SIZING UP A UFO
by Chris Lofft, Producer

Go behind-the-scenes with "UFOs Over Phoenix" producer Chris Lofft as his production team gets their first idea of how large the mysterious Phoenix aircraft might have been.
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   It's only the second day of filming and we've already made a wild leap to try and measure the size of a UFO. We're examining the fabled "Phoenix Lights"—a mass UFO sighting that occurred in March 1997. Although there were hundreds, if not thousands of witnesses to the stage occurrences that night, we still have little to go on.

But UFO witness Tim Ley is not your average witness. Not only did he report seeing a massive chevron-shaped craft fly over his head, but he saw it pass through a narrow notch in a mountain pass. Using this witness description we've embarked on a wild experiment.

Using the most precise terrain mapping laser available, we're measuring the entire valley in which this craft reportedly flew. If we can map the mountain pass accurately enough, then we can get an accurate measurement of a reported UFO. 

What we discovered is remarkable. The mountain pass is over 1,500 feet across—and Tim Ley said he saw the craft narrowly squeeze through the gap. If this is true, then it means Ley saw a craft with a wingspan of 1,500 feet fly over his head. 

Tomorrow we interview more witnesses, as we try to get to the bottom of the Phoenix Lights.

Read more: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/ufos-over-phoenix-4570/Overview#tab-blog#ixzz19Uf3NpIc 
Read more: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/ufos-over-phoenix-4570/Overview#tab-facts#ixzz19UeDBgbC 



It was one of the largest mass sightings in UFO history. In 1997, hundreds of people reported intensely bright balls of light forming a "V" shape in the sky over Nevada and Arizona. Some claimed to see an enormous, slow-moving aircraft. But what's behind the bizarre occurrence later nicknamed the "Phoenix Lights"? Was it an alien armada? A top-secret military exercise? See home video and hear from eyewitnesses who provide a vivid glimpse into what it was like on the ground that eerie night. Join a team of rocket scientists, physicists and engineers as they use the latest in advanced technology to attempt to explain the mysterious sightings.

UFOs: The Unknown 

What could explain so many reports of unexplained objects... on the same night... over a decade ago? Many eyewitnesses gave similar descriptions, though some varied. Was it some unidentified aircraft? A spaceship? Or is there a simpler explanation?

According to the National UFO Reporting Center, hundreds of eyewitnesses reported lights and unidentified aircraft moving south along a 300-mile corridor from Nevada to Tucson on the night of March 13, 1997. The most sightings occurred in the area in and around Phoenix, Arizona. 
The Darling Environmental and Surveying company is able to make a 360-degree, 3-D laser terrain scan of the area.  This is used to determine the huge UFO’s purported size so scientists can reverse engineer the monster craft and determine what it may have looked like.
Every year, hundreds of UFOs are reported around the world.
Spinning rotors give helicopters the lift necessary to hover in mid-air. And unlike airplanes, rotorcrafts don’t need speed to create lift. They can safely fly lower to the ground and slower than airplanes.
G-force is also studied when looking into the existence of UFOs. G-forces are units of force equal to gravity. Fighter pilots routinely experience high Gs during acceleration and turns, and the effects on the body are so intense that after about eight seconds at ten Gs, most people lose consciousness. 
Thrust is an aerodynamic force that propels a craft. It takes thrust to counter the Earth's gravity to get a vehicle airborne, and then to overcome drag once it's flying. A craft must have greater thrust than weight to take flight.
Engineers have been trying for decades to design an aircraft that both hovers and flies fast. Both the Harrier aircraft, which flies fast but doesn't hover well, and the V22 Osprey Tilt Rotor, which hovers more successfully but isn't as fast, are attempts to reach this goal. But both are compromises that can neither hover as well as a helicopter nor fly as fast as a plane.