- Adamski, George - George, who ran a café near the Mount Palomar Observatory, was the most famous of the contacteesof the early fifties. In his book Flying Saucers Have Landed, he claimed to have met aliens from Venus. This was before scientists learned that Venus has a surface temperature of around 900 degrees. He later claimed to have been taken on board a flying saucer for a tour of the solar system.
- AFOSI - The Air Force Office of Special Investigations. A sort of Air Force version of the FBI. It is said to have been involved in UFO investigations many times.
- Airships or The Great Airship - In 1896 & 1897, there was a wave of sightings across the United States of propeller-driven aircraft similar to dirigibles. The reports are regarded as a series of newspaper hoaxes and "Liar's Club" tales.
- Alien - A being from another planet. An extraterrestrial. There are many types mentioned, including grays - small humanoids with large heads and large eyes, reptoids - reptilian creatures, and nordics - blond, blue eyed humanoids. Oddly, the types of aliens reported vary from country to country. European reports favor dwarves, and South American reports often mention hairy dwarves, while Americans usually see grays or nordics, with occasional reptoids.
- Alien Abduction - Some people, including writer Whitley Strieber, have had experiences in which they were taken from their beds or cars by aliens who took them into their craft for medical tests and other things. Sometimes the people involved remember these experiences, but sometimes they only recall them after being hypnotized. There is much disagreement as to whether these experiences are real or whether they are some type of dreamlike phenomenon.
- The Allagash Abductions - Four men were abducted in 1976 while fishing on the Allagash waterway in Maine. Also a book by Raymond Fowler.
- Allende Carlos (AKA Carl Allen) - Merchant Marine sailor on the S. S. Andrew Furuseth who later wrote letters to Morris K. Jessup, author of The Case for the UFO. In those letters, he claimed to have been a witness to the Philadelphia Experiment.
- Alternative 3 - TV program and book about a group of the "elite" leaving earth for colonies on the Moon and Mars.
- Ancient Astronauts - Some people, such as Erich von Daniken, claim that archaeological evidence proves that Earth was visited by aliens in the past. Some also claim to find evidence of such visitation in the religions and mythology of various cultures. Zecharia Sitchin is one of these. Mainstream archaeologists generally find these ideas to be amusing cocktail party chatter.
- Angel Hair - long, thin wispy fibers that have been seen to fall from the sky after some UFO sightings. It has been very difficult to collect samples for analysis because angel hair disintegrates quickly. One theory about angel hair is that is actually the web of certain types of spiders that travel about on the wind, using webbing like a parachute or hang glider. (No Joke!)
- Annunaki - Ancient astronauts posited by Zecheriah Sitchin based on his interpretation of ancient Sumerian texts.
- APRO - Aerial Phenomena Research Organization - A UFO group founded in 1952 by Coral and Jim Lorenzen. For most of its existence, it was based in Tucson, Arizona. Jim passed away in1986, and Coral in 1988 and APRO passed with them.
- <b>Area 51 - "Area 51" is a super-secret Air Force Base located on the Nevada Test Range. It has several other names, including Groom Lake. The name "Area 51" came from the fact that the site was labeled as "Area 51" on old Atomic Energy Commission maps. The name "Groom Lake" comes from the fact that the base's runway, the longest runway in the world, is located in a dry lake bed named Groom Lake. This secret base is used for testing top-secret black budget aircraft. It has been rumored that there are captured alien craft being tested there also.
- Ariel School - Site of an encounter in Ruwa, Zimbabe on September 16, 1994.
- Arnold, Kenneth - While flying over the Cascade Mountains in Washington State on June 24, 1947, businessman/pilot Kenneth Arnold observed nine heel-shaped craft that he described as moving like a "saucer skipping over water". Thus was born the term flying saucer.
- Astronaut UFO Sightings - Since the advent of the U.S. space program, there have been rumors that our astronauts have seen UFOs while in space.
- The Aviary - Collective name for a loosely-knit group of "contacts" in the government and military who were involved with UFOs and who were given bird code names by William L. Moore.
- Aztec, New Mexico - site of a supposed UFO crash in 1948.
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