When I hear stuff like; "We don't even understand how you could do something like that," Mellon said in a recent interview with CTV News of the inexplicable maneuvers and features these aircraft supposedly demonstrate." I know I am listening to either a misinformation propagandist, somebody who sooo wants to believe in space aliens that their assumptions blind them to common sense, or they are merely a technically clueless human observer. Any drone hobbyist can achieve 80% or more of these inexplicable maneuvers with a plastic toy costing under $1,200. They take amazing pictures and movies too. A few would require more expensive commercial or military surveillance drones.

Caitlin has previously talked about the misinformation folks, so I will skip that highly likely explanation for the recent UFO sightings hype. Let’s progress to the UFO believers. Although drones have been around for decades, most people have no idea of the capabilities despite relatively tiny size (you can land many in the palm of one hand). Because the UFO-believer assumes that they are observing not a small drone but a huge, manned flying saucer, they see the quick course changes as defying physics and the apparent altitude, speed, and course changes as physically impossible for a human to withstand. It must be alien technology.

My spouse can not only turn our drone 90 degrees from course in an eyeblink, it can do so descending 500ft in just a few seconds. Toy drones are made mostly of plastic to reduce weight. A computer and four vertical propellers enable truly amazing stability even on windy days over the beach which enables 4K stills and videos from above. They are great for watching wildlife like alligators, sharks, and other critters that would be difficult to film up close in nature. The light weight and plastic makes toy drones almost invisible on radar, and their small size makes them hard to photograph from a moving aircraft.

Of course, there are two other types of drones. Most common are military and commercial surveillance drones. These drones are often used to spy, do geological surveys and, and create computer maps. One to three meters in length, some are jet propelled for high-altitude monitoring etc. Thus, they can also go very fast and very high. However, again, if the viewer assumes they are looking at a spacecraft, and their distance to target information is unreliable, they might be perceived as UFOs.

Lastly there are military strike drones. Based upon news coverage, our military uses them frequently to monitor and blow up unsuspecting Arabs and Iranian generals. They also doubtless have electronic countermeasures to confuse enemy radars and foil mid-air shoot-downs. Some spy drones can be launched from submerged submarines, outmaneuver fighter jets, and even be retrieved in the water. That might explain one "baffling" report where the UFO dropped straight into the ocean at speeds that would kill a human pilot. No pilot would ever nose straight into the ocean at full throttle to certain death but an unmanned drone might in order to avoid detection. In addition, military drones can self-destruct to avoid detection. The new Turkish anti-personnel drones are like little airborne grenades (price around $5K/ea). So, let’s stay skeptical of these reports of UFOs.