CIA File: 1993 Russian TV Unveiled a 'Saucer-Like' Aircraft

CIA File: Russian TV Unveiled a 'Saucer-Like' Aircraft — and Said It Wasn't a UFO

A declassified CIA media-monitoring report captures a 26 January 1993 Moscow broadcast describing a 'saucer-like' aircraft called BKIP, developed at the Saratov aviation factory — while the reporter noted that 'the meeting with a UFO did not take place after all.'

Published

September 25, 2026

Declassified

Date not listed

Source agency

The Black Vault (FOIA archive)

ciaufofoia1993russianunveiledsaucerlike

CIA File Captures Russian Saucer Aircraft Broadcast Denial

The document Saratov aviation factory. The craft was called BKIP, glossed in the report as "ekologiya i progress" — ecology and progress. The broadcast described it as combining the wing and the fuselage and replacing the undercarriage with an air cushion, producing what it called a principally new aircraft that needs no airports.

It could land, the report states, on snowy tundra or on water, and could lift cargoes up to half its own weight, a figure the broadcast characterized as 80 times more than modern cargo planes. The framing is the point. The segment opened by telling viewers that if they looked out one morning and saw a flying saucer, they should not be surprised — not because of aliens, but because unexpected things await us on earth.

The broadcast explicitly stated that no meeting with a UFO took place and that there was no need to establish contact…

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Based on the official release at https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/ufos-the-central-intelligence-agency-cia-collection/

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