Spies used to make do with bell towers, church steeples, and mountain tops to surveil enemy territory but ‘benign’ UFOs have taken their place. This week, SPYSCAPE traces the history of aerial spying, an incredible journey of human ingenuity buzzing with U-2 jets, spy pigeons, and starry satellites.
Satellite spies
Pretty soon, there will be nowhere to hide. There are 7,000 satellites in Space examining every inch of the globe. They orbit the Earth taking digital snapshots for the CIA, the military, and private companies. They zoom over us tracking every movement. They may not be able to read your license plate - yet - but they can see your car. So what are they doing? Here are five of their spooky tasks.
The history of aerial espionage fires the imagination from the CIA’s ‘insectothopter’ to China’s Soaring Dragon drones and the SR-72 Son-of-Blackbird spy plane. Our whirlwind tour of top fliers from the past two centuries includes Spanish War-era kite spies, U-2 jets, and high-quality quadcopters. Fasten your seatbelts as we reach for the sky.
Colonel Buz Carpenter puts True Spies fans in the cockpit of his SR-71 Blackbird spy jet. It is 1979 and Saudi Arabia and Yemen are on the brink of war. To negotiate peace, the US needs Buz to capture detailed photos and ELINT of the military build-up. To get home safely, Buz must refuel his gas-guzzling Blackbird five times at 85,000 feet while flying Mach 3. There’s nowhere safe to land and no Plan B to hide.
Homing pigeons were adopted by the US Army in 1917 to relay orders to tanks and transport coded messages. They are such valued members of the team, pigeons are even awarded medals - including America’s G.I. Joe, who saved the lives of at least 100 Allied soldiers in Italy. The Tacana Project explored the idea of equipping pigeons with tiny cameras to photograph the USSR - a plan that ruffled a few feathers.
A balloon the size of a 20-story building doesn’t just drop out of the sky so when China’s ‘airship’ drifted over Alaska, Norad was ready to scramble the jets and North America’s spies swung into action. As CF-18 Hornets powered overhead, Norad pilots knew there was at least one UFO with a payload the size of a passenger jet and talk of a second. Norad was spooked and the spy games had only just begun.
The mysterious spike in North American UFOs spotted in early 2023 has puzzled experts. Are the unidentified objects alien or something more devious? The strange sightings have led to speculation about extraterrestrial objects and life on other planets. Here are 10 bizarre sightings that still give witnesses the shivers.
