<P> Any type of electrical discharge from the wings of airplanes (see St. Elmo's Fire) has been suggested as an explanation, since it has been known to appear at the wingtips of aircraft . It has also been pointed out that some of the descriptions of foo fighters closely resemble those of ball lightning . </P> <P> During April 1945, the U.S. Navy began to experiment on visual illusions as experienced by nighttime aviators . This work began the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Medicine (BUMED) project X-148 - AV - 4 - 3 . This project pioneered the study of aviators' vertigo and was initiated because a wide variety of anomalous events were being reported by nighttime aviators . Dr. Edgar Vinacke, who was the prime flight psychologist on this project, summarized the need for a cohesive and systemic outline of the epidemiology of aviators' vertigo: </P> <P> Pilots do not have sufficient information about phenomena of disorientation, and, as a corollary, are given considerable disorganized, incomplete, and inaccurate information . They are largely dependent upon their own experience, which must supplement and interpret the traditions about "Vertigo" which are passed on to them . When a concept thus grows out of anecdotes cemented together with practical necessity, it is bound to acquire elements of mystery . So far as "vertigo" is concerned, no one really knows more than a small part of the facts, but a great deal of the peril . Since aviators are not skilled observers of human behavior, they usually have only the vaguest understanding of their own feelings . Like other naive persons, therefore, they have simply adopted a term to cover a multitude of otherwise inexplicable events . </P>

What is foo and how do you fight it