World’s ‘best ever’ UFO image The Calvine Photo shows top secret & highly advanced US aircraft, says ex-intel officer
A MASSIVE diamond-shaped craft captured in the "world's best ever" UFO photo was a top secret US aircraft, according to an ex-defence intelligence officer.
The incredible image - known as "The Calvine Photograph" - shows a huge angular shape hovering over the landscape with a Harrier fighter jet visible in the distance.
It was a picture which had for decades been consigned to the realms of modern myth until it was finally rediscovered and released to the public in August 2022.
The photo - which appeared exactly as had been described by those who had seen it - was found in the hands of a former RAF press officer by a team led by academic and journalist .
But while the photo, often has hailed as the "best ever UFO photo", was found - the mystery still remains, what exactly was the object in the picture, and who took it?
Dr Clarke has now revealed to The Sun Online they have their strongest lead to date - that the object may have a piece of highly top secret and experimental US tech.
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This is based on the testimony of a former UK Defence Intelligence officer who revealed - unprompted - that he was tasked with investigating the incident at Calvine.
The team are now releasing his bombshell account of what the object may be as they continue to search for the photographer who took the picture.
And they are urging anyone with information of the man named "Kevin Russell" whose name appears handwritten on the back of the original print of the photo.
Kevin could be the final piece of the puzzle.
The defence official - whose credentials were verified by Dr Clarke and his team - explained the UFO is believed to have been an "target designation companion" for F-117 Nighthawk stealth bombers.
The so-called "Calvine Vehicle" is understood to have been unmanned, very large, and equipped with a high tech ground-mapping laser.
It was estimated to be between 100ft and 130ft long according to photo analysis by Sheffield Hallam University.
However, it's not immediately clear the exact nature of the vehicle.
The official - who declined to be named - said it was a "one-in-a-million" chance that the craft was caught on camera.
The intelligence officer - who Dr Clarke first spoke to 2018 after they connected over an unrelated topic - flew to Scotland and interviewed the two men who took the original photograph back in August 1990.
He added there was "a hell of a stink" in Washington over the snaps when they were passed up the chain of command - and the Americans "went ballistic".
The "Calvine Vehicle" is understood to have been deployed from the US facility at RAF Machrihanish.
I think we are as close as it is possible for anyone to be
Dr David Clarke
It was then spotted and photographed just two days after Saddam's forces invaded Kuwait, sparking the first Gulf War.
RAF Machrihanish is a highly isolated base on the tip of Kintyre peninsula, has a 10,000ft long runway, and was an emergency landing site for the space shuttle.
And in the 1960s, the base had been designated Naval Aviation Weapons Facility Machrihanish - with its mission to store "classified weapons".
US forces moved out of the base in 1995.
Numerous reports from the period have RAF Machrihanish at centre of various odd occurrences, such as high speed radar blips and "unusual ear-splitting jet noises" being heard in the area.
Dr Clarke revealed it was this intelligence official's testimony that reignited his interest in the case.
And it triggered his investigation that led to the rediscovery of the photo.
"I was not expecting [the officer] to mention it and I had not intended to ask him about it," Dr Clarke told The Sun Online.
Calvine researcher Matt Illsley explained they believe Kevin is now in his 50s.
His name features on the back of the original photograph - and he is believed to be the one who originally sent to the press.
Kevin is suspected to have been originally from Glasgow or Falkirk - and was at the time living and working at the Pitlochry Hydro Hotel.
He is believed to have been aged between 18 and 26 at the time he is believed to have taken the Calvine Photo.
Former colleagues of his positively identified him and provided the investigators with the above picture of him.
But despite a high profile media appeal in Scotland - the team have still not yet been able to speak to Kevin.
"It's a mystery within a mystery, as it were," Mr Illsley told The Sun Online.
He said the team have tracked down multiple "Kevin Russells" - but so far none of them have been there man.
They are urging him to contact them - so they can finally solve the riddle of Calvine.
Only his testimony can definitely prove what happened there day, and potentially expose a massive cover up.
It may have been that experimental US tech was using British airspace without public knowledge.
Dr Clarke told The Sun Online: "Please come forward, put your name to the photograph and tell your story to the world.
"Whatever it was that you photographed, you have nothing to fear from the authorities after 33 years.
"And if the whole thing was a prank, then it's time to say so.
"Otherwise the Calvine photographs will become another Roswell legend, with people debating whether it was 'true' or 'false' for decades to come."
The team has asked anyone with information to share to contact on or via
The officer also alleged the Calvine Vehicle is likely linked to the so-called Belgian UFO Wave from November 1989 to April 1990.
Many witnesses reported seeing a large triangular or diamond shaped object flying at low altitude - including two F-16s being dispatched to intercept one of the shapes.
Some claimed to have witnessed the shapes firing "lasers" at the ground - which would appear to match up with with the account from the source of Calvine Vehicle being a target finding tool.
Dr Clarke also uncovered more compelling circumstantial evidence contained with a declassified version of Ministry of Defence's 463-page 4 volume UFO report "Condign".
Within the report is a section talking about Western "black projects" - which includes the SR-71 stealth fighter - a Mach 3 recon plane that was originally top secret before being made public by the US.
But also alongside this section are two heavily redacted sections and two redacted photos.
The MoD has declined to release the unredacted version of the report, stating it was "accidentally destroyed".
The Black Projects are also discussed in relation to UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) events - a term now commonly used in Washington amid the latest spate of UFO sightings in the US.
"I am confident those images are photographs of a still-top secret US reconnaissance aircraft, possibly the one photographed in Scotland," Dr Clarke told The Sun Online.
And meanwhile, the investigators obtained a redacted document which makes mention of a D-Notice - an official request to media outlets not to publish a story due to national security concerns.
It also makes reference to "the remaining ASTRA/AURORA" photos - with the Aurora being a long rumoured hypersonic US spy plane which is also claimed to have been spotted around the UK in the 90s.
Matthew Illsley, another investigator working with Dr Clarke, told The Sun Online: "Of course, we don't know if this was related to Calvine or to some other event.
"But it does lend credence to the idea that secret photos, D-Notices and black project aircraft that no one publicly knows about or officially admits to do in fact exist."
And further fuelling the idea the the Calvine Vehicle may have been a piece of experimental US tech is a patent filed by aerospace engine Salvatore Cezar Pais.
Mr Pais - who currently works for the US Space Force - has filed a number of a patents while working for the US Department of the Navy for highly experimental - often almost sci-fi - aircraft and propulsion systems.
And one of his many granted patents shows a diamond shaped aircraft apparently propelled by microwaves.
His patents are not just works of fancy, with the chief technology officer of the U.S. Naval Aviation Enterprise, Dr. James Sheey, writing to the US Patent Office regarding Mr Pais work - insisting "China is already investing significantly in this area".
The Calvine Photo was snapped near its namesake Calvine, just off the A9 some 35 miles north-west of Perth in Scotland.
It is claimed two men stumbled across the jaw dropping scene while hiking or hunting, witnessing the large metallic object as fighter jets made passes in the distance before it shot off into the sky - never to be seen again.
But luckily they seemed to capture the moment on camera, snapping six photographs of the diamond shaped craft with a fighter plane in the background.
The photos were then were given to the Scotland's Daily Record newspaper who in turn passed them to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
But for unknown reasons the story was never published - and the photos vanished into the black hole of Whitehall.
And so began the modern myth of the "Calvine Photograph".
Five of the other photos taken that night remain lost, one of which allegedly shows the two men posing with the shape in the background.
It is understood the photos in the background at Harrier jump jets - which were used by both the US and UK.
Photo analysis undertaken by senior lecturer Andrew Robinson at Sheffield Hallam University says the photo appears to be unaltered.
In an extensive 11-page study, he concluded if the object is a fake - it would had to have had to be hoax staged in front of the camera.
"The image shows no evidence of negative or print based manipulation and all visible signs suggest this is a
genuine photograph of the scene before the camera," he wrote.
Dr Clarke believes they are very close to definitively solving the mystery - but they just need a few final clues to solve the riddle.
"I think we are as close as it is possible for anyone to be," he told The Sun Online.
"But as my source said, the authorities have been 'very clever' with this one and have gone to great lengths to ensure the truth is, annoyingly, still out there.
"They claim to have no records on the photographs other than the sparse papers released in 2009.
"This is patent nonsense as the photographs were, I am told by another intelligence source, classified secret and were the subject of a meeting held in Washington DC in 1992 attended by US and British intelligence.
";I am confident there is a substantial file on the case that contains both copy negatives and detailed analysis of the images."
He went on: "Given the secrecy that surrounds the story it is no surprise that the photographer and his friend have 'disappeared'.
"I feel sure they will be aware of the most recent publicity surrounding the photographs but, for whatever reason, continue to prefer to say nothing.
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"If the photos are a 'spoof' or a hoax, as many have claimed, this seems a strange state of affairs.
"At the very least the photographer owns copyright on the images and deserves to be properly acknowledged as their creator."