Mankind has been fascinated by the UFO phenomenon since the beginning of time. The first UFO sightings can be traced back to ancient times. From Egyptian hieroglyphics in the Temple of Seti I, which depict a disk-shaped aircraft, to a 15th-century painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio of The Madonna with Saint Giovannino, which includes an oval-shaped aircraft in the background. Given that airplanes were in the distant future, UFO researchers have argued that these artists were portraying what they were seeing in the sky.

Although thousands of UFO reports are made every year, the majority of these sightings tend to be misidentifications of conventional or military aircraft, natural phenomena, or simply celestial bodies. With that being said, as explored in Evidence of Extraterrestrials, there are cases in which the only hypothesis that suffices is the extraterrestrial hypothesis. What follows are five characteristics that, when present in a UFO sighting, indicate that the aircraft is presumably extraterrestrial in origin.

Characteristic #1: Anti-Gravity Propulsion System
Each and every terrestrial aircraft requires a propulsion system, such as an engine, as well as flight surfaces, such as wings, to operate and travel efficiently through the sky. Conversely, the majority of descriptions provided by individuals who have witnessed UFOs describe the aircraft as having an unconventional shape and characteristics. The UFO is often described as having a disk or cigar shape, lacking wings and a visible propulsion system. This leaves us to wonder how the aircraft is able to overcome Earth's gravity and carry out high-end maneuvers.

With an anti-gravity propulsion system, the aircraft would produce its own gravitational field, allowing it to bend space-time. This propulsion system would also explain the aircraft's ability to travel at insurmountable speeds and disappearing spontaneously. By manipulating gravity, this would also explain how extraterrestrials could travel from distant galaxies. By creating its own gravitational field, sci-fi ideas such as "force fields" are also within the realm of possibility. If we consider "The Battle of Los Angeles," the reported UFOs withstood the anti-aircraft shells that were being fired by the military for over an hour. Not only were the aircrafts impervious, but they remained in the sky, hovering silently until they disappeared.

This means of propulsion is still unachievable and incomprehensible for humans. However, if the military somehow acquires this technology and manage to reverse engineer it, would it be used to explore the possibility of interstellar travel, or would it be used in warfare?

Characteristic #2: Instantaneous Acceleration
During the "Tic-Tac UFO" encounter, Lieutenant Commander Jim Slaight described how the UFO was effortlessly outpacing their F/A-18F Super Hornets. The tic-tac UFO was reportedly travelling at 3,600 miles per hour, at Mach 3, meaning that it was exceeding the speed of sound by three times! Slaight added that the aircraft "had about 1350 Gs," which would have practically turned any human being into paste.

A UFO's ability to make an insurmountable acceleration and disappear out of sight is an ongoing theme in UFO sightings. Witnesses explain how the aircraft would be hovering silently in the sky and would then make a sudden acceleration and disappear out of sight in the blink of an eye. Moreover, in the cases explored in Evidence of Extraterrestrials, military pilots often explained how the UFO would simply initiate a vertical climb or make sudden turns without halting or deceleration. This ability leads me to wonder how the aircraft itself could perform such maneuvers and secondly, how these beings could withstand such stressors.

Characteristic #3: Hypersonic Velocity
Each time an aircraft exceeds the speed of sound and the sound barrier is broken, a sonic boom is produced. In numerous cases, the reported UFOs exceed the speed of sound significantly and yet, no signatures are produced. Given that sound travels through a medium, this leaves us to presume that these aircraft travel through a vacuum, in non-matter. Given that there is no air mass in a vacuum, propulsion systems and aerodynamic surfaces cannot generate lift. This further supports the idea that these aircrafts utilize an anti-gravity propulsion system.

Characteristic #4: Low Observability
Perhaps the most frustrating characteristic of UFO sightings is the lack of visibility these aircrafts have. The majority of witnesses describe UFOs as simply being bright lights in the sky carrying out erratic maneuvers, or bright glows. The "cloaking" effect of these aircrafts is an ongoing theme in UFO reports. Even if we consider photographs that capture UFOs, the majority show a bright ball of light. In the Mariana UFO footage, one can easily make out two bright lights traveling at an incredible speed; however, not much more detail can be discerned.

Characteristic #5: Trans-Medium Traveling
The fifth and final characteristic is trans-medium traveling: an aircraft's ability to perform at its highest capacity across different mediums. If we first consider terrestrial vehicles, each and every vehicle is bound by the medium in which it travels. For instance, a submarine cannot travel through the sky in the same way a fighter jet cannot travel through the ocean. On the other hand, during the "Tic Tac Encounter," the fighter pilots were left bewildered as the tic-tac shaped UFO managed to outpace the Super Hornet and the Navy's fastest submarine in the same encounter.

Throughout the encounter, Commander Fravor and Commander Slaight were astonished as the aircraft dropped from 28,000 feet to sea level in an instant. Such a maneuver is virtually impossible for any terrestrial aircraft to perform. As the object then reached sea level, the sonar team on board the USS Louisville, which was patrolling just below the surface, reported that an unidentified target had plunged into the ocean and was exceeding 70 knots! This means that the target was traveling twice as fast as the Navy's fastest submarine. In just one encounter, the tic-tac shaped aircraft overpowered the Navy's Super Hornet as well as the Navy's fastest submarine.

These five characteristics defy all the laws of physics and aerodynamics by which terrestrial aircrafts are bound. The laws of physics make these characteristics and abilities seem unattainable and incomprehensible, and yet there are numerous cases in which military pilots have pursued these interplanetary objects, witnessing the phenomenon and these observables first-hand. These characteristics not only make us aware of how limited our knowledge on the phenomenon is, but they also expose the limitations by which terrestrial aircrafts are bound.

When an unidentified disk-shaped object outmaneuvers the Navy's fastest vehicles, it leaves us to deduce that the dominant species are not human beings as we are led to believe. Cases such as the "Tic Tac Encounter" exhibit not only the technological advancement of these beings, but also the foolishness of human beings. Instead of trying to understand extraterrestrials and how their technologically advanced aircrafts operate, billions of dollars are spent each and every year on military arsenal, with the sole aim of each nation thriving to be the most powerful one.

The UFO phenomenon is not simply about bright lights in the sky; it is about superior beings who defy all the laws by which terrestrial aircrafts are bound, making our knowledge about propulsion systems, aerodynamics, and physics meaningless. When I personally interviewed the late Stanton Friedman, I asked him why no nation has acknowledged or disclosed any information about extraterrestrial life. His answer was that, "Nationalism is the only game in town." This answer took me aback and made me wonder if this could truly be the reason we have not reached full disclosure. Perhaps, if the government affirmed that we have little to no knowledge about these beings and their aircrafts, but we can surmise that they are more advanced than us, the government would be acknowledging that it does not have as much power as we are led to believe.