Sir Francis Charles Chichester and his remarkable 1931 UFO sighting

 It has been assumed that UFOs only started to appear after Kenneth Arnold's famous 1947 sighting, but it turns out that there have been previous reports of such inexplicable aviation anomalies. One of them was observed by Sir Francis Charles Chichester in 1931.

Sir Francis Charles Chichester, born September 17, 1901 and died August 26, 1972, is a figure worthy of our special interest. He was not only a British businessman, but also an aviation pioneer and navigator who used his skills many times to fulfill honorable roles. One of them was a solo circumnavigation of the world on a clipper ship, for which he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He became the fastest sailor to circumnavigate the globe in nine months and one day in 1966-67.

Chichester also gained the attention of the Royal Mail which honored him with a 1/9d (one shilling and ninepence) postage stamp depicting him aboard Gipsy Moth IV in 1967. This was against unwritten tradition as Chichester was not a member of the royal family at the time the stamp was issued and did not die.

However, what interests us most today is the remarkable incident in 1931, when an experienced pilot witnessed a UFO in flight. A phenomenon that seemed impossible, and which until the end of his life he could not explain.

Chichester was known for his experienced and precise observation of atmospheric phenomena. In 1965, he gave an interview in which he described his UFO sighting experience. In it, he relates how during the flight he noticed bright flashes in the sky, and then saw a dull gray object approaching him that looked like an airship. Despite careful observation, the object disappeared unexpectedly, only to reappear and then disappear again. You could say that this corresponds to the sightings of objects known as Tic Tacs, described as such by US Army pilots.

Such a phenomenon was extremely rare in the 1930s and few people were aware of the existence of UFOs, or unidentified flying objects. It wasn't until later, as the UFO phenomenon became more widely known, especially after the Roswell Incident, that Chichester began to understand what he might have seen that night in 1931.

The vision of this unidentified flying object certainly raises many questions in us. What was that? Was it a real object or an unusual atmospheric phenomenon? Is it possible that even an experienced observer like Chichester could be surprised by such an unknown phenomenon?

All this remains unknown, but one thing is certain: the history of Sir Francis Charles Chichester is fascinating, not only because of his many achievements, but also because of this extraordinary encounter in the air.