THE AVIANO UFO

This footage has been around for sometime. It was released in the U.S. by researcher Paola Harris at the 36th Annual International MUFON Symposium in Denver, Colorado 2005. Paola lives in Italy and was given a fourth generation copy by an anonimous source who told her the video was recorded in Aviano, Italy near from the infamous Aviano Air Base, center of a UFO controversy.

According to Paola Harris the original videographer remains unknown and the object seems to be terrestial in origin, more properly some kind of military prototype remote controlled. The feature in wich the disc dissapears at the end raises questions for the italian researchers and Paola thinks the military may be involved.

Paola Harris mentioned that this was clearely a flight test since the videographer was in position focusing the camera where the disc appears initially. The object is not CGI. The footage was analyzed in Boulder, Colorado and they concluded this was a physical object most probably a remote control prototype. The case still remains inconclusive.

Santiago Yturria

SOURCE: Rense.com
 
 

From Paola Harris:

To All

No! This old Film Footage I have been showing for 3 years and It was given to Us Italian Researchers... not By the Air force. It is our Technology.

I had a cassette examined in Hollywood by my friends Rob and Rebecca Gordon who had the connections and money to do it. It was a 7th generation - copied 7 times - cassette. It was given to us with no explanation. It is a real object in the film. It has been shown in my MUFON and Laughlin Presentations and someone put it on U-TUBE and Google!

This all takes place in the Veneto region of Italy at a place called Ponte di Giulio. Near Aviano NATO Base. It is a dry river bed where the military does maneuvers and the photographer was on a tripod waiting for the object to come out of the woods. I doubt aliens appeared there!

Paola Harris

SOURCE: Forgetomori

Important statement by researcher Paola Harris regarding the controversy around the alleged UFO footage from Italy.

Amazing UFO Video Shot By Italian Air Force

I met Paola Harris at the IUFOC in Laughlin, Nevada on March 2007. I asked again if she had new information about this controversial footage but she said there are still may unsolved issues regarding this video like the anonimous source that sent copies to several italian researchers. The location is already recognized as Paola
mentioned in her statement.

Last year I also met Paola at the IUFOC in Laughlin when she gave me a copy of the video and told me the same story that she released at the MUFON Symposium in 2005 so the footage by now is somehow old but for some reason arised recently in YouTube and Google awakening the big controversy.A few italian researchers got also a fourth generation copy from the same anonimous source but it seems that they decided not to go along with the story. 

Paola was the one who originally released the footage in the US. There are still many questions unanswered even for Paola Harris. I recevied her statement today by email and she requested to be distributed to clearify her involvement.

I would like to have more answers to those questions. It's my point of view that this case will remain inconclusive due to the absence of more information. 

The film has been firstly sent by an Anonymous to Antonio Chiumiento, who is an ufologist.
In the box containing the film, there was written " I fear".
One year after, it has been sent to other researchers.
The (relatively) better quality of the video on youtube is this one, titled "UFO over a river in Italy":
 

This is the video of the first time it has been disclosed on TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XPRFfMCWqk

It should have been filmed here:
 

A closeup of the sighting area...
 

...some guys went to the area of the sighting [some] time after the sighting took place, and took some pics:
 
 

... and the distance between Aviano AFB and the sighting location:
 

On Google Earth, THIS Ponte di Giulio does not appear in the results of the searches.

The column visible in the film is the one of a hydroelectric grid.
The case, IMHO, is still open, since neiher Paola Harris nor someone else provided proofs of their statements. I honestly don't know the truth about this video: but is true that near Aviano AFB many UFO sightings have been reported.

The Following posts were made at ATS and reprinted with permission of  StargateSG7, a member of ATS

Originally posted by StargateSG7
posted on 30-4-2008 @ 03:52 PM THIS POST ID 4289336

As the elusive StargateSG7 who has previously commented on YouTube about this particular UFO, I understand based upon personal experience in Aviation circles that this craft is a medium scale UAV (Autonomous Aerial 
Vehicle) craft that uses mostly COTS (Common Off The Shelf) parts consisting of an aluminum airframe containing a large and very powerful Rotax (i.e. Bombardier) motor that is attached to two counter-rotating
ducted fans (within the craft's centre-of-hull) that also has multiple  thruster ports (as per the blowup photo by Ortonos) to directionally  stabilize the craft on any axis.

The fins on the top of the craft are NOT necessarily used for directional  stability but rather used for directing airflow over the sides of the upper hull so as to create faster moving air thus creating a slight vacuum that
provides EXTRA LIFT - Think of it as a "Virtual Airfoil" design.

As a video production expert and also being very mechanically inclined, I think I can explain the sudden acceleration at the end of the video as a video editing effect used probably for simple artistic reasons or  for "Future Potential" marketing purposes.

As per revelation on the makers of this craft, I did see a table-model of something eerily similar at a sales expo at a certain American Mil-Tech company (R**T***N) who's sales officer commented that Bombardier Aerospace (Canada) had teamed up with an Italian Motorcycle/Airframe Manufacturer, a French military aircraft  maker and a German electronics corp.

Through some diligent digging, I believe that the Italian airframe maker is Motobecane, the German electronics maker is Robert Bosch  (who make avionics) and the French D'assault who makes jet fighters and Specialty CAD/CAM/FAE software (re: Airflow Simulation and Finite Element Analysis products)

The Hystar connection came about when Bombardier was mentioned in 1986 to 1988 being interested in making UFO shaped Lighter-Than-Air ships to use on Forestry/Mining/Logging and heavy cargo lift operations in Canada and around the world and thus they connected to  Hystar Aerospace Marketing Corporation of Maine (Hystar-Maine) formed in 1986 and then merged into Nova Star Innovations of Nevada and eventually shut down.

The Hystar design is the "Ancestor Design" of the Italian UAV craft but it   was too unstable and it's Lighter than Air leanings made it too unwieldy to  ever make it a commercial success BUT by adding vectored thrust and  POWERFUL navigation and Fly-By-Wire systems, the future Italian UAV  design is more than able to work as a Photo/Video Reconaissance craft,  Flying Sentry, Small Scale Cargo Lifter and as a Weapons Delivery Platform.

I also understand that it currently uses JP series aviation fuel but that Diesel versions are in the works to increase the current  25 to 50km range to 200+ km by pressurizing the diesel fuel tanks and using advanced fuel management (i.e. by R. Bosch GMBH) to vastly increase range.

Based upon the design and the probable size of about 4 metres in diameter by 1.75 metres high I suspect it weighs about 250 to 300 kilos dry weight and based upon some further inquiry, I suspect a larger and lighter version made of Carbon Fibre is being developed which will increase the flight performance envelope and carrying  capacities.  I would also NOT be surprised that the Rotax engine itself will be eventually made of a heat-resistant ceramic/composite construction.

Based upon personal experience in real-time machine control software design, that it's a real B**** to develop and test low-latency software that can ACCURATELY control ducted fan airflow, thrust vectoring nozzles, fuel management and still monitor & react to surrounding flight conditions in an autonomous manner.

My own system that I am developing for Photo/Video recon is pretty easy to build of Carbon Fibre and the Engine is a modified Sea-Doo/Ski-Doo Rotax but designing and coding the SOFTWARE for Remote Control (RC) has been an UTTER NIGHTMARE!

In continuation of my earlier comment, one reason that this craft is only recently being seen is that UAV software is sooooo difficult to create and that so many variables go into flight envelope shaping that trying to design & test such control software requires a very diligent team of testers and coders to create effectively.

Using "Field Effects" (i.e. Antigravity) is a waste of time for this vehicle since there is nothing really THAT NEW about its design. The Avro Aerocar was similar in shape when it was created in the 1950's/60's but of course in those days they didn't have Fly-By-Wire controls and Active Flight Control software with Machine Vision and 
Terrain Following capabilities!

And based upon my own medium-scale RC design and manufacturing  experience, this craft is NOT that hard to build from aluminum and COTS parts.  Again is the flight control software that will make or break a consumer, commercial or military version of this craft.

Based upon some intelligent guesswork, I'd say the craft took about 10 to 15 million US Dollars in Startup and Initial Development  costs and about $2 to 3 million for a first prototype.

Final Production Run Costs would be in the $700,000 to $800,000 range and probably sold for $1.5 to 2 Million a pop to interested militaries plus maintainance contracts at $400 to $500 per hour (2 mechanics)

For a diligent backyard mechanic, I can base home-build costs on  my own personal experience at about $50,000 to $60,000 for the  airframe and engine plus some FREE LINUX-BASED OPEN SOURCE  flight control software that won't crash your home built UAV too often...which means I have an expensive hobby !!! ;-)

I suggest you start small and DEFINITELY get a small-scale CNC machine and Autocad Inventor software so you can at  least machine your own parts!

You don't need to build something like the 4 metre version I did but rather a small RC-type unit about 50 cm across and then  scale each newer version up by 50 cm until you get your designs right and extensive low-level flight testing in hand.

My version has a range of only a few thousand metres but then again, using a cheap gas-powered Ski-Doo Rotax engine doesn't make for a very powerful or high-flying UAV. Mine's still running in Ground-Effects mode until I straighten out my flight control software which has been a complete nightmare of convoluted design, illogically bundled open source and custom code plus limited testing...I am now doing a complete re-write of the flight control code using Borland Delphi for ease-of-maintainance and also putting my craft through a cycle of Linux-based finite element analysis and airfoil testing & simulation software so I think I might get it all fixed in about a year to 18 months or so... then I can finally do my own backwoods Photo/Video recon,  just-for-fun type stuff near my home town of Vancouver, Canada

I just wanted to clear two things up....

The original Hystar was NEVER BOUGHT by Bombardier, it just that they took a look at it during Expo 86 (I was there!) thinking they MIGHT want to try their hand at UAV's (and they HAVE - See Peanut Prop-based UAV). 

And when the Hystar-Maine company was started, the Hystar company tried to market a proposed Lighter-Than-Air heavy lifter for logging and remote cargo transportation.  Being so light, it was far too susceptible to cross-winds and in 1986 there was no reliable long-range Remote Control capabilities so this project simply ran out of money and was shut down due to lack of interest.

Secondly, In my earlier posts and on my YouTube postings, I said the companies that are involved in this are Bombardier, Motobecane, D'assault and Bosch... I Should Have Said that "I UNDERSTAND FROM EXTERNAL SOURCES AND IT IS MY BELIEF" that these are the actual companies involved!

My earlier statements should not have been relied upon as an ABSOLUTE FACT but rather an informed and logical estimate of the situation based upon Aviation industry sources and intelligent fact checking. I must therefore apologize if anyone took my statement as ABSOLUTE FACT when they are actually reasonable 
and educated guestimates.

...like I said earlier, I saw something eerily similar as a model on a tabletop at Raytheon and a sales guy said it was from a large Canadian Aerospace manufacturer (i.e. Bombardier/Canadair) who just happens to also make the Peanut-shaped double-counter-rotating propellor-driven UAV plus an Italian Motorcycle manufacturer 
(which could ONLY be Motobecane in my judgement rather than Ducati)

So I hope this clears up my answers on the Italian UAV/UFO sighting!

And in case anyone is wondering WHAT I AM DOING building a UAV, I've had this in mind for many years (Since 1998) and it was the  Avro Aerocar that piqued my interest in making a new kind of UAV for Television Broadcast applications and Fast Digital Street Mappinguses... Like all projects of mine... it's taken 5 time longer than I thought and 5 times more expensive!

What I thought was going to be a two year project has taken almost 10 years and cost $60,000+ CANADIAN and this year my final tally will be in the $90,000+ range after I add my custom-built 16-processor IBM CELL Processor Motherboard plus 6 Hi-Def cameras pointing in all 6 directions so I can do multi-axis, 60 frames 
per second 1920 by 1080 pixel progressive scan, vision recognitionand autonomous terrain following in addition to GPS navigation.

I know that sounds like overkill, but I've been doing high-end video programming and codec design for almost 15 years now and this is the horsepower it takes. After fiddling with too many open source flight control projects, I got ticked off enough that I finally decided to write one from scratch using 16 milliseconds (and less) interrupt driven, real-time code of my own design and so far it ACTUALLY WORKS !!!!!!!

I have also used some custom-designed FAE software and airfoil design to refine my ducted fan port designs and turbofan blade design. Originally built of 8000 series aluminum, I crashed my first model and am now building the airframe out of Carbon Composite Fibre.

And now that I have my own CNC machine (i.e. not using the Electron-Beam Rapid Prototypers at work!), I can build a Rotax engine and turbofan system out of Alumina-based Ceramic which is heat resistant to 1750+ Degrees Celcius - That'll up my max engine thrust to something like 2500 LBS+ of Thrust which not bad for a home builder! 

That means those 2000 MM gyroscopically-stabilized lenses I've been building for the six Hi-Def cameras
can NOW be put on board my craft and still make it airborneeven with maximum fuel load (JP1)

I've not finished the terrain following part of my software but the vision recognition, fuel management and thrust vectoring software works great! Soon It'll Be No More Silly Ground Effects flying!

Yes! You can quote me... I've got even MORE JUICY TIDBITS on some exotic engine designs for UAV's like this Italian one using highly pressurized LPG and even Specially Compressed Diesel for fuel to increase fuel efficiency and extend range to Hundreds of Kilometres!!!!!

I've haven't gone that route YET, but after I complete my software and IF everything works on MY UAV, I'll give the Compressed Diesel design a shot since My CNC machine can machine Ceramic, Glass, High Carbon
Steels, Titanium and more exotic Ceramic Composites to ANY shape I want since I'm pretty expert at using SoftImage XSI and Autodesk Inventor at doing design & modelling and then computer aided machining.

I hope my words have been illuminating....

I will post a link to a high-definition video of my UAV on my website once I have completed the main Carbon Fibre Airframe.

I crashed my aluminum version which was flying in ground-effects mode (i.e. on a cushion of air much like a hovercraft but without the rubber skirt) but even using an El Cheapo Ski-doo Rotax engine it's range was still 
over 3000 meters and it flew AUTONOMOUSLY without ANY HUMAN control whatsoever as I had programmed GPS flight paths that were VERY CONVOLUTED to test if my flight control software works.  IT DOES !!!!!!!!

I have already tested a small-scale RC helicopter with a beta version of my Vision recognition software and it can follow streams, coastlines, roadways, and can recognize doorways, windows, common vehicles and people and either AVOID THEM or FLY RIGHT TO THE OBJECTS and TRACK THEM FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME!

I will release ALL my source code and UAV plans to the Public Domain when I am done so that others can build fully autonomous UAV's that have GPS and Vision Recognition Flight Control Modes, have multiple gyroscopically stabilized cameras, robotic arms and even cargo payload capabilities in addition to long ranges
in the 200+ KM... I'll even thrown in my custom motherboard schematics using cheap IBM cell processors that are found in the Sony Playstation 3 or you can use common DSP chips with my code.

This may take a year or two, but I have lots of technical ability, so getting it DONE is NOT a problem...My only issue is that there are only a couple of hours a day I can devote to this because I also have a normal life to lead, otherwise I could have everything done in 6 months if I devoted myself full time!

My current model is 4 meters in diameter and can carry 500 kilos or 1200 pounds as payload BUT is is NOT CURRENTLY designed to be MANNED by human beings !!!!

My next version will be 10 metres across and will have a MUCH, MUCH MORE POWERFUL CERAMIC ENGINE outputting 10,000 pounds of thrust which I will use to do HDTV Video AND Hi-Rez Still Photo Recon
at heights in excess of 80,000 Feet....

My preliminary engine design for my 10 metre version allows such heights based upon my current FAE and airflow dynamics testing and simulation. With some tweaking, I should be able to break 100,000+ feet with flight times in excess of 12 hours based upon my own custom-built fuel management software and real-world testing using highly compressed, high-performance fuels and no other payloads other than cameras. 

It's payload will be 2000 kilos or almost 4500 pounds and with my custom-built 2000MM lenses it'll be like having my own personal photo recon satellite and if I can get past 100,000 feet I can legally go into ANYONE's AIRSPACE at my whim!

Then there will NO LIMITS AS TO WHAT AND WHERE I WILL BE PHOTOGRAPHING upon which I will then release ALL those photos/videos of our favorite secret places to the Internet as public domain.....

Watch Out Russia, China, Canada, USA, Japan, Oz, India, Iran, Europe, etc. There's a NEW GUY IN TOWN and HE'S GOT GOOD RECON GAME !!!!! Plus my aircraft and engine design skills are ABSOLUTELY FIRST RATE !!!!!!!!!!!