A satellite, just launched from the orbiter, collides with an unidentified object, which, after being spotted on radar moving at great speeds, had positioned itself just over the shuttle.

After it makes a controlled landing in the Arizona desert, the damaged alien spacecraft is taken to Wolf Air Force Base in Texas and installed in Hangar 18, where scientists and other technicians, headed by Harry Forbes, can study it.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Forbes, the Air Force puts out a news story blaming Bancroft and Price for the death of their colleague and for the destruction of the satellite.

Their cover-up and careers now threatened, government officials decide to remotely fly an explosives-filled plane into Hangar 18 to destroy all evidence of the event.

Just as a researcher reveals that a translation of the aliens' language indicates that they are about to return, the plane crashes into Hangar 18, creating a huge explosion.

The next day, a news report says that Bancroft, Forbes and their group of technicians survived the blast, shielded inside an alien spacecraft.

[4] The title is believed to stem from hoaxer Robert Spencer Carr, who, in 1974, named Hangar 18 as the storage location of bodies from the 1948 Aztec UFO hoax.

[citation needed] Due to the limited number of science fiction and action films available to the Soviet public, Hangar 18 became quite popular with the youth of the country.

In the supporting cast is Debra MacFarlane, who plays a beautiful female specimen found aboard the saucer, a young woman who looks amazingly like a Hollywood starlet.

"[11] Christopher John reviewed the film in Ares Magazine #8, writing, "Hanger 18 [sic] is the perfect Sunday evening movie for television.

[13] Director Conway would revisit the subject matter of Hangar 18 in "Little Green Men", an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in which characters accidentally travel back in time to 1947 and crash near Roswell, New Mexico.