Private Contractor Takes Credit for Last Year's New Jersey UFO Scare
A private company at a high-powered Army conference demonstrated a unique aircraft at the event — and allegedly took responsibility for setting off last year’s drone and “UFO” pandemonium in New Jersey, a source told The Post.
At the Army’s UAS and Launched Effects Summit at Fort Rucker in August, a private contractor conducted a live demonstration of a manned aerial craft that wowed the crowd with its unconventional appearance and unorthodox flight-movements, an attendee told The Post.
“You remember that big UFO scare in New Jersey last year? Well, that was us,”
an employee of the unnamed contractor claimed to a small group after the demonstration, according to the source who was invited to the summit.
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The company was in the air over the Garden State in November 2024 to “test out their capabilities,” the contractor’s employee claimed to the source — adding they were not required to disclose their activity to the public because of a private government contract.
In video provided to The Post, the roughly 20-foot across four-winged flier zooms through the skies just above the tree-line, drawing the attention of dozens of soldiers on the ground.
“I thought it was the military testing something out on the other side of the base,”
the source, a military veteran and drone expert, said of their first impression of the flying object on Aug. 12 at Fort Rucker.
“It feels like it’s a UFO because it defies what you’re expecting to see,”
they said, adding there was an “uncanny valley feeling” when watching it quietly motor through the sky.
“When it turned you almost completely lose sight of it,”
the source said, of the roughly 30-minute demonstration in the controlled airspace of Fort Rucker.
people seeing it and saying it disappeared
All conference attendees were approved by brass at Fort Rucker, which enacted strict rules for participation, including the exclusion of any drone or craft containing any Chinese-made parts, the source revealed.
“It would definitely have to be cleared,” they said, adding, “Somebody was 100% in charge of coordinating that.”
Fort Rucker, which is the headquarters for the Army’s Aviation Branch, could not be reached for comment.
The rash of supposed drone sightings in New Jersey began on Nov. 13, 2024 over Army base Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and continued across the state through early December.
The aircraft is not a classified Army prototype or an unknown contractor project — it is the Pivotal BlackFly, a single-seat electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicle that has been in limited public display for several years.
A closer look at the evidence
A comparison of the Post’s images with official photographs from Pivotal, formerly Opener Aero, reveals an exact match: the same tandem-wing configuration, eight electric propellers (four per wing), rounded fuselage pod, and short landing skids. Even the color scheme — a matte tan upper surface with black accents — matches Pivotal’s current livery shown in recent company promotional materials and in a Wall Street Journal article.
Earlier versions of the aircraft, flown under registration N919EB and branded as the Opener BlackFly, shared identical dimensions and proportions. Observers at Fort Rucker likely interpreted the two overlapping wings as four separate surfaces, explaining the “four-winged” description in the article.
The BlackFly measures roughly 13 to 14 feet in span, not 20, but to a casual observer at a distance the small electric aircraft could easily appear larger. Its whisper-quiet electric motors and ability to hover or cruise low over the ground give it an almost surreal presence — features that fit the Post’s account of the demonstration.
In November 2024, residents across New Jersey reported a wave of drone or UFO sightings, beginning near the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal and spreading statewide. Local law enforcement, the FAA, and the FBI fielded hundreds of reports of slow-moving, brightly lit objects hovering at dusk. At the time, federal officials said most incidents involved hobbyist drones, aircraft seen from unusual angles, or bright celestial objects.
The possibility that a Pivotal BlackFly was tested under a government contract during that period remains unconfirmed. The company has acknowledged collaboration with the US Air Force and maintains a section on its website devoted to military applications, but it has not commented publicly on any Army-related work. Officials at Fort Rucker did not respond to AeroTime’s request for comment.
Pivotal’s BlackFly is one of the world’s first production eVTOL ultralights. Designed for single-occupant operation under FAA Part 103 regulations, it can take off and land almost vertically, cruise at about 62 mph, and travel up to 25 miles on a charge. The carbon-fiber craft uses distributed electric propulsion to achieve exceptional redundancy and low noise levels — traits that make it ideal for research and demonstration flights near populated areas without drawing much attention until spotted.
If, as multiple visual comparisons indicate, the Fort Rucker aircraft was indeed a Pivotal BlackFly, the Post’s “mystery contractor” has a name — and the New Jersey UFO panic has a plausible explanation. What startled thousands of residents may have been a glimpse of a new generation of quiet, electric aircraft that it’s manufacturer hopes will soon be transitioning from prototype to operational use with the US military.
While questions remain about whether the Army or a private partner was operating the vehicle over New Jersey, one conclusion seems clear: the “UFO” that flew its demonstration flight at Fort Rucker in August 2025 was human-made, homegrown, and unmistakably a Pivotal BlackFly eVTOL.
Sources: New York Post; AeroTime
