In the 1960s, as the United States and the Soviet Union competed for technological and military dominance during the Cold War, American spy satellites photographed something extraordinary along the shores of the Caspian Sea. Stretching almost 100 metres in length, the enormous craft appeared far too large to be a conventional aircraft, yet intelligence analysts observed it travelling rapidly across the water. Its unusual shape defied easy classification, it looked neither like a ship nor an aeroplane.
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