'Project Blue Book' Season 2 Episode 8: True story of Hangar 18 and the UFO legends surrounding it till date
On tonight's episode of 'Project Blue Book,' we see Dr J Allen Hynek and Captain Michael Quinn being approached by a person who 'officially does not exist' but he offers some valuable information about an Air Force base-run UFO warehouse where he claims the government is re-engineering UFOs secretly.
The warehouse is called Hangar 18 and finally, at the end of the episode, when Hynek and Quinn are able to locate the venue, they come across an empty, evidently cleared out warehouse-type enclosure — thus spurring their suspicions on the government's complicity in covering up or hiding these facts. In real life, however, speculations surrounding the existence and legitimacy of Hangar 18 are still rife as rumors allude the Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) outside Dayton, Ohio, holds all physical evidence related to aliens and UFOs.
Located in the hotbed of these sightings, Wright-Patt, as it’s known for short, is rumored to be home to the government's covered evidence related to alien life. According to History's official website, this warehouse or particular room is dubbed as the 'Blue Room' and is said to harbor "flying saucer debris, extraterrestrial remains and even captured aliens" inside its sealed and highly guarded premises.
The legend is said to have started back in the day when an alleged UFO crashed in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, as we have seen on the History show too. The Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issues a statement at the time, with their personnel inspecting the “flying disc” and sending it on to “higher headquarters". The said headquarters were in Fort Worth, Texas, at the time, but UFO conspiracists believe that some of the materials from Roswell were also sent to Wright Field and thereafter securely stored in Hangar 18.
These claims are based on unsubstantiated reports from former military pilots. The History website says, "Oliver Henderson reportedly told his wife that he flew a plane loaded with debris, along with several small alien bodies, from Roswell to Wright Field. According to the children of another pilot, WWII ace Marion 'Black Mac' Magruder, their father claimed to have seen a living alien at Wright Field in 1947 and told them 'it was a shameful thing that the military destroyed this creature by conducting tests on it'."
On the show, we see Senator Kennedy show an unlikely and keen interest in Blue Book's works even in the aftermath of the Robertson Panel that almost ended up culling the investigation. In real life, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the Republican nominee for president in 1964, was obsessed with Hangar 18, and History reveals that he tried obtaining information on the mysterious "Blue Room in the early '60s, but had been denied access by a furious General Curtis LeMay".
The titular investigation from the show finally wrapped in 1969 in real life. Still, in 1974, a Florida UFOlogist called Robert Spencer Carr publicly claimed “two flying saucers of unknown origin” being hidden by the government inside Wright-Patterson’s Hangar 18, reported the Tampa Tribune at the time. "Carr claimed to have a high-ranking military source, who saw the bodies of 12 alien beings while autopsies were being performed on them," the website shares, adding that even though dubious, Carr's claims garnered widespread media coverage and even a 1980 movie based on it called 'Hangar 18'.
While the Wright-Platt airbase continues to be a hotbed of UFO speculations, the Air Force has consistently denied the rumors of the existence of Hangar 18. "Periodically, it is erroneously stated that the remains of extraterrestrial visitors are or have been stored at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base," the Air Force said in an official statement issued in January 1985. "There are not now, nor have there ever been, any extraterrestrial visitors or equipment on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base." The Air Force did admit there's something called a Building 18 in its premises, but that's it.
'Project Blue Book' airs on Tuesdays at 10 pm only on History.
