The start of modern UFO culture can be traced not just to the 1947 incident at Roswell, N.M., but to World War II. Nazi scientists had been researching methods of dominating the skies over Europe and, pending victory, the United States. The Treaty of Versailles, however, prevented the Germans from building traditional weaponry; they instead focused on disc- and wing-shaped flying machines. This led to great successes in stealth technology, which married lasers and mirrors to standard aeronautical principles. But WW II ended before the Nazis could deploy their breakthrough ships. And the U.S., in a secret campaign called Operation Paperclip, brought their enemy's brightest scientists home to work in the American Southwest. There, human test pilots-not extraterrestrials-flew miraculous planes that were key in the Cold War strategy against Soviet Russia. Such hyperfast, maneuverable vehicles, able to fly nuclear payloads across the world within minutes, had to be kept secret at all costs. The U.S. government therefore encouraged a public obsession with aliens and unidentified flying objects. Author Barak, who encapsulates history with a novelist's flair, goes on to discuss the mechanical details of how such aircraft might be constructed. --Kirkus Reviews