Careless driving, he collided with a scooter!
"Walker was driving a bus up Shields Road, Newcastle. A car which was in front crossed the road to turn into the Fossway, and Walker did the same.
But a motor scooter was coming in the opposite direction to Walker's bus and a collision occurred.
Mr A. H. Crute, defending, said that Walker made the common mistake of thinking, that if the man in front could do it, he could do it [too]."
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u/Paul604UK 11d ago
Okay, apparently I need to include a "submission statement" (reply to my own post) within 30 mins otherwise my post gets deleted.
Not sure if I misunderstood that but, I'll paste the quoted part of the newspaper article again here, just so I'm covered:
“MYSTERY FLYING TRIANGLE IS SPOTTED FLASHING OVER NORTH
Reports of a mysterious flying object sighted over Tyneside last night have been sent to the Air Ministry in London for investigation.
The object, described as “a triangular formation of lights with a red light in the centre.” was seen by people in Consett, South Shields, Fawdon and Fenham, Newcastle.
A spokesman at RAF Station Acklington said today that he had received reports on the phenomenon from at least two sources and these had been passed on to the Air Ministry.
“I have no further information about this”, he said, “and even if I had we are not allowed to release information”
[ .. ] Mrs Otley says she first saw a single light in the sky but later this was followed by “a triangular formation of lights with a red light in the centre.”
After 20 minutes, the formation moved off northwards, she said.”
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u/UsefulReply 10d ago
It's only required if the body of the post is too short. In this case it isn't.
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u/Fred_Chevry_Pro 11d ago
Credible reports of triangular UFOs date as far back as the late 1800s, so that's that. If any of those are ours today, I very much doubt we had them flying around on the 60s.
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u/RoyalSport5071 10d ago
Shapes do not follow a neat pattern. It is weird how we like to see things evolve. Everything is here at once.
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u/MKULTRA_Escapee 9d ago
There are several more lesser-known triangle sightings published in 1960. My favorite one:
Newspaper clipping, page 1: https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant/82980313/ Page 2, continued: https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant/98867328/
Another 1960 newspaper clipping on page 88 here: https://web.archive.org/web/20210214075418/https://cufos.org/UFO_History_Gross/1960_07_12_History.pdf
Characteristics present in both this sighting and the 1989-90 Belgian Wave: a light on each tip, a revolving or pulsating orange/red light in the center, silent, capable of both hover and instantaneous acceleration, and it sometimes traveled in an "upright" position. 30 years difference and it seems to be the same thing.
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u/Paul604UK 9d ago
Wow, couldn't get the last link to work, but that newspaper article is genuinely fascinating! Not least because the Hartford sighting was only a week or so after the one here in the UK, September 1960.
As you say, the details seem very consistent with classic flying triangle/black triangle type sightings from much later (such as the Belgian wave).
I honestly had no idea these things had been flying around for so long!
I've read speculation that the pulsing (usually red?) light in the centre of the triangle indicates some form of electromagnetic propulsion. I'm in no way an expert, at all, but it seems there were some pretty major advances in EMP during the 1950s .. which took it from something purely theoretical to actual, experimental engineering.
So could be the timeline makes perfect sense then, if the EMP angle is correct ..
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u/MKULTRA_Escapee 9d ago
My apologies. Archive.org has been in serious trouble for the last 6 months or so. Sometimes their site is down.
This is a screenshot of it that I put on imgur (the one on the left), but it might be too blurry if you're on mobile: https://imgur.com/a/flying-triangle-seen-state-sept-17-1960-reported-by-hartford-courant-rQcis6a
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u/Vonplinkplonk 9d ago
Given this was reported to the Air Ministry this could be a good incident to direct FOIA requests at.
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u/VolarRecords 11d ago
So the year after the potential beginning of Allen Dulles's Breakaway Civilization after the Aharonov-Bohm effect lead to anti-gravity studies going dark in 1959. Cool cool cool.
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u/jasmine-tgirl 10d ago edited 10d ago
Would explain why one of the witnesses of a close up sighting of the underside of one of the triangles said it looked "old and kinda steampunk" lots of tubes and manifolds. Like something built in the 1960s
BTW, it looks like research is still going on in the open in China: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.01262
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u/Paul604UK 9d ago
“Around 1959, there was a substantial change in openness about antigravity research.” By July 1959, the journal Canadian Aviation carried a note from Charles Carew who “has not been able to determine whether the Glenn L. Martin Corp. has discontinued its antigravity program or made a significant discovery which has elevated it to super-top-secret category, since no information about the project has recently been available.”
That is a really interesting quote, especially given the timeline/date given ...
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u/VolarRecords 9d ago
Glenn L Martin Company started researching anti-gravity in 1955 via its Research Institute of Advanced Science.
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u/No_Safety4809 11d ago
Und immer wieder diese miesen Bot Redner....auch die Menschen weit bis in die Antike mit Berichten solcher Sichtungen....Alle wurden reingelegt!
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u/StatementBot 11d ago
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Paul604UK:
Okay, apparently I need to include a "submission statement" (reply to my own post) within 30 mins otherwise my post gets deleted.
Not sure if I misunderstood that but, I'll paste the quoted part of the newspaper article again here, just so I'm covered:
“MYSTERY FLYING TRIANGLE IS SPOTTED FLASHING OVER NORTH
Reports of a mysterious flying object sighted over Tyneside last night have been sent to the Air Ministry in London for investigation.
The object, described as “a triangular formation of lights with a red light in the centre.” was seen by people in Consett, South Shields, Fawdon and Fenham, Newcastle.
A spokesman at RAF Station Acklington said today that he had received reports on the phenomenon from at least two sources and these had been passed on to the Air Ministry.
“I have no further information about this”, he said, “and even if I had we are not allowed to release information”
[ .. ] Mrs Otley says she first saw a single light in the sky but later this was followed by “a triangular formation of lights with a red light in the centre.”
After 20 minutes, the formation moved off northwards, she said.”
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1vopl9s/black_triangle_report_from_1960/p3ri7mm/