Sichuan Spiral UFO — 1977

In late 1977, a large luminous spiral UAP was observed across multiple Chinese provinces, witnessed by thousands of people and documented by several Chinese astronomical observatories. The object was described as an enormous spiraling light formation in the sky — similar in appearance to the better-known 1981 Great Spiral event and to the Norwegian spiral of 2009 — but with characteristics that Chinese observers and researchers could not reconcile with any known atmospheric or aerospace phenomenon. The event was reported in Chinese state press, including accounts from multiple independent observatory stations that recorded the phenomenon simultaneously. The distribution of observing stations across provinces separated by hundreds of kilometers confirmed that the object was at high altitude and of significant angular size. Chinese state media coverage — unusual given the political climate of the late Cultural Revolution period — suggested the event was too widely witnessed to suppress. The 1977 Sichuan spiral is considered a precursor event to the larger and better-documented 1981 Great Spiral, which was observed across China in March of that year. The two events share structural similarities — spiral morphology, multi-province visibility, observatory documentation — that have led Chinese UAP researchers to classify them as part of a recurring phenomenon rather than isolated incidents. Both events predated the era of Chinese civilian orbital launches, eliminating fuel dump spirals from Chinese rockets as an explanation. China's UAP research organization CURO (China UFO Research Organization), established in 1979, cited the 1977 event in its foundational documentation as evidence justifying organized scientific investigation of UAP in China. The 1977 spiral and its 1981 successor helped catalyze what became one of the most extensive national civilian UAP research programs in the world, operating with tacit state tolerance through the 1980s before being formally acknowledged by the Chinese government in the 1990s.