&gt;<i>A UFO over US soil would usually be a USAF plane, but the CIA ran (runs?) a reporting hotline because they might occasionally be foreign spy planes instead.</i><p>The OXCART program (SR-71 predecessor) was a CIA program. This is probably one of the best pieces of journalism I&#x27;ve ever read on the topic:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;entertainment&#x2F;la-mag-april052009-backstory-story.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;entertainment&#x2F;la-mag-april052009-back...</a><p>While the entire article is good, paragraphs 5-8 are by far the best. The CIA literally drugged their own test pilot during debriefing.<p>&gt;<i>I&#x27;m pretty sure this is the result of a deliberate strategy: create a bunch of fake information, so that real information about US military capabilities will be harder to find. A few hints and a few taunts, and voila, every discussion about unidentified aircraft is guaranteed to have a schizophrenic walk in and start rambling about aliens!</i><p>I was actually just writing about this, except in context of aviation industry insiders perhaps misleading a respected industry journalist:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10971548" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10971548</a><p>Entire thread for context:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10957365" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10957365</a>