Bill McDonald
Bill McDonald is a forensic illustrator and UFO researcher best known for producing detailed technical drawings of the XF-131 Super Sentinel, a purported Air Force designation for a triangular craft in the TR-3B family. McDonald's illustrations were based on firsthand testimony from aerospace engineers who claimed direct involvement in the craft's development.
| Role | Forensic illustrator and UFO researcher |
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The Denny's Meeting
McDonald's most significant contribution to UAP research stems from a meeting at a Denny's restaurant where he interviewed four engineers who claimed to have worked on classified triangular craft programs. According to Edgar Fouche, who corroborated elements of the account, the engineers provided McDonald with detailed technical descriptions of the XF-131 Super Sentinel's design, propulsion systems, and operational characteristics. McDonald translated their verbal descriptions into precise forensic illustrations — the same methodology used in law enforcement to produce witness-based composite images.
The resulting drawings depict a large triangular vehicle consistent with other accounts of the TR-3B: a rounded triangular planform with a central Magnetic Field Disruptor (MFD) ring, multi-mode rocket thrusters at each vertex, and a cockpit section. McDonald's illustrations have become some of the most widely circulated technical depictions of alleged black triangle craft in UAP research.
Connection to Tehachapi and Helendale
McDonald's research into the XF-131 Super Sentinel intersects with facilities identified by UAP Gerb as connected to UFO legacy programs, including the Lockheed Martin Helendale radar cross-section measurement range and the Northrop Grumman Tehachapi Mountain facility — both located in the Antelope Valley region near Edwards Air Force Base.
The X-Files Connection
Fox Network contracted McDonald's Tehachapi Triangle illustration — depicting the XF-131 Super Sentinel based on testimony from real Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin engineers — for use in the first regular season episode of The X-Files, titled "Deep Throat." Chris Carter, the show's creator, used McDonald's design as the basis for a computer render of the triangular craft featured in the episode. The storyline of "Deep Throat" — involving a USAF base with missing test pilots, a triangular craft, and government cover-up — closely paralleled the real claims described to McDonald by his sources.