"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?" "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." "TheKebraNagastmeans"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:" "TheKebraNagast 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." "Captioningsponsoredby  AETELEVISIONNETWORKS" "Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH  access.wgbh.org"