Original subtitles

Narrator: Flying saucers.

STEVEN GREER: It's going 20,000 miles per hour and makes

a right hand turn without decelerating.

That isn't possible.

Narrator: Magic carpets.

DAVID CHILDRESS: There are traditions of King Solomon

having an airship.

Narrator: And fiery wheels

descending from the heavens.

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: What Ezekiel described in his eyewitness report it was

it was misunderstood technology.

Narrator: In ancient cultures

throughout the world, there are stories of strange sight in the sky.

Are they simply fiction?

Or might they be accounts of alien vehicles?

GRAHAM HANCOCK: You begin to have to ask yourself

is something going on here?

Are we missing part of the story?

And honestly, I think we are.

Narrator: Millions of people around the world believe we have

been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really help

to shape our history?

And if so, might we find

evidence in ancient stories of alien transports?

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Narrator: Saqqara, Egypt. Located roughly 20 miles south

of Cairo, it is home to the world famous step pyramid of King Djoser.

Dating back more than 4,000 years,

it is the oldest of Egypt's 97 pyramids.

Saqqara is also famous for being one of Egypt's oldest burial

grounds, earning it the nickname "city of the dead."

It was here, in 1891, that French archeologists unearthed

an ancient tomb containing the burial remains of Pa-di-Imen, an

official from the third century B.C.

Among the various items discovered was a small, wooden

model of what appeared to be a bird lying beside a papyrus

bearing the inscription, "I want to fly."

The artifact was later sent to the Cairo museum, where

authorities placed it alongside several other bird figurines.

The model sat largely unnoticed until 1969, when Egyptologist

Dr. Khalil Messiha was examining the bird collection and noticed

that there was something very different about the Saqqara

Bird. DR. UWE APEL: It's, uh,

interesting, because on one hand, clearly, it should look

like a bird because it has eyes, and has a typical nose of a

bird. Uh, on the other hand, the wings

are clearly not bird wings. DR. ALGUND EENBOOM: To the

middle of the rump you'll see this wing a bit thicker.

In this region, the lift up is the highest.

The whole thing becomes thinner to the, um, end of the wings,

and those wings are modeled down.

And this is a very modern aerodynamic design.

APEL: Then the other point is birds have no rudders, because a

bird does not need a rudder because of its aerodynamic

architecture. And so there is the idea they

are not representing birds, but flying machines, or aircraft.

Narrator: Could the ancient Egyptians have possessed the

power of flight? In 2006, aviation and

aerodynamics expert Simon Sanderson built a scale model

of the Saqqara Bird-- five times larger than the original-- to

test that possibility. SIMON SANDERSON: We're

running at a constant speed, slowly increasing the angle of

attack and then measuring the forces which it's producing,

that way we can learn about its flight characteristics.

At ten degrees, we're producing four times weight and lift.

Yeah. SANDERSON: So it actually

would be flying now. Yeah.

SANDERSON: That's good. EENBOOM: Tests show the

Saqqara Bird is a highly developed glider.

And this is a design we use today.

Narrator: During the Sanderson tests, it was

discovered that the only thing preventing the Saqqara Bird from

achieving flight was the lack of a rear stabilizing rudder or

elevator needed to maintain balance.

Is it possible that the Saqqara Bird ever possessed this

critical component? APEL: What is missing is

something like an elevator. But if you look at this feature

here, and we may interpret that something like an elevator was

connected here, but was lost during history.

Narrator: Computer models seem to confirm that the Saqqara

Bird is certainly airworthy. But there is another problem to

consider: launching a glider. Modern methods require the use

of a tow plane that pulls the glider into the air, then

releases it when a proper altitude is reached.

So how might the ancient Egyptians have launched the

Saqqara Bird? EENBOOM: The Scientifics of

Egyptology told us that such a bird could be powered off by

catapults to fly. And we had high acceptance by

Egyptian scientists. Narrator: The idea of using a

catapult does have a contemporary parallel.

Many of today's glider enthusiasts employ a bungee cord

system to launch their sail craft into the air.

But if the Saqqara Bird is capable of flight, where would

ancient Egyptians have acquired such technology?

EENBOOM: I think that people in ancient times were visited by

beings coming not from this earth and they gave us culture

and scientific technologies to improve our life on Earth coming

from the primitive to a higher developed culture.

PHILIP COPPENS: It's a fact that our ancestors were more

intelligent and had more technological superiority

capabilities than our history books give them credit for.

HANCOCK: You begin to have to ask yourself, are we missing

part of the story? And honestly, I think we are.

I think there has been a forgotten episode in human

history and, uh, we're a species with amnesia.

We don't really remember who or what we are.

ROBERT BAUVAL: I haven't been convinced that there is evidence

that supports an ancient visitation.

But there is no reason why not. And I think to shut oneself to

that possibility is a mistake. Mainly because there are so many

anomalies that we can't explain. Narrator: Could the Saqqara

Bird really be a model of an ancient flying machine?

And if so, might this be evidence that our ancestors

witnessed alien technology? Perhaps further proof can be

found by examining a centuries-old Mexican ritual

called the Dance of the Flyers. Narrator: Veracruz, Mexico.

Five men in ceremonial dress ascend a 100-foot pole.

Once at the top, one of the men performs a sacred dance while

playing a flute and drum atop a platform.

The other four men launch themselves off.

It is a ritual known as la Danza de los Voladores, or

"the Dance of the Flyers." JONATHAN YOUNG: The ritual

has the leader stand on the top of the pole-- a tiny little

platform-- and the four flyers wrap a cable around that pole

and then branch out and fly around in a pyramid shape in

perfect synchronous order. It's a stunning and daring thing

to do. And they are representing the

birds, they are representing the four cardinal directions, they

are representing the elements, heavily symbolic and mythic,

and it is a powerful ritual. Narrator: The Totanac people

who practice this ceremony today claim it is a dance that was

invented 500 years ago as a plea to the gods to end a severe

drought. But could this ancient ritual

have different-- perhaps otherworldly-- origins?

TSOUKALOS: What we have here with the Voladores is 100%

living mythology. Something that describes and

illustrates-- in front of our living eye-- the descent of the

gods from a long time ago. Narrator: According to

ancient astronaut theorists, the Voladores ritual is a

reenactment of a close encounter with alien visitors in the

distant past. They believe extraterrestrials

descended upon the flat mountaintops of the Palpa region

in Peru around 500 A.D., dropping from their aircraft and

gliding down to earth in spiraling circles.

TSOUKALOS: The Voladores ritual was very technological,

as in, you know, these beings descending from the sky and the

circle signifying arrival of the gods.

Where does that flying or descending gods motif originate?

Our ancestors saw something. Because why would you hurl

yourself from a 100-foot pole out of nothing to imitate a

bird? Birds are not that important.

Something very significant happened.

Narrator: Could an alien encounter really be the

inspiration for the Voladores ritual?

And could the Totanac people who created the ceremony really

have been trying to mimic the ancient gods' power of flight?

As further evidence that early humans may have encountered

alien visitors equipped with the power of flight, ancient

astronaut theorists point to various artifacts and statues

depicting ancient gods. One such example is the Mayan

god, Ah-Muzen-Cab, also known as the flying Bee God.

Another is the most prominent god of early Mesoamerican

culture, the winged deity Quetzalcoatl.

LOGAN HAWKES: The Mesoamericans believed in the

plumed serpent, or Quetzalcoatl, which, ah, came from the sky,

bringing wisdom, uh, powered the wind and also influenced

everything that happened in the daily life of the Mayans.

In fact, they looked to the sky for all their answers, uh, from

everything as simple as when to plant corn to when to go to

war. Uh, they believed all answers in

the universe came from the sky and trying to relate that to

their daily lives. WILLIAM HENRY: The ancient

record are loaded with fantastic examples of the gods flying

around. These are the ancient aliens,

and humans are being shown the ultimate capability of these

gods. ERICH VON DANIKEN: In my

eyes, because we are the sons of the gods, we are the offsprings

of the gods, whatever humans can dream, whatever humans think,

was once reality in the past or will be reality in the future.

Narrator: July 31, 2003. The English Channel.

Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to cross this

22-mile wide body of water in freefall using a specially made

fiber wing. But the Austrian daredevil is

just one of many who have used wing suits to simulate flying by

means of a free fall. ED PAWLOWSKI: A wing suit is

basically a jumpsuit that you put on under your rig and it's

designed to actually make you fly when you exit the plane.

Uh, the material inflates underneath your arms, in between

your legs, and creates, basically, an airfoil that you

glide on through the air. It's an amazing feeling because

you're actually the pilot and the plane.

It is total freedom. You feel as though you're

flying. Though you are falling, you're

using the air to maneuver your body.

And the wing suit helps you cover a lot of ground as you're

descending. Some people have been exceeding

two-to-one glide ratio. For example, three-to-one would

mean, for every foot you descend, you're traveling three

feet forward. TSOUKALOS: We got these

flying guys that have these wings attached to their backs,

and they hurl themselves out of planes, and some even have

rocket engines attached to them. And so, they essentially

themselves become airplanes. Now imagine showing that to

someone from 100 years ago. That person would be in complete

awe of what they're witnessing, not understanding that there is

technology involved with this. VON DANIKEN: Just using our

own body, we cannot fly. We have no wings.

But, of course, we have the fantasy, and we have the

technology to develop wings that we can fly.

TSOUKALOS: The pursuit of flight has been one of the most

sought after quests in all of mankind's history.

Why? Because, with flight, you could

reach, conceivably, the realm of the gods.

Narrator: From the ancient Greek myth of Icarus fashioning

wings of feathers and wax, to modern daredevils like Felix

Baumgartner, human beings have been fascinated with, and often

frustrated by, their desire to fly.

But have birds really served as mankind's inspiration?

Or were they inspired by something else?

Perhaps something extraterrestrial?

Ancient astronaut theorists say "yes", and claim further proof

can be found in Ancient China's mysterious stories of dragons.

Narrator: Celestial beings coming down to earth.

Gods descending from the sky. Do similar accounts exist in

other cultures and other religions across the world?

And if so, what is the explanation?

TSOUKALOS: We have to remind ourselves that our ancestors

were highly intelligent. However, their technological

frame of reference was different than our technological frame of

reference. So, they didn't have the

vocabulary with which to describe, or with which to name

certain things that they saw. So, what did they do?

They used words that they were familiar with in their time.

And so, they tried to describe whatever they witnessed to the

best of their abilities with their vocabulary.

Narrator: Ancient China also shared some of the same beliefs

that can be found in Egyptian, Native American and Dogon

legends-- that deities arrived from the stars.

According to Chinese mythology dating back to 3,000 B.C., when

the god named Huang Di was born, there was "a radiance from the

great star Chi." Huang Di would later emerge from

the belly of a fire-breathing dragon to become China's first

emperor. YOUNG: The origins of the Han

Chinese people start with a story of a great god looking

down with empathy. Here were people in poverty, in

a beautiful, rich country, the landscape profound.

But the people were suffering. He took pity, and decided to

come down. TSOUKALOS: Huang Di arrived

on planet Earth in a flying dragon.

He had the power of flight. Huang Di could be anywhere

within minutes. And he usually accomplished this

by hopping on his dragon and flying somewhere.

YOUNG: Now this divine energy becomes human, and is a great

leader, the yellow emperor who rules and unites the people, and

there is a period of great prosperity until his work is

done. Narrator: Huang Di brought

order to the chaos, creating China's first empire.

He is seen as a cultural hero, and is credited with the

invention of the compass, acupuncture and the

standardization of Chinese writing.

One of his greatest legacies is the Great Wall of China.

YOUNG: When the land is prosperous, he decides it's time

to go, and the great yellow dragon comes back, and he gets

back into the belly of the dragon and flies off forever.

TSOUKALOS: Now, were these dragons truly dragons in a

biological nature? Or were they misinterpreted

types of machines? Because, as we all know, dragons

are always correlated with spewing fire and a lot of smoke.

Whenever we see a modern rocket take off, there is all this

smoke, and sometimes the smoke is yellow, and sometimes it's

red. So, it's very bizarre how we

have these correlations between the ancient times and modern

times today. YOUNG: Mythology is the

effort to grasp what we can't grasp, to understand what is

beyond us. In the Eastern teachings, the

dragons very often carry people, sometimes on their back,

sometimes inside their bellies. So, if we think of them as a

poet's effort to explain a vehicle that was strange to

them, well, those sound like flying saucers.

So, it might just be a problem of translation, because after

all, it's just a word. It's trying to describe

something that's very difficult to grasp.

Narrator: Could Chinese tales of dragons be based on ancient

interpretations of rocket ships descending to Earth?

And, if so, could the legends of Huang Di-- like those of

Quetzalcoatl and the Egyptian Saqqara Bird-- be evidence of

alien visitations in the distant past?

Perhaps the answer can be found high on a mountaintop known as

the "Throne of Solomon."

Narrator: In the 21st century,

modern transportation and communication methods have

connected the world like never before.

Products or ideas, no matter where in the world they may have

originated, can spread to even the most remote countries.

A hip-hop hit in Brooklyn might make it big in Tokyo before it's

even heard in Manhattan. This cultural interconnection

has transformed the globe, but is it new?

Mainstream archaeologists believe ancient civilizations,

such as those found in the remote Pacific Islands, Asia,

and South America, developed independently from each other.

But ancient astronaut theorists contend that similarities in

building styles and beliefs found in these cultures suggest

that a worldwide trade route may have connected them to each

other. CHILDRESS: But just like we

have airports today, around the world, in ancient times, with

the Vimanas, there would have been hangars for the craft,

airports for them to land. And those airports would have

been situated in strategic places around the world.

And that's exactly what we see in remote places.

Narrator: Legends of air travel are also found in ancient

Africa and the Middle East. According to The Kebra Nagast, a

holy book of the Ethiopians, written sometime before the

second century A.D., the Queen of Sheba was once given a gift

of a flying carpet by King Solomon of Israel.

TSOUKALOS: The Kebra Nagast is one of the most important

texts you've never heard of. The Kebra Nagast means "The

Book of Kings." And it is the most sacred book

of the Ethiopians. In it, King Solomon, it's

described-- he had access to some type of a flying machine.

And in that part of the world, the term "flying carpet" was

always used very liberally. My question is, did they really

mean actual flying carpets? Or was it another term with

which to describe some type of a flying machine?

CHILDRESS: This was the original chariots of the gods

that Erich von Daniken talked about, the flying magic carpets

of the Arabian Nights stories. There are traditions in the

Middle East of King Solomon having this airship, and flying

to different places in the Middle East-- certain mountains,

which are known as the Mountains of Solomon.

These may have been certain airports, or landing areas, for

these Vimanas. Nicolas Roerich, famous

Russian-American explorer, who travelled all through Central

Asia and Tibet in the 1920s-- he, too, claimed that Tibetans

had traditions of King Solomon flying to Tibet in this

aircraft. Narrator: The Kebra Nagast

also describes how King Solomon used his flying airship to make

maps of the world. But could these have any

relation to other ancient maps some believe may have been made

by extraterrestrials? HANCOCK: Some of these maps

show the world, not as it looks today, but as it looked during

the last Ice Age. And this is really hard to

explain. Everybody's heard of the Piri

Reis map, but they've, perhaps, not heard of the Orontius

Finnaeus map, or the Mercator maps, that show Antarctica in

great detail, hundreds of years before Antarctica was even

discovered. Narrator: One of the most

referenced stories of ancient aircraft is found in a

surprising place-- the Bible. In the Book of Ezekiel, the

prophet describes a flying chariot containing wheels within

wheels and powered by angels. Although Bible historians

suggest Ezekiel was speaking symbolically about the

terrifying enemies facing Israel, could this be another

example of an alien visitation, and proof that prehistoric

aircraft existed? YOUNG: In the story of

Ezekiel's throne chariot-- this flying vehicle that doesn't seem

to have any means of propulsion-- if we thought of

the word "angel" as representing something like celestial energy,

it sounds much more like a spacecraft then, because some of

the angels are going back and forth.

Well, that sounds like flames. That sounds like propulsion.

Some of them are wheel-like. Well, those sound like flying

saucers. TSOUKALOS: Our ancestors

weren't idiots. Ezekiel saw something that was

so frightening to him, that he fell to his knees.

Then, out of the glory of God, came this being in these bright

clothes that looked like metal, and told Ezekiel, "All right,

man, we brought you here. We want you to measure this

monument, this building." And Ezekiel asks, "Well, why

should I do this?" And the being says, "That's why

we brought you here." And then, you have 40 pages, in

the second part of the Book of Ezekiel, with measurement after

measurement after measurement of this gigantic building in

which, by the way, the glory of the Lord landed.

Narrator: In the early 1970s, NASA scientist Josef Blumrich

set out to disprove the theory that what Ezekiel witnessed was

a spaceship. TSOUKALOS: Josef Blumrich is

your proverbial rocket scientist.

He worked on the moon project for NASA, and from the mind of a

rocket engineer, started to look at what was written in the first

part of the Book of Ezekiel, and after many months of research,

Josef Blumrich came to the conclusion that what Ezekiel

described in his eyewitness report-- it was indeed a type of

spacecraft. Narrator: Josef Blumrich

would go on to write The Spaceships of Ezekiel.

Several years later, a German structural engineer named Hans

Herbert Beier sketched out a blueprint of the second section

of the Book of Ezekiel, where Ezekiel is told to construct an

open-topped building to house the flying chariot.

TSOUKALOS: Ezekiel's spaceship fit exactly into the

temple that Hans Herbert Beier recreated.

So what we have here is a proof by indication.

Here we have a NASA engineer and a structural engineer, they

didn't know of each other's work and both pieces fit together

like a puzzle. In any court of law, that's

evidence that would hold up. HANCOCK: I think that

scientists feel uncomfortable with the notion of the lost

civilization precisely because the evidence for it is so

ambiguous. It's not so in-your-face that

it's immediately obvious. Uh, and, you know, the result is

that science has not welcomed this idea.

It'll take much more evidence before it's widely accepted.

TSOUKALOS: The God that I believe in doesn't need a

vehicle in which to move around from point "A" to point "B."

Whatever was described in the Old Testament wasn't God.

It was a misunderstood flesh-and-blood extraterrestrial

whom our ancestors misinterpreted as being divine

and supernatural. And why?

Because of misunderstood technology.

And that is the underlying thread that applies to all of

the ancient astronaut theory. Narrator: But while ancient

texts provide tantalizing clues to our past, physical evidence

paints an even clearer picture. But will modern science finally

prove the ancient astronaut theory?

ROBERT FRISBEE: Did the ancient civilizations of Earth

have access to advanced technology?

Well, it seems like they had something going on.

Narrator: Could ancient stories depicting flying

carpets, fiery chariots and even dragons really be evidence of an

otherworldly presence here on Earth in the distant past?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes and claim that further proof

of alien craft traversing our skies can be found with the

countless reports of flying saucers.

Narrator: Guatemala, Central America.

According to most mainstream scholars and archaeologists, the

earliest human settlements in this region date back over

14,000 years. Here can be found numerous

ancient artifacts, and among them is this one, the figure of

a man lying inside what appears to be the shell of a turtle.

TSOUKALOS: And when I asked the local archaeologist there,

"What is this?" They said without the flinching

of an eye, "Well this is, according to legend, the giant

flying turtles which flew around in Guatemala."

The entire body is aerodynamically fashioned.

The extremities are pressed in an aerodynamic fashion against

the body of this turtle. And if you look closely, it's as

if there's some modern day fighter pilot glasses or

goggles. This right here is from the same

culture, from the same region where they created the turtle in

clay. So they knew exactly what a

turtle looked like. It looks like a snapping turtle.

And what we have here, that is everything but a turtle.

It's something else. In their frame of reference,

they were able to use the turtle as the best example of what they

might've seen that the gods used to fly around in.

Narrator: Halfway around the world, in 329 B.C., the Greek

ruler Alexander the Great planned the invasion of India.

But according to ancient texts, his army was supposedly thwarted

by a strange attack from the skies.

CHILDRESS: As Alexander's army was getting ready to cross

the Indus and invade India, suddenly in the sky appeared

these flying discs. And they began dive-bombing at

the war elephants that were part of Alexander's army.

And what these flying discs did was cause stampedes within

Alexander's own war elephants, who then ran amok throughout his

army, uh, tearing up the camps and everything.

And after that, Alexander's generals met with him and they

said, "No, we're not going into India.

This-this is it. We're gonna turn back."

And that was the end of that war campaign.

Narrator: But whether in ancient times or much more

recently, so-called flying saucers are often described as

being unaffected by gravity or the basic laws of physics.

GREER: You know, I know that people who have... who have

seen, uh, extraterrestrial vehicles in modern times have

said, "How in the world could it be doing that?"

For example, it's moving through the sky and it's going 20,000

miles per hour and makes a right-hand turn without

decelerating. That isn't possible using normal

aerodynamics. CHILDRESS: When jets have

been scrambled after flying saucers, the saucers are

described as suddenly turning at right angles at super speeds and

just zipping off in what seems like impossible aerobatic

maneuvers. And this can be explained as the

kind of technology they're using, which is an... a gravity

control. It's artificial gravity.

So when you're inside of a-a gravitational field that you're

creating yourself around your craft, the gravity of the Earth

doesn't have a force on you. Narrator: But although

aircraft propulsion by means of gravity manipulation is beyond

the limits of current technology, many scientists

claim it is theoretically possible.

(whirring) In Davis, California, inventor

Dr. Paul Moller tests the boundaries of real-life science

with a recreational flying vehicle called the Neuera.

PAUL MOLLER: The Neuera is a very simple device to fly.

It has eight lifting ducted fans, as we call them, each one

driven by its own engine. One of the big advantages of-of

this kind of round shape is that you end up with the strength in

the skin of the vehicle itself, much like the shell of a beetle.

And that gets you a very, very strong design.

This airframes you see over here next to this vehicle, which are

similar to this, weigh only 75 pounds apiece, which is

incredible. You get a complete airframe

that's capable of lifting 1,500 pounds with a 75-pound shell.

Narrator: But could the inherent design strength of a

disc-shaped object be the key to overcoming the forces of

gravity? And does the prevalence of

flying saucer sightings suggest a connection between antigravity

technology and extraterrestrial visitations?

MOLLER: Gravity is one of the most unknown forces in physics

today. And when we do understand it,

we'll be able to find out a way to shield ourselves from it or

to provide a device, a method, electromagnetically but with

some much greater knowledge than we have today, where we

eliminate it within the vehicle's operations.

Narrator: Are flying saucers more than just the product of

overactive imaginations? Might ancient cultures that

wrote of fire-breathing dragons and angels descending from the

heavens have been witnessing earlier versions of these alien

spacecraft? Or could there be another

explanation? Perhaps the ultimate answer can

be found in the American Southwest with a mythological

beast called the thunderbird. (bird screeching)

Narrator: Elizabeth Lake, Southern California.

This high desert body of water sits at the junction of the

tectonic plates that form the powerful San Andreas Fault.

The Mexicans who colonized California in the 1700s called

it Laguna del Diablo, Lake of the Devil.

And it was said that the Devil's own pet would come into this

world through a portal at the bottom of the lake.

COPPENS: Local legend says that at the bottom is actually

an entrance to the underworld. They call it the Lake of the

Devil. And it is said that in the

middle of the 18th century, from up until about 1880 onwards,

something was happening there which frightened locals.

JOHN WHALEN: Some of the rich landowners built ranches there.

These ranchers claimed to have been harassed and tormented by

some sort of a monstrous beast that would come out of the water

and steal cattle and menace the locals.

Narrator: The ranchers who claimed to have witnessed this

beast called it the thunderbird, and their description of it was

nearly identical to that of the giant bird witnessed by cowboys

in Tombstone in 1890. WHALEN: Eventually, one of

the landowners, uh, got it in his head that he was going to

hunt this creature down and sell it to the circus.

So according to the story, this rancher was able to actually

fire a few shots at this creature, which seemed to be

bulletproof and metallic. The bullets bounced off, and

after that, uh, encounter, the bird flew east never to be seen

again in California. Narrator: Could this

so-called thunderbird really have been the same creature that

cowboys shot at in Tombstone? And why was it referred to by

locals as the Devil's Pet? STANDING ELK: They didn't

have the vocabulary we have today, so when things happened

that they couldn't explain, it was called the Devil's Tower, it

was called the Devil's Lake, it was called the Devil's This or

the Devil's That. COPPENS: Take it away from

legend and you might find that this was a portal to another

dimension which the locals knew about and might have something

to do with the fact that this mysterious entity was present at

that very specific location. Narrator: If a portal to

another dimension or another part of the universe does lie at

the bottom of Elizabeth Lake, might it also be possible that

the thunderbird was not really a creature at all but something

even more incredible? YOUNG: A thunderbird was

enormous. It made enormous noises.

So the thunder part of it, uh, could sound like a jet engine.

NICK REDFERN: Its eyes were able to literally pierce and

emanate fire. We have this large flying winged

creature which gives off a thunderous sound and lights

fly from its eyes. That, to me, says, yes, we could

be dealing with some sort of craft.

(chanting) VON DANIKEN: Native Indians

in North America, they know, of course, the bird.

But now something differently arrived, an object which could

fly, which is bigger than the eagle but, at the same time,

makes tremendous noise. So you have the creation of the

thunderbird. CLIFFORD MAHOOTY: Even when

the airplanes first started going up in the sky here in

the Southwest, they referred them to as metal birds.

As a matter of fact, when the first fixed-wing craft landed in

Zuni, the Indians over there actually went out there and

worshipped the airplane. JIM MARRS: It makes me think

of a concept called cultural tracking, which is the idea that

UFOs can mask themselves to appear as almost anything.

You go back to ancient China and they talk about the flying

dragons. You go back to the ancient

Egyptians, they talk about flying boats.

You go to the Roman times, and they're talking about flying

shields. Perhaps that was just their

interpretation, or perhaps that's what they actually saw.

Narrator: Have alien spacecraft really been darting

across our skies for thousands of years?

And could stories of thunderbirds, dragons and flying

chariots be not mere legends but the proof we have been looking

for? Perhaps when our own technology

allows us to venture further into space will we be given the

final answer, that aliens and mankind share a common origin

and perhaps a common destiny.

Captioning sponsored by A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org

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