The Day Before Roswell

[A51Watcher]

July 4 1947 - between Emmett, Idaho and Ontario, Oregon


United Air Lines Captain E.J. Smith calmly and confidently poses with stewardess Marty Morrow the day after their harrowing experience aboard Flight 105 -

 


Funny thing is neither he or his copilot looked too calm or collected the day before right after they had landed -




...with good reason considering what the crew and passengers had just witnessed -










Portland Oregonian, 7/5 & 7/6
Portland Journal, 7/5
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 7/5
Boise Daily Statesman, 7/5 & 7/6
Chicago Times (AP, Boise), 7/5
Chicago Times, 7/7
Los Angeles Examiner (AP), 7/5
New York Herald-Tribune (AP), 7/6
AP, UP & INS in nearly all papers for 7/5 & 7/6
USAF Files

United Air Lines Flight 105 left Gowan Field, Boise, bound for Seattle with Captain Emil J. Smith at the controls and First Officer Ralph Stevens in the co-pilot's seat. Before they boarded the plane in Boise, someone had asked them if they had seen any flying saucers, and Smith jokingly retorted, "I'll believe them when I see them."

Eight minutes later, both he and Stevens were converted into believers.

As they flew over Emmett, Idaho, approaching a cruising altitude of about 7,000 feet, Stevens reached over to blink his landing lights, believing he had seen a plane ahead at about the same level as the airliner. He called Smith's attention to it. They immediately saw four more, arranged in a "loose formation."

"At first I thought it was a group of light planes returning from some Fourth of July celebration," said Smith, "but then I realized the things were not aircraft, but were flat and circular." Not believing their eyes, they called the stewardess, Miss Marty Morrow, forward. Without telling her what to look for, they directed her attention to the sky ahead of them. Looking out the cockpit window, Miss Morrow exclaimed, "why, there's a formation of those flying discs!"

The objects appeared "huge" and were dark grey, silhouetted against the bright evening sky. The pilots thought they were much larger than ordinary aircraft... The discs were "smooth on the bottom, and rough on top," according to the witnesses.

As soon as Miss Morrow had confirmed their observation, Smith called the control tower at Ontario, Oregon, giving his position and flight direction. He asked the tower operators to step outside to see if they could see anything unusual in the direction from which the plane was approaching. The tower operators saw nothing, which led Smith to believe that the discs were larger and farther away than they originally estimated -- possibly as far away as 30 miles.

The objects appeared to "merge," and then disappeared to the northwest. No sooner had they gone out of sight when another group came into view to the left and ahead of them
.
By this time the airliner had reached its cruising altitude of 8,000 feet, and was flying over rugged country toward the Blue Mountains, in eastern Oregon.

In the second group, the discs were arranged in a straight line, three together and the fourth off by itself. "This group seemed to be higher than our flight path," reported the pilot, "and when they did leave, they left fast!"

The nine objects had been in view for at least twelve minutes, seen over a distance of more than 45 miles. Smith was certain that the objects had to be considerably larger than a DC-3 to have been seen for such a great distance. 

[A51Watcher]

An interesting side note to the 1947 flap is a comment from a 1950 airline sighting in which the captain had the crew wake up
the passengers to witness the UFO as well, for additional witnesses.




Captain Adickes of TWA Flight 117 said -

"Every time the plane turned toward it, the thing pulled away.  At the last, it was going a lot faster than we were.  I don't know what it was, but it wasn't an airplane."

"I think that the thing was equipped with some sort of repulse radar," said Adickes, "so it would keep at a certain distance from air liners and other planes."

"As I'd turn toward it, it would veer away, keeping the same distance."


Interesting observation, that corroborates the 1947 observation that our new focused ground based SCR monopulse radar "appeared to cause one of the craft to deviate from it's flight path."

Another FBI memo dated March 22, 1950 and addressed directly to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover states that an Air Force investigator said three flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. The memo also says the government believed "radar interfered with the controlling mechanism of saucers."


Little known is that the US Government at that time had maintained an interconnected "beyond the fence" radar network. This secret network had served two purposes. It had helped to protect White Sands Proving Ground, Sandia National Lab and Los Alamos National Lab from aerial intrusion.



It was also used for the "far-field" tracking of missiles launched from White Sands. Errant V-2's as early as May of 1947 had crashed their way to Mexico.

There was no way that wayward rocket launches could ever get into the hands of civilians or foreign nationals.
And our national laboratories needed to be protected from any possible foreign strikes from the air.

This covert "outside the fence" radar program helped to provide maximum coverage as it monitored these vitally important skies.

Some of these radar facilities were mobile, highly experimental and lacked more exact "control" of beam path and range.




In late 1945, in the lull that followed the Japanese surrender, a number of scientists at Fort Monmouth's Camp Evans began working on a way to pierce the earth's ionosphere with radio waves, a feat that had been tried just before the war without success and which many thought impossible.

Project Diana, named for the goddess of the moon, was designed to prove that it could be done. Begun on an almost unofficial level by Evans radar scientists awaiting their Army discharge, the project was headed by Lt. Col. John DeWitt.

Lt. Colonel John H. DeWitt Jr., in charge of the project, a modified version of the SCR-271 early-warning radar used at Pearl Harbor. DeWitt is the former chief engineer of WSM.

Operating with only a handful of full-time researchers, the project scientists greatly modified a SCR-271 bedspring radar antenna, set it up in the northeast corner of Camp Evans, jacked up the power, and aimed it at the rising moon on the morning of January 10, 1946.

[A51Watcher]

Now let's take a look at a collection of Flying Disc reports made by pilots that year -

May 18 1947 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Dusk

Oklahoma City Times 6/26


-Fast Flying Disks Reported in West-

(AP) -- Pilot and businessman Byron Savage and his wife had just started to walk out to their car. At first he commented to his wife that a big white plane was coming over.

He continued to watch the craft because it soon became evident that this thing was no ordinary aircraft. The shiny disc-like object was as big as six B-29 bombers "bigger than any aircraft we have."

It flew over the city between 10,000 and 18,000 feet toward the northwest at a speed estimated at more than 1500 mph.

The disc reportedly made no noise except for a very faint "swishing sound." It passed over in a matter of fifteen to twenty seconds and had the appearance of a "perfectly round and flat" frosty white elliptical object.

(Savage stated to FBI investigators that "he was sure this object was not a meteor and in his opinion it must be radically built and powered, probably atomic.")   

[A51Watcher]

June 2 1947 - Lewes, Delaware

Columbus Citizen (Ohio) 7/8/47

On the 2nd of June private pilot Forrest Wenyon saw a jar-shaped rocket-like object fly across the nose of his aircraft at great speed near Lewes, Delaware, heading in an easterly direction around his own altitude of 1,400 feet.

Wenyon reported his observation to the CAA, Eastern Airlines, and the FBI because the object was spotted in commercial airline space.


June 20 1947 - Richfield, Idaho

Twin Falls Times News (Idaho) - 4/8/47


From Richfield came a report that Mr. and Mrs. Charles Housel and Sherman Coffman, all of that community, noticed one of the "flying objects" on June 20, about one week before the first report on the subject was made by a Boise pilot.

The Richfield residents said it was headed west at a high rate of speed and seemed to be whirling. A thin trail of white smoke was left behind the "flying disc" as it skimmed extremely high through the air, they reported. They declared they were "certain it was not an airplane."

[A51Watcher]

June 23 1947 - Bakersfield, California

Portland Journal (Oregon) - 7/2/47


Rankin Report Adds Credence to 'Disks'

The report of a long-time West Coast man was added today to the growing account of "flying saucers" over the west.

Richard Rankin, veteran of more than 7000 hours in the air, said he saw the much-debated mystery disks high over Bakersfield, Cal., and going "maybe 300 or 400 miles an hour."

There were 10 in formation flying north, he told the reporter, but when "they returned on the reverse course, headed south, there were only seven.

"I couldn't make out the number or location of their propellers and couldn't distinguish any wings or tail. They appeared almost round," he said.

Rankin said he saw them June 23, but hesitated to describe what he saw until he noted others were reporting the same thing.

At first, he continued, he assumed he had seen the XF5U-1, the experimental navy "Flying Flapjack." The navy since has announced it has only one XF5U-1, and it has not left Connecticut.

Rankin, ex-Portlander who now lives in Palm Springs, Cal., and is brother of late John G. "Tex" Rankin, pioneer stunt flyer, said he observed the "planes" from the ground.

New reports meanwhile came in from 3 Oregon cities, Astoria, Madras, and Portland.

At least 10 or 12 of the mystery craft tipped noiselessly from side to side as they moved along the course of the Columbia river Tuesday noon to convince two Portland skeptics that Kenneth "Saucer" Arnold of Boise was telling the truth when he first reported the disks a week ago.

"We didn't believe the story when we saw it in the papers but we definitely saw the flying objects at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday," reported Mrs. Herbert Baillet, who with her husband is building a house near NE 74th Ave. and Prescott St.

"I first saw three of them as we sat down to lunch and called my husband's attention to them. Later there were 10 or 12 of them, flying low below the foothills and apparently over the Columbia river or just on the Washington side. There was no noise and they did not appear to be flying fast."




June 24 1947 - Mount Ranier, Washington 2:58 p.m. PST

The Oregonian (Portland) 6/26/47

Washington - Kenneth Arnold, flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, was attracted by reflected sunlight from nine disc shaped metallic flying objects. He watched as they flashed across the sky, one behind the other, "skipping as saucers upon water."

They tilted back and forth as they flew. He clocked them as they flew past Mount Adams, and calculated that they were flying at a speed of 1,500 miles per hour and at an altitude of 9,500 feet.

When he landed in Pendleton, Oregon he was interviewed at the local radio station where the term "flying saucer" was first coined.

(His sighting was the first to receive national media attention in more than 150 newspapers, being treated as a serious news story, due to the fact that he was an experienced mountain flyer, a licensed air rescue pilot, a deputy sheriff, and respected businessman.)

[A51Watcher]

June 26 1947 - Cedar City, Utah - 7:45 P.M. MST

Salt Lake City, Utah, Tribune 6/28/47
Salt Lake City, Utah, Desert News, 6/30/47

At 7:45 P.M. MST in Cedar City, Utah, observers reported seeing one silvery colored disc fly over at about 2,000 feet with great velocity heading eastward.

Apparently that same object was seen by Roy Walters, a private pilot who had his sighting while airborne near Cedar City.

Royce R. Knight, the airport manager at Cedar City, visually confirmed Walters' sighting. When he first saw it approaching the airport, he thought it was "a silver-colored plane" -- until he noticed the "terrific speed" at which the object was traveling.

Still another man, Charles Moore, told of seeing a single unidentifiable luminous object speeding east over Cedar City at the same time.


Interestingly, far to the north of Cedar City a teacher, Glen Bunting and two other independent witnesses, observed a very similar round disc moving eastward just three minutes earlier.

Salt Lake City, Utah, Desert News, 6/21/47

[A51Watcher]

June 28 1947 - Montgomery, Alabama - 9:20 p.m. CST

USAF Files


Four Army Air Corps officers at Maxwell Air Base including 2 pilots and 2 intelligence officers, watched a strangely maneuvering light over the base.

Captain William H. Kayko, Captain John H. Cantrell, First Lt. Theodore Dewey, and Captain Redman watched the bright light for 25 minutes.

It was first seen to the west, close to the horizon, in the clear moonlight.

It approached the observers in a jagged, zigzagging course, with frequent bursts of speed.

In five minutes the light had approached to a point directly overhead, and the four officers reported that it then made a sharp, sudden 90° turn toward the south... they heard no noise.   

[A51Watcher]

June 28 1947 - Pendleton, Oregon

Boise, Idaho Statesman 6/28/47


Harassed Saucer-Sighter Would Like to Escape Fuss

PENDLETON June 28 (UP) -- Kenneth Arnold said today he would like to get on one of his 1200-mile-an-hour "flying saucers," and escape from the furor caused by his story of mysterious aircraft flashing over southern Washington.

"I haven't had a moment of peace since I first told the story," the 32-year-old Boise, Idaho, business man-pilot sighed...

"This whole thing has gotten out of hand," Arnold went on. "I want to talk to the FBI or someone."

"Half the people I see look at me as a combination Einstein, Flash Gordon, and screwball. I wonder what my wife back in Idaho thinks."

WON'T CHANGE MIND

But all the hoopla and hysterics haven't caused Arnold to change his mind or back down. He doesn't care if the experts laugh him off. He said most of his aviator friends tell him that what he saw were probably either one of two things: new planes or guided missiles still in the United States Army air forces' secret category. Some theorized they were experimental equipment of another nation, probably Russia.

"Most people," he said, "tell me I'm right."   

[A51Watcher]

July 4 1947 - Portland, OR - 1:10 P.M. PST

Detroit, Michigan, Free Press 7/5/47
Cleveland, Ohio, Press 7/5/47
The (Portland) Oregonian 7/5/47


Portland Police See Discs Sail


Two Portland policemen in car 82 near Oaks Amusement Park, Walter A. Lissy and Andrew Fox, who were both civilian pilots and WWII veterans, reported six or seven "flat, round discs.

They were flying at terrific speed in a straight-line formation" headed south within 30 seconds of one another.

Lissy said they zig-zagged and made turns so sharp that he knew they could not be aircraft.

It was hard to follow their behavior exactly because of the great height, their gleaming surface and their nature."

Each of the objects headed east over the park at great height estimated as high as 40,000 feet. No engine noises or vapor trails were noted, but they did see "flashes" of light.

The last disc "fluttered rapidly to the side in an arc" and they all appeared white against the clear blue sky.

Another patrolman reporting to headquarters was Patrolman Earl Patterson, in Car 13, who was approximately three miles from Lissy, in the southern suburbs at Southeast 82nd Avenue and Foster Road.

He said he had seen a single disc come out of the west, going at "terrific speed" at an estimated 30,000 feet.

The disc was aluminum-colored, or "egg-shell white," and did not appear to reflect the sunlight. It passed under the sun and, without decelerating, made an abrupt 90-degree turn "with no difficulty" and proceeded toward the southwest.

Because of its strange behavior, Patterson, a former Army Air Corps pilot, was of the opinion that the object could not have been a plane.

At the same time, Patrolman Kenneth A. McDowell (Case 231), feeding the pigeons in the parking lot behind Precinct House No. 1, said that he noticed the pigeons "become quite excited over something." Looking up, he saw five large, disc-shaped objects dipping up and down in an oscillating fashion.

They disappeared quickly, at great speed, two going south and the remaining three going east. McDowell hurried into the station to report what he'd seen. At 1:05 p.m. Dick Haller, Police Radio Officer at headquarters, sent out an all-car alert to all patrolmen to report any aerial objects seen over Portland. The response was almost immediate.

Across the Columbia River, at Vancouver, Washington, Clark County Sheriff's Deputies Fred Krives, Clarence McKay, and John Sullivan, having heard the alert, went outside to check. They reported seeing 20 to 30 disc-like objects streaking over toward the southwest, directly above the Court House.

They were "dark, not flashy," and were reported to have looked like "a bunch of geese." They were flying in a single line, Krives said, "strung out in what appeared to be evenly-spaced intervals.He was emphatic in saying these objects could not have been regular aircraft.

The objects were breaking formation as they flew southward, "peeling off to the side" over Portland, about three to five miles away, deploying to the south and west. The witnesses described hearing a "low humming sound," or "drone," as the objects flew over.

Almost simultaneously, sightings were made by Harbor Patrolmen at the Irving Street headquarters in Portland.

Captain K. A. Prehn, Pilot A. T. Austad, and Patrolman K. C. Hoff said they saw three to six disc-like objects, resembling "chromium hub-caps, shining and flashing in the sun," going south at an estimated altitude of 10,000 feet.

They appeared to wobble and oscillate as they flew, "turning and weaving," so that at times a full disc was seen, and at others only a "crescent," making it difficult to be certain how many there were. They were flying at "terrific speeds".


Numerous Portland citizens also reported sightings. At 2:00 P.M. "metallic discs glinting in the sunlight" were seen across the Williamette River near the Rose Island bridge.

Picnickers and a woman pilot saw silvery "spinning discs."

One woman at 4:30 P.M. described viewing an object like "a new dime flipping around" over the Sandy District.

Two white or silver objects flew over Portland at 4:58 P.M. heading southeast, and a third passed over at 5:30 P.M.

KOIN radio station employee, Frank Cooley, a former Marine Corps observer, confirmed numerous disc sightings around Portland throughout the day.

Cooley, as stated, saw a formation of twelve discs himself as high as 20,000 feet at 1:00 P.M.

He declared that they were "operated and maneuverable devices," indicating that the objects were larger than many believed.

He continued: "They plainly experienced maneuvers in the sky. . . At one time a number of the discs would get into formation and fly circles around another disc.

The last report on the disks received from points south of Seattle, just before the airborne "saucers" appeared over this city, came from Bow Lake where six disks zoomed in low at 2,000 feet.

"They seemed to flop over and over several times, then shot upward, flashed brightly, and disappeared against the background of a high overcast," said ex-P-38 pilot J.H. Oakley, 9422 45th Ave. S.W, a Boeing Field flight instructor.

Oakley reported they were going very fast...


July 4 1947 - Idaho

Chicago, Illinois, News, 7/5/47
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sentinel, 7/6/47

...a private pilot flying over Idaho saw a similar disc speeding toward Oregon as a V-shaped object was spotted by ground observers in Troutland, Oregon.


July 4 1947 - Nevada

Boulder City (Nevada) Daily News 7/4/47
Elko, Nevada, Daily Free Press, 7/4/47.
Sacramento (California) Evening Bee, 7/5/47

Private pilot Raymond Harris also saw saucers over Nevada. From his 150 Voyager he and a friend observed five discs below them—so bright they were hard to look at. He turned his aircraft to give chase but could not intercept the saucers which were zipping off toward the southwest. After the incident he described the objects to his father, a deputy sheriff, as circular and brilliant.


July 5 1947 - Auburn, California - 2:30 P.M. PST

Kjell Qvale, an automobile salesman in Alameda and a former Navy pilot for five years, reported that he and a group of 50 other witnesses had watched a triangular formation of disc-like objects near Auburn, flying south.

Qvale said that the discs, seen first directly overhead, 'appeared to be made of metal and looked like bright silver,' He added that their round outline was clearly distinguishable.

The objects were in view 'for three or four minutes,' he said. 'I have seen a lot of airplanes, and these were not airplanes.

The only clue I could get as to their height, size and speed was the fact that they disappeared one at a time, high in the sky, and not over the horizon.

This effect would be caused if they were very, very large and very high, and flying at a terrific speed—1,000 miles an hour,' he said."

Ted Bloecher - Report on the UFO Wave of 1947

[A51Watcher]

July 4 1947 - Santa Monica, California -5:00 p.m. PST

Hollywood Citizen-News, 7/5
Los Angeles Herald-Express, 7/5
Los Angeles Examiner, 7/6
San Francisco Examiner (INS), 7/6
Cincinnati Times-Star (AP), 7/5
Chicago Herald-American (INS, Seattle), 7/5
Chicago Sunday Times, 7/6
Salt Lake City Deseret News (AP), 7/5
AP general ref in many papers for 7/5

Pilot Dan Whelan, and a companion, Duncan Underhill, had taken off from the Santa Monica Airport in a private plane, bound for San Diego. Twenty-five miles to the south, while flying at an altitude of 5,000 feet, they saw a disc-shaped object about 2,000 feet above them.

"It was traveling 400 to 500 miles an hour," Whelan said. "It was not spinning, but looked exactly like a skeet" (a rifle practice target).

Both he and Underhill estimated the disc was "about 40 to 50 feet in diameter." Whelan admitted to the press that the appearance of the object "scared me silly."



July 4, 1947 - Moscow, Idaho 10:30 a.m. PST
Milwaukee Sentinel, 7/6
Chicago News, 7/5

Irving C. Allen, Chief of Airports Operations and Management in the 7th Region for the Civil Aeronautics Administration, reported that he had spotted a "disc-like" object while flying southward from Coeur d'Alene to Lewiston, Idaho, in the vicinity of Moscow.

"The disc proceeded north across my plane's course from right to left and on a regular course. It was first spotted by my assistant manager, William Farrell, a passenger in the plane."

The pilot said the object was "remarkably white" and moved at a uniform altitude with a kind of "wavering" flight pattern. He estimated that it was "larger than the largest plane" as it crossed several miles in front of him as he was flying slightly east of Moscow.

[A51Watcher]

July 5 1947 - Alton, New Hampshire - 4:26 p.m. EDT

Manchester Morning Union, 7/9
Boston Globe (Portsmouth, 7/8), 7/9

Thomas Dale, son of Governor Charles M. Dale, and a veteran of more than eight years of flying, was piloting a private plane from Laconia to Portsmouth. With him was a friend, Jere Stetson, of Newfields.

As they flew southwestward over Alton at an altitude of 2,800 feet, Dale and his companion saw a strange object about two miles away to the east and some 1,500 feet below their plane.

It was approaching the young men at an "excessive speed," and in 15 to 18 seconds it had veered to the north, out over Alton Bay and Lake Winnipesaukee, toward Moultenboro, where it was lost to view.

"I'm not saying it was a 'flying saucer,' or 'disc'," Dale told newspapermen later, "but whatever it was, it wasn't a conventional airplane."

He said that it did not "in any way, shape or manner" resemble any type of known aircraft.

The two described the object as "definitely of metal construction," about 20 feet long, and "not exactly round in shape."

Both Dale and Stetson said they "had never seen anything like it" in the air before, and added that its appearance left them both "flabbergasted."

Dale had been an ATC pilot during World War II and was thoroughly familiar with all types of conventional aircraft.


July 6 1947 - Pittsburgh, California

Veteran World War I pilot, Frank Tylman and his son, saw a disc shaped object while driving two miles west of Pittsburgh, California.

Tylman stated that "It was shooting toward Mount Diablo. . . It revolved in a counter-clockwise direction, as we viewed it."

Tylman estimated the height of the object at about 3,000 feet and definitely moving "faster than jet planes," although he did state that it approximated the size of a P-80 jet.

The object appeared "circular" and "it had a definite thickness, being curved outward on both upper and lower surfaces." He went on explaining that unlike an aircraft, it left no smoke or vapor nor made any sound that could have been heard above the noise of his own car and the wind.

The sighting lasted only 30 seconds as the disc soon disappeared into the southern horizon.

Ted Bloecher - Report on the UFO Wave of 1947


July 6 1947 - Ogden, Utah

An Army Air Force B-25 crew reported a similar sight during a flight from Ogden, Utah. It became one of the few incidents where a UFO was seen from above.

Their plane was 100 miles west of Kansas City, Missouri, at 10,000 feet when the pilot, Archie B. Browning, caught sight of a very bright object.

He described it as "shaped like the top of a water tank"—some 30 to 35 feet in diameter.

Weather conditions were clear with unlimited visibility when the disc first came into view ten miles ahead and below the left side of the B-25.

The UFO may have initially been hovering because as the pilot closed to within one or two miles, the disc began to parallel their eastward bound course and speed of 210 miles per hour.

Browning turned toward the strange craft, which was climbing to 11,000 feet. Yet, just at that moment, it accelerated off at great speed and virtually disappeared.


Research conducted by Jan L. Aldrich


July 6 1947 - Over Colorado and Kansas - 2:30 to 3:00 P.M. MST

Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Daily Enterprise, 7/1/47


John Phillips, Jr., of Phillips Petroleum aviation department and Henry Barbarick, company pilot, were flying at 10,000 to 12,000 feet. "Phillips who was piloting the plane saw the first 'flying saucer.'

He yelled to Barbarick who was reading maps, but Barbarick said the 'saucer' went by so fast that he was unable to see it.

A few minutes later Phillips saw another one of the strange flying objects which he said looked like a large 'hangar door' on the horizon but again Barbarick was unable to catch sight of it.

A moment later another appeared in front of the plane and then shot up and over the plane, and this time Barbarick caught sight of the object. Phillips said that at least nine of the 'saucers' [appeared] in a space of fifteen minutes.

Both men said the discs were flying at such a tremendous rate of speed that they were unable to get a good look at them.

They tried unsuccessfully to clock them once when one flashed by.

Phillips turned the plane to get a better look at it, but it had disappeared by the time the plane came around.

Phillips said the discs varied in size of a small plane up to a large transport.

He said they looked saucer shaped with the front tilted up.

He said they were definitely made of metal, since they glistened like silver in the sun. They appeared to be revolving, he said.

Barbarick said that it gave you a feeling "like someone was shooting flak at you."   

[A51Watcher]

July 6 1947 - Birmingham, Alabama - 8::55 P.M.

The (Portland) Oregonian, 7/7/47


At 8::55 P.M. CST Staff Sergeant Ira L. Livingston in Birmingham, Alabama, reported that he and his neighbor, Herman M. Sockwell, and others noticed a round object in the western sky heading south in an arched flight path.

After it passed, they observed six more, one at a time, traversing the same course. Livingston, who had 250 hours as a pilot and aerial gunner, estimated that the objects were traveling 500 to 600 miles per hour at around 2,000 feet with a dim glow.



July 7 1947 - Koshkonong, Wisconsin

Flight instructor, Kenneth Jones, and his student in a private aircraft at 800 feet spotted a "saucer" near Koshkonong, Wisconsin. It descended from the clouds vertically and edgewise until stopping to hover at 4,000 feet.

The craft then took off at a speed estimated at 6,000 miles per hour—calculated by the 25 mile distance the object covered between Koshkonong to Elkhorn in fifteen seconds.

At the end of its speedy run the object suddenly stopped and hovered, then disappeared in the distance.

At 2:30 P.M another set of airborne witnesses reported a saucer near East Troy, Wisconsin.

Pilot Wing Supply Officer Captain R.J. Southey (Burlington Civil Air Patrol) and a passenger, Clem Hackworthy, were at 3,500 feet when they saw a flying disc below them at 2,500 feet.

It then covered the 22 mile distance between Eagle to Muskego in twenty seconds, placing its speed at 3,960 miles per hour.

(Declassified FBI files and Fourth Air Force Files, "microfilm record 33764-1036," US Air Force Historical Agency, Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama.)


July 7 1947 - San Antonio, Texas

Austin, Texas, American, 7/8/47


In Air, On Ground, They're Everywhere

Sergeant C.F. Clifton, Bergstrom Field aerial radioman reported seeing one of the flying saucers bound toward San Antonio as his plane was leaving there. Other members of the crew also saw the disc.

"I think it was about 18 feet in diameter and looked as though it was made of glass," Sgt. Clifton said. "It was extremely bright and kept flashing."

Sgt Clifton said that the crew figured that it must have been flying 1,440 miles an hour because it overtook and passed their plane in such a short time.

It was round and was flying at a slightly tilted angle. "The disc seemed to be spinning as it flew," Sgt. Clifton reported.

"It blurred radio reception slightly." Lieutenant Charles O. Anderson was piloting the plane which the disc passed about 4:30 p.m.


July 7, 1947 - Elkhorn, Wisconsin: - 11:30 a.m. CST

Wisconsin State Journal, 7/8
Milwaukee Sentinel, 7/9
Milwaukee Journal, 7/8


Kenneth Jones, a pilot and flight instructor with the Elkhorn Air Service, reported that while he was practicing take-offs and landings with a flight student, he saw a "white ball" moving along at an altitude of about 3,000 feet.


July 7 1947 - Shreveport, Louisiana - Morning.

Military aircraft pilot Harston saw a bright silver object about the angular size of the moon.

Project 1947 - McDonald list


July 7 1947 - Eagle, Wisconsin - 2:00 p.m. CST

Wisconsin State Journal 7/8/47


Captain R. J. Southey, a pilot living in Burlington, heard of the sighting made earlier the same day by Jones, and with Clem Hackworthy, a friend, took a private plane aloft to "look around."

At 2:00 p.m. CST, the two men saw a fast-moving, "silver thing," flying southeast over Eagle. They tried to photograph it, but the object quickly disappeared, and suddenly reappeared approximately ten miles away from the pilots.


July 7 1947 - Lubbock, Texas

Lubbock Evening Journal, Texas - 7/7/47


Former Pilot Sees "Saucers" Sunday

Three More Lubbock Persons Report Seeing "Flying Discs"

At least three more Lubbock residents were added to the roll of "flying disc" witnesses today after Jim Purdy, 1512 Ave. Q, Mrs. Mattie McBroom, 1708 Ave. F, and Dr. L.B. Cooper, 2024 Seventeenth, reported sighting the mysterious "saucers."

Purdy, Lubbock grocery store manager and former Royal Air force and U.S. Army Air force pilot, sighted a silvery, disc-shaped object about 1,000 feet above the city at 1:30 o'clock Sunday afternoon.

It was moving in a slow, tumbling flight that exposed a bright side and dull side, he said, and the object did not have any of the characteristics of a plane.

After about 20 seconds the disc began moving rapidly in a straight line toward the northeast, and disappeared in the distance.

Purdy emphasized, however, that he felt sure there was some logical explanation for the object, and that he discounted any "supernatural or crackpot" theories.

Mrs. McBroom reported having seen seven small bright objects traveling from the northeast toward the southwest over Lubbock between 9 and 10 a.m. June 10.

She described the discs as appearing to be about 6 or 10 inches in diameter, almost round and as moving "very fast" along an erratic course despite an absence of wind.

They were "almost as bright as the sun," she declared, adding "this is no pipedream."

A leading object was trailed by the others in groups of two and four, she reported.

[A51Watcher]

July 7 1947 - San Mateo, California

San Mateo Times, California - 7/7/47

Flying Discs Seen Twice in San Mateo
Woman, Son In San Carlos See 30 In Sky

The "flying saucers" which have turned the heads of the American people skyward for the past weeks came to San Mateo county twice over the week-end, at least that is what a Palo Alto amateur pilot, his wife, and a San Carlos mother and son reported to local officials today.

Mr. and Mrs. Augustin Fernandez, 1566-A Cowper street, Palo Alto, reported to Sergt. Alton Schramm of the California highway patrol Saturday night.

Fernandez said that he and his wife were riding northward on Middlefield road just south of Redwood City when he saw a disc-like object flying overhead in a direction approximately from Santa Cruz to Oakland.

Fast Moving

The object, Fernandez said, seemed to be about four times as fast as a commercial airliner and went out of sight in the haze of the east bay hills.

The pilot described the "thing" as saucer shaped and shining. As the "saucer" started across the bay, he said, it appeared to be an oval shape with a tail assembly and was flying at about 7000 feet.

Fernandez, a Venezuelan student at Stanford, has spent many years in the air. He said the object was clearly visible and easily overtook a DC-3 transport and C-4 which were headed for Mills field.

30 in Group

In San Carlos, Mrs. Marie Maranta, 819 Cedar street, and her son, Stanley Miramon, reported seeing 30 of the discs flying in a "tight formation" at about 2000 feet over the Mills field approach near the San Mateo airport this morning.

Mrs. Maranta said that her son, aged 14, who was in the front yard, called her to come out and look at the "flying saucers." She said that the objects were clearly visible and seemed to be the size of an automobile. "They disappeared," she said, "but a few moments later they again became clearly visible."

Seen by Gardener

She stated that the gardener at the San Carlos school, who was at work near by at the time, stated that he had been watching them for several minutes before the boy had discovered them.

A two-engine transport plane was in the same general area, Mrs. Maranta said, and it appeared that the pilot saw the "things" and headed for them.

Shortly after the report, tower operators at Mills field said their telephones were jammed by calls from newspapers and others asking if any of the pilots had reported the "saucers." So far the tower operators reported no pilots flying into Mills field have reported anything unusual. "They are under orders to do so," the tower stated.

Meanwhile, radar devices at Moffett field continue to report nothing unusual on their scopes.


July 8 1947 - Tucson, Arizona

Flagstaff Daily Sun, Arizona - 7/8/47


Arizonans See Flying Saucers In Backyards
Southwest Skies Crowded By Disks

(By The Associated Press)

Saucers, discs and what-have-you are zipping through Arizona's skies in amazing numbers, according to a host of persons who profess to have seen the weird contraptions.

John W. Phillips, Nogales contractor, and his assistant, William Barker, reported they observed a disc "flying high and fast in a southwesterly direction as if toward the Gulf of Lower California" about 9:45 a.m. today.

Three patients at the Veterans Hospital at Tucson said they saw a flying saucer at 4:50 p.m. yesterday. Lewis Zesper, a former Army pilot, described it as oval shaped, about 25 feet in diameter, light metallic grey in color and wobbly in flight.

He estimated its altitude at 4,000 feet and its speed as in excess of that of conventional jet planes.

George B. Wilcox of Warren, a retired Army major, reported he observed eight or nine discs June 27.

"As they came," he said, "I saw they were perfectly spaced one behind the other and traveling at terrific speed.

They passed over in intervals of three seconds. They were all the same size. They would flash and then disappear with the speed of lightning."   

[A51Watcher]

July 8 1947 - Muroc AFB

At 3:50 P.M., 40 miles south of Muroc, a P-51 pilot at 20,000 feet spotted a wingless, tailless "flat object of light-reflecting nature."

He twice attempted an intercept but could not climb high enough. Intelligence later took great note of that incident because they determined that no military or civilian aircraft were in the area.

(Edward J. Ruppelt's personal papers, File R104 and R105, courtesy of Professor Michael Swords.)

That night at 9:20 P.M. spherical objects were again seen in the area, this time at 8,000 feet still moving against the wind at around 300 miles per hour.

This was reminiscent of a sighting just the day before at 10:10 A.M. when Muroc test pilot Major J.C. Wise, while preparing his XP-84 aircraft for takeoff, observed one yellowish-white spherical object traveling at 200 to 225 miles per hour at 10,000 feet. It headed east with an oscillating motion.


(Ibid.; and Project Blue Book Files, Roll No. 1, Case 44, listed as Incident 3 in 1947 era documents.)



July 8, 1947 - Muroc Air Base - California: 11:50 a.m.


The third Muroc sighting took place just before noon. A group of officers and technicians were assembled in Area Two at Rogers Dry Lake, east of Muroc, watching several aircraft prepare to carry out a seat-ejection experiment. As they watched their attentions were drawn to a peculiar object in the north.

Major Richard R. Shoop, of the Office of Technical Engineering at Muroc, reported later that his attention was called to the object by Colonel Signa A. Gilkey, another observer. In his report, Major Shoop said the thin, metallic object he saw was moving in a northerly direction at a distance he estimated to be from five to eight miles off.

It was seen first high up, moving slowly in an oscillating fashion, and appeared to be about the size of a pursuit plane. It was then seen descending almost to the ground, but rose slightly before it was lost to view in the distance toward the mountains in the northwest. The object was of a shiny, aluminum color and its speed was slow, only about three times the rate of descent of the test parachute from the seat ejection experiment, which took place a short time after the object was first seen. Shoop said the observation lasted about eight minutes.

Another witness, test pilot Captain John Paul Stapp, said that at 11:50 a.m., he saw a silvery object, resembling "a parachute canopy" when first observed, traveling somewhat north of due west. As the object slowly descended, presenting a lateral view, it gradually changed its shape from hemispheric to oval, and two "knobs" or "fins" appeared at the top, crossing each other slowly and giving the impression of a slow rotation, or oscillation. It seemed to be flying more slowly than a conventional aircraft as it descended from an estimated altitude of 20,000 feet.

Its diameter appeared to be approximately 50 feet. It descended toward the mountaintops to the northwest and was lost to view after approximately 90 seconds. No sound was heard. No vapor trails were seen, nor any visible means of propulsion.

Following a talk Dr. McDonald gave in Las Vegas, Nevada, in May, 1967, a man came up to him and said he knew one of the witnesses who had been involved in the Muroc sightings in 1947. He identified the witness as Oliver Earl Cooper. In August, Dr. McDonald was able to get in touch with Cooper, and it appears that Earl Cooper was the fourth observer referred to in the final sighting at Muroc on July 8, 1947. (His name was not mentioned specifically in the Air Force files.)

As Cooper recalled the incident for McDonald, he was with a group of four or five people on the west side of Rogers Dry Lake, near Area One (note discrepancy). They were at the east end of a 10,000-foot runway, looking east, with the runway to their backs. He couldn't recall what test was being carried out, but thought it was a fuel test involving the XP-84. He recalled that a pilot had been one of the group (Stapp).

It was a hot, clear day. The object was first seen at about 20 to 25 degrees elevation to the east. According to Cooper's recollection, 20 years later, it was moving in a generally southerly direction -- possibly east southeast (approximately 180 degrees off from the directions listed in the contemporary report). He stated that everyone had looked up, but, that no one would say anything about it until it was noticed that the others were also observing it.

He told McDonald that as the object moved south it stopped, then moved again before it disappeared. It moved in a horizontal path and Cooper recalled no irregularity of motion. He described the speed as not terribly fast -- his impression was perhaps ten miles an hour. He had a vague recollection of its moving a bit from side to side at times, but not fluttering -- just veering somewhat sinuously. He estimated he watched it for four or five minutes.

He described the shape of the object as elliptical, somewhat rounded; its color was off-white, with no glinting from the sun. The altitude was approximately 10,000 feet. Toward the end of the sighting he recalled the object as having accelerated somewhat before disappearing. He did not recall any other reports from Muroc that day, but he may have never had occasion to hear of them.

He said that all of his group were asked to make statements on the sighting later.

He did not recall the seat-ejection experiment, although his recollection about this point twenty years later can be expected to he vague, as well as for other finer details.

He told McDonald that later the sighting was explained to them as possibly a weather balloon. They were told that it changed apparent size because of "atmospheric conditions." Apparently no explanation was given for the balloons to have been able to fly into the face of the wind.

(Source: Ted Bloecher - REPORT ON THE UFO WAVE OF 1947)

[A51Watcher]

July 8 1947 - Avalon, California - 1:00 P.M. PST

Los Angeles Examiner, California 7/9/47


Several hundred witnesses on Santa Catalina Island off Long Beach observed a formation of "saucers."

Most observers agreed that there were six disc-shaped objects in the formation which passed over the island.

Among those were Army Air Corps veterans Bob Jung, Kenneth Johnson, and Alvio Russo.

Jung actually got a photo of the objects as did Alvio Russo. Russo, who had piloted 35 combat missions over Europe, estimated their speed at 850 miles per hour.

Jung clarified the details by stating that they were flying in two elements of three each about as fast as a Navy Tiny Tim rocket. He said the formation came in from the northeast and disappeared over the hills to the south of Avalon Bay.


July 8 1947 - Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, Virginia 7/8/47


Lt. Cmdr. L.D. Patterson of the Naval Station reported five yellowish discs like the moon, flying in formation over the Air Station from the West. Patterson said the formation was surrounded by a mist, and the bodies each left trails.

Walter Hurst who telephoned the Ledger-Dispatch for Patterson, said that Patterson, a pilot of considerable time in the air, was unable to establish the altitude having no point for calculation.


July 8 1947 Dishman, Washington - Afternoon

Spokane Daily Chronicle, Washington 7/10/47


A young war veteran and student pilot said he had spotted a "flying disc" from his plane as he was flying at a 500-foot altitude in the Mount Spokane area during the afternoon.

The pilot, James Davidson, a Spokane Naval Supply Depot employee, said "It was not flying fast. It appeared to be the size of a wagon wheel."

The side of the disc exposed to the sun was shiny. It looked like it had a hole in the center," he added.

He reported that he had tried to take a photograph of the object. The negatives, however, "did not reproduce well."

He said he hadn't believed reports of flying discs at first, "but I do now."


July 8 1947 - Olympic Mountains, Washington 9:00 a.m. PST

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Washington) 7/9/47

Pilot Chet Pro was flying a seaplane over Puget Sound off Ballard when he saw "two or three" disc-like objects to the west, over the Olympic Mountains... he described the objects as "flying high and going very fast."