Dr David Clarke

The death of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, aged 99 on 9 April 2021 resulted in a flurry of tributes and obituaries. But so far none of the extensive media coverage has mentioned the Duke’s lifelong interest in UFOs – or “flying saucers“.

September 2022 marks the 70th anniversary of an unexplained sighting that confounded the Royal Air Force and led the British government to ‘take the UFO seriously’ for the first time.

Within the MOD UFO files civil servants, intelligence officers and military staff debate how the British Government should respond to growing public interest in the phenomena and what they called ‘the media’s obsession with UFOs’.

In his UK Restricted minute ‘Wrap Up of UAP Material’ dated 22 March 2000 the report’s author – a retired RAF scientist – refers to a collection of slides and photographs that he consulted in the MoD’s archive. These contained images of the ‘ASTRA/AURORA‘ project – a top secret, hypersonic Cold War spyplane.