Secret behind ‘best ever’ UFO sighting revealed
A former defence intelligence officer has revealed the secret behind the “world’s best” UFO photo, claiming the massive, diamond-shaped vehicle captured in the image was a top secret US aircraft.
The incredible image, known as “The Calvine Photograph”, shows a huge angular shape hovering over the landscape with a Harrier fighter jet visible in the distance.
It was taken near its namesake, Calvine, a tiny town in central Scotland. The picture was for decades considered a modern myth until it was finally rediscovered and released to the public in August 2022.
The photo — which appeared exactly as had been described by those who had seen it — was found in the hands of a former RAF press officer by a team led by academic and journalist David Clarke.
But while the photo, often has hailed as the “best ever UFO photo”, was found, the mystery still remains. What exactly was the object in the picture, and who took it?
Now, Dr Clarke has told The Sunwhat his years-long investigation into the UFO has uncovered.
The legendary Calvine Photograph showing a UFO and a warplane has been revealed after 30 years
‘Strongest theory’ on secret behind Calvine photograph
Dr Clarke revealed to The Sun that his team has its strongest lead on the photograph to date. They believe the object may have been a piece of top secret and experimental US technology.
This is based on the testimony of a former UK Defence Intelligence officer who revealed, unprompted, that he was tasked with investigating the incident at Calvine.
The defence official, whose credentials were verified by Dr Clarke and his team, explained the UFO was believed to have been a “target designation companion” for F-117 Nighthawk stealth bombers.
The so-called “Calvine Vehicle” was understood to have been unmanned, very large and equipped with a high tech ground-mapping laser.
It was estimated to be between 100ft and 130ft long (30-40m) according to photo analysis by Sheffield Hallam University.
However, it’s not immediately clear the exact nature of the vehicle.
The official, who declined to be named, said it was a “one-in-a-million” chance that the craft was caught on camera — and even flew to Scotland and interviewed the two men who took the original photograph back in August 1990.
He added there was “a hell of a stink” in Washington over the snaps when they were passed up the chain of command and the Americans “went ballistic”.
The “Calvine Vehicle” is understood to have been deployed from the US facility at RAF Machrihanish.
It was spotted and photographed just two days after Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded Kuwait, sparking the first Gulf War.
RAF Machrihanish is a highly isolated base on the tip of Kintyre peninsula, has a 10,000ft long runway, and was an emergency landing site for the space shuttle.
In the 1960s, the base was titled Naval Aviation Weapons Facility Machrihanish, designed to store “classified weapons”. US forces moved out of the base in 1995.
Redacted documents appearing to remove two “Black Project” vehicles from the UK’s report into UFOs
Photos from the Black Project section were also removed
Calvine Photograph linked to numerous other UFO sightings
Numerous reports from the period have RAF Machrihanish at centre of various odd occurrences, such as high speed radar blips and “unusual ear-splitting jet noises” heard in the area.
Dr Clarke revealed it was this intelligence official’s testimony that reignited his interest in the case and triggered his investigation that led to the rediscovery of the photo.
“I was not expecting [the officer] to mention it and I had not intended to ask him about it,” Dr Clarke told The Sun.
“The photographs and sighting weren’t on my list of questions.
“I had arranged to speak to him about the time he spent investigating UFOs for British military intelligence and I simply asked ‘was there any particular incident or sighting that stuck in your mind as being inexplicable or out of the ordinary’ and he just said ‘yes’.”
Dr Clarke went on: “He said it was a one in a million chance. When he dropped this out I was stunned.
“It was obvious he was talking about the Calvine images.”
The officer also alleged the Calvine Vehicle was likely linked to the so-called Belgian UFO Wave from November 1989 to April 1990.
Many witnesses reported seeing a large triangular or diamond shaped object flying at low altitude. Two F-16 fighter aircraft were even dispatched to intercept one of the shapes.
Some claimed to have witnessed the shapes firing “lasers” at the ground, which would appear to match up with the account from the source of Calvine Vehicle being a target finding tool.
MoD documents show how they wanted to respond to the photo back in 1990
Declassified defence report provides yet more clues
Dr Clarke uncovered yet more compelling circumstantial evidence contained with a declassified version of Ministry of Defence’s 463-page, four volume UFO report “Condign”.
Within the report is a section talking about Western “black projects” — which includes the SR-71 stealth fighter, a Mach 3 recon plane that was originally top secret before being made public by the US.
Alongside this section are two heavily redacted sections and two redacted photos.
The MoD has declined to release the unredacted version of the report, stating it was “accidentally destroyed”.
The black projects are discussed in relation to UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) events — a term now commonly used in Washington amid the latest spate of UFO sightings in the US.
“I am confident those images are photographs of a still-top secret US reconnaissance aircraft, possibly the one photographed in Scotland,” Dr Clarke told The Sun.
Meanwhile, the investigators obtained a redacted document which makes mention of a D-notice — an official request to media outlets not to publish a story due to national security concerns.
It also makes reference to “the remaining ASTRA/AURORA” photos. The Aurora was a long rumoured hypersonic US spy plane which is also claimed to have been spotted around the UK in the 90s.
Declassified documents which appear to confirm the MoD cracking down on sightings of secret US tech
US patents filed several years after the Calvine incident have an interesting similarity to the object seen in Scotland
Matthew Illsley, another investigator working with Dr Clarke, told The Sun: “Of course, we don’t know if this was related to Calvine or to some other event.
“But it does lend credence to the idea that secret photos, D-notices and black project aircraft that no one publicly knows about or officially admits to do in fact exist.”
Further fuelling the idea the Calvine Vehicle may have been a piece of experimental US tech is a patent filed by aerospace engine Salvatore Cezar Pais.
Mr Pais, who currently works for the US Space Force, has filed a number of a patents while working for the US Department of the Navy for highly experimental and often almost sci-fi aircraft and propulsion systems.
One of his many granted patents shows a diamond shaped aircraft apparently propelled by microwaves.
His patents are not just works of fancy. The chief technology officer of the US Naval Aviation Enterprise James Sheey once wrote to the US Patent Office in support of Mr Pais’ work and insisting “China is already investing significantly in this area”.
Kevin Russell’s name appears on the back of the UFO photo. Dr Clark is trying to track him down.
History of the Calvine Photograph
The Calvine Photo was snapped near its namesake Calvine, a small town in central Scotland.
It is claimed two men stumbled across the jaw dropping scene while hiking or hunting, witnessing the large metallic object as fighter jets made passes in the distance before it shot off into the sky, never to be seen again.
Luckily, they seemed to capture the moment on camera, snapping six photographs of the diamond shaped craft with a fighter plane in the background.
The photos were then were given to the Scotland’s Daily Record newspaper who in turn passed them to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
For unknown reasons the story was never published and the photos vanished into the black hole of Whitehall, and so began the modern myth of the “Calvine Photograph”.
Five of the other photos taken that night remain lost, one of which reportedly shows the two men posing with the shape in the background.
It is understood the aircraft in the background at Harrier jump jets, which were used by both the US and UK.
Photo analysis undertaken by senior lecturer Andrew Robinson at Sheffield Hallam University indicated the photo was unaltered.
In an extensive 11-page study, he concluded that if the object is a fake, it would had to have had to be hoax staged in front of the camera.
“The image shows no evidence of negative or print based manipulation and all visible signs suggest this is a genuine photograph of the scene before the camera,” Mr Robinson wrote.
Dr David Clarke, right, tracked down former RAF press officer Craig Lindsay. Picture: UAP Media UK
Researchers call for final piece of the puzzle
Dr Clarke believes his team is very close to solving the mystery, but they need a few final clues.
“I think we are as close as it is possible for anyone to be,” he told The Sun.
“But as my source said, the authorities have been ‘very clever’ with this one and have gone to great lengths to ensure the truth is, annoyingly, still out there.
“They claim to have no records on the photographs other than the sparse papers released in 2009.
“This is patent nonsense as the photographs were, I am told by another intelligence source, classified secret and were the subject of a meeting held in Washington DC in 1992 attended by US and British intelligence.
“I am confident there is a substantial file on the case that contains both copy negatives and detailed analysis of the images.”
He went on: “Given the secrecy that surrounds the story it is no surprise that the photographer and his friend have ‘disappeared’.
“I feel sure they will be aware of the most recent publicity surrounding the photographs but, for whatever reason, continue to prefer to say nothing.
“If the photos are a ‘spoof’ or a hoax, as many have claimed, this seems a strange state of affairs.
“At the very least the photographer owns copyright on the images and deserves to be properly acknowledged as their creator.”
Dr Clarke said he was releasing the bombshell account as his team continues to search for the photographer who took the famous photo. They are urging anyone with information about the man named “Kevin Russell”, whose name appears handwritten on the back of the original print of the photo, to come forward.