HISTORICAL

Heflin UFO photographs — Orange County highway inspector Rex Heflin took three Polaroid photographs of a hat-shaped disc over Myford Road in Santa Ana, California. The originals were confiscated and only returned in 1993.

On August 3, 1965, Rex Heflin, a road maintenance supervisor for Orange County, California, took three Polaroid photographs of a saucer-shaped object passing over a road near the Santa Ana freeway and a fourth photograph of an apparent smoke ring left in its wake. The Heflin photographs became among the most extensively analysed UFO images of the 20th century. 【Background】 Heflin, 38, was sitting in his county truck filling out paperwork along Myford Road in Santa Ana when, by his account, his two-way radio went dead. Looking up to check the antenna, he saw a hat-shaped object passing slowly through the air a short distance from his vehicle. 【The Encounter】 Heflin kept a Polaroid camera on the dashboard for documenting roadwork. He took three photographs in rapid succession, then leaned out of the truck window and took a fourth as a dark smoke ring or vapour ring remained suspended where the object had been. The exposures showed an aerodynamically improbable saucer shape with a clear central dome. 【Investigation】 The original Polaroids were sent for analysis to NICAP (the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) and later subjected to several professional photoanalyses, including by the University of Colorado UFO Project. Some analysts (notably Robert Nathan of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory) judged the images consistent with a small object at a substantial distance; others (including Philip Klass) argued the object was a small model suspended by a string from the truck cab. In 1969 Heflin claimed that men identifying themselves as NORAD officers had confiscated the original prints; copies survived and are still in circulation. 【Modern Assessment】 The Heflin case remains one of the most contested classic UFO photographs because of the unusual ring-of-vapour fourth image, the difficulty of replicating the exposures with a model, and the contested chain of custody. Heflin maintained his account until his death in 2004. The photographs are routinely reproduced in popular UFO histories and continue to attract independent analysis from imaging specialists. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Heflin

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Source: Wikipedia