Top 10 Most Shocking Declassified Photos and Videos

#10: The Avrocar

With rising tensions in the early Cold War, the United States Air Force was desperate to get the upper hand on their communist counterparts. Influenced by rumors of German flying saucers and created in an era obsessed with UFOs, the VZ-9 Avrocar was designed by Avro Canada as a Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicle that could hover and reach unprecedented speeds. It was the Canadian contractor's attempt at creating a real flying saucer for the United States Air Force. Only it was awful. It could barely hover 3 feet compared to its projected 10,000, and only reached a speed of 35 mph compared to its projected 300. Even with its failure, its a prototype that stunned us and has us wondering where they're hiding the real ones.

#9: The Pigeon Camera

With espionage efforts ever so vital in the Cold War, the CIA was inventing spy gadgets so ahead of their time, you would think they were science fiction. Yet, some were shockingly rudimentary, like the pigeon camera. Part of a broader animal spy initiative codenamed TACANA, the CIA equipped pigeons with tiny, lightweight cameras capturing high-quality, black and white photos of whatever they were flying over. The problem was, they pretty much just did whatever they wanted when released and were totally unreliable. The pigeon spy program was unfortunately shut down before it could be fully operational. The CIA eventually declassified some images of the pigeons and their findings.

#8: Corona Satellite Imagery

Working under the public cover name Discoverer, the Corona was the United States' very first spy satellite. Operated by the Air Force and the CIA to gather intel on Soviet nuclear launch sites and production facilities, the reconnaissance platform captured hundreds of thousands of images. Many disproved a common theory that the Soviet nuclear arsenal had surpassed the United States by a wide margin, leading to a change in overall Cold War strategy moving forward. Many of the 800,000 images declassified in 1995 are now used in the environmental and archeological fields, allowing scientists to study changes in the environment from the 50s and 60s when the pictures were taken to the present day.

#7: The U-2 Spy Plane Photos

With ties to the infamous Area 51, the Lockheed U-2 Spy plane, or the Dragon Lady, has undoubtedly contributed to countless UFO sightings. Its ability to achieve altitudes twice as high as conventional aircraft and fly nearly on the edge of space made the U-2 seem like something out of this world. It was also virtually untouchable by most missiles and aircraft of its era. The spy plane was used throughout the 1950s and 60s to gather intel on the Soviets and others around the globe. In 1997, thousands of photos gathered by the CIA were declassified. This included the Dragon Lady.

#6: The SR-71 Photos & Blueprints

Marking its legacy in aerospace history as one of the most iconic planes ever made, the SR-71 Blackbird is a marvel of its time. Decommissioned, but still withstanding the test of time, it still holds the flight airspeed record to this day. Cruising at Mach 3.3 and over 80,000 feet in the air, the legendary plane was unarmed, relying solely on its incredible speeds and altitudes to evade any threats on its reconnaissance missions. Since being decommissioned, information on the historic piece of aviation has been declassified. Among the declassifications are lots of pictures of the aircraft on its secret missions, original Blackbird blueprints, and even the actual flight manual!

#5: Declassified Moon Landing Photos

Many Americans witnessed the Moon landing live on television. Well sort of. They were actually watching a feed that was filmed on a slow-scan television and optically converted from a different camera to NTSC. This alone leads many to question the authenticity of the footage for some skeptics and if NASA even got to the Moon at all. Thankfully, NASA has declassified the Apollo moon landing photos, and they are nothing short of incredible. The lack of stars and waving of the flag with no atmosphere raised more suspicion, but most of these things are explained. The scarcity of stars was due to the shutter speed of the camera used, and there was a wave in the flag from the inertia of the astronauts twisting it into the lunar surface.

#4: Operation Crossroads Nuclear Test Footage

The Operation Crossroads nuclear test footage is something to behold. It's also some of the first drone footage ever showcased. The pure power behind the test is a force to be reckoned with. The more than 20 kiloton blast shocked the world when its declassified footage was revealed to the public, and most importantly, the United States' adversaries. It showcased the sheer power that the United States had in its vast arsenal. The atomic spectacle was so widely acknowledged, it managed to find its way into pop culture, like the 1998 film Godzilla and even in multiple SpongeBob SquarePants episodes. It remains to this day one of the best examples of the dark reality of nuclear power and the destruction it wields.

#3: Ivy Mike Nuclear Test Footage

With rumors and data suggesting the Soviets were successfully testing a nuclear device, the United States was fast at work creating the next big breakthrough in nuclear weaponry. The U.S. military was developing a weapon so powerful it would make the atom bomb look like child's play. Unleashing 10.4 megatons of thermonuclear power, Ivy Mike was the world's first full-scale hydrogen bomb test. It yielded the power of 500 Fat Man atomic bombs and vaporized the Elugelab Island in its entirety, leaving an underwater crater over 6,000 feet wide and over 150 feet deep where the island once existed. The declassified footage shows the terrifying power of the hydrogen bomb, remaining a stark reminder of the looming threat of total annihilation.

#2: Project Mogul

Allegedly the actual source of the 1947 Roswell crash, Project Mogul was a Cold War sound detection spy program designed to detect Nuclear explosions, observing Soviet bomb testing using microphones and radio arrays attached to high-altitude balloons. This one shocks us because Major Jesse Marcel, the man photographed holding the remains of the Roswell wreckage, swore till his death that the Roswell crash was real and was indeed extraterrestrial. Even his son, Jesse Marcel Junior, recounts the time in 1947 when his father showed him the pieces of the craft himself! So, was Major Marcel a confused military man who simply wasn't read in on what he was seeing, or was Mogul just an elaborate cover story?

#1: The Pentagon UFO Videos

The world was taken by storm in 2017 when the New York Times wrote about three videos showcasing possible UFOs documented by the United States military. Documented using high-end surveillance equipment and multimillion dollar fighter jets, the GOFAST, the FLIR, and the GIMBAL were all officially acknowledged by the Pentagon as authentic and declassified for public viewing in 2020. The combination of the New York Times breaking a massive story on the UFO phenomenon and the Department of Defense claiming the videos to be authentic UAP was a shocking revelation for the country, if not the world.

Do you have any declassified photos or videos you would like to see featured next? Let us know in the comments!