Ever think some folks in the Inland Empire are out of this world? The UFO seminar on Saturday could provide some answers.

The murky world of UFOs, government coverups and America’s secret planes will be the topic of March Field Air Museum’s UFO seminar and family days on Saturday.

“UFOs and Things That Go Bump in the Night” will try to explain flying saucers and alien sightings such as Roswell and Area 51. Resident UFO-ologist and museum volunteer Bob Mauger, 65, of Norco, will discuss how several suspected alien aircrafts are usually top-secret government airplanes.

“There’s a lot you don’t realize is out there,” Mauger said. “Some things in the sky are totally unexplained.”

The U.S. government used secret surveillance planes in World War II and to keep tabs on Cold War rivals, and still uses some today, Mauger said.

Reported UFO sightings were later discovered to be U.S. Air Force planes such as the XP59, the first U.S. jet; the U-2 spy plane; the SR71; and the F1-17 Nighthawk, Mauger said. The incident that spawned the term “flying saucer” likely involved the Horton 229, a German airplane used by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, he said.
Carrie Rosema / The Press-Enterprise
Bob Mauger, March Air Field Museum volunteer, says “UFO” sightings may be planes such as the SR0-71 Blackbird, at left.

Many of the planes were kept secret to stop release of state-of-the-art technology, Mauger said. In Roswell, N.M., a supposed alien crash was actually a government coverup for a downed spy balloon used to detect nuclear blasts in the Soviet Union, Mauger said.

The idea of alien UFOs has been driven by movies and science-fiction tales, Mauger said. While not completely ruling out alien life, Mauger said there is no evidence supporting alien sightings. He said any planets possible of maintaining life are in galaxies at least 4,000 light-years away.

Mauger said his interest in airplanes started early and as a child he would go to bed with an airplane under his arm rather than a teddy bear. Shortly after he moved to the Inland Empire, he realized North Corona was the setting of the first alien landing during the 1938 radio broadcast of Orson Wells’ “War of the Worlds.”

Mauger served as an Air Force engineer and mechanic at an airbase in Germany during the Vietnam War era. He later worked for Burrough’s Electric and ITT Cannon.

“When it comes to UFOs, everyone has an opinion,” said the museum’s office manager Betty Bradley. “It’s an interest that engages the entire family.”

The museum will also feature a UFO video and crafts for children to create their own UFOs and alien eggs.

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