Five legendary UFO sightings in America (and the real explanations of what ... trends now
UFOs — or UAPs, as they're now being called — have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years.
It began with the explosive New York Times story, followed by congressional hearings that showed videos of mysterious high-speed objects darting in front of US fighter planes.
But UFO sightings in America stretch back for decades — many involving the US Air Force and cutting-edge military hardware.
Nigel Watson, author of 'UFOs of the First World War', told DailyMail.com that many of the most famous UFO sightings actually involved secret and cutting-edge military hardware.
Here are five legendary UFO sightings along with an explanation of what was really happening (spoiler alert: and it wasn't little green men).
The Gorman Dogfight, 1948
Edward James Ruppelt investigated the Gorman case for Project Blue Book
In 1948, a World War II veteran pilot had a 27-minute encounter with a white orb above Fargo, North Dakota.
George F Gorman told a local newspaper: 'I've never seen anything like it. If anyone else had reported such a thing I would have thought they were crazy.'
The incident was recorded in Project Blue Book, a US government attempt to analyze and document early UFO sightings.
Captain Edward Ruppelt headed up the US Air Force's Project Blue Book UFO-hunting project, and actually proposed the use of the term UFO.
Gorman, 25, was a former fighter pilot and was flying a P-51 Mustang.
Gorman was flying a P-51 Mustang
While flying alone for night-flight practice, he saw what he at first thought to be the tail lights of another aircraft.
He said: 'It was about six to eight inches in diameter, clear white and completely without fuzz at the edges. It was blinking on and off. As I approached, however, the light suddenly became steady and pulled into a sharp left bank. I thought it was making a pass at the tower.'
Gorman tried crashing into it, he said, describing the object as a 'disk', but said it dodged him at speeds of over 600mph.
He said: 'Once, when the object was coming head on, I held my plane pointed right at it.
'The object came so close that I involuntarily ducked my head because I thought a crash was inevitable. But the object zoomed over my head.'
Two air traffic controllers and another pilot corroborated his story.
Gorman continued his service, never speaking publicly about his UFO experience.
Air Force investigators officially concluded that it was an encounter with a weather balloon.
Washington National Airport Sightings, 1942
Was this what was behind the airport sightings? (Getty)
In July 1942, radar at the Air Routing and Traffic Control Center (ARTC) in Washington picked up seven targets — moving faster than any aircraft of the period.
Air Traffic Controller Edward Nugent's radar scope indicated they were 15 miles south-southwest of Washington DC.
The Washington National Airport's control tower radar also displayed unidentified blips and the two controllers saw a bright light move at incredible speed.
Aircraft were
