On the night of January 20, 1951, multiple individuals reported an unidentified cigar-shaped straight-winged aircraft over Sioux City, Iowa. [1] [2] By January 22, papers nationwide publicized had their reports. [3] [4] The incident continues to be discussed in the 21st-century. [5]
Shortly after 8:30 PM, the Sioux City control tower spotted an unidentified red light and estimated its altitude at 8000 feet. [4] Captain Larry W. Vinther, piloting a Mid-Continent Airlines DC-3 bound for Omaha, took off and climbed to 4000 feet in an effort to identify the mystery plane. [4] After seeing the mystery plane blink its lights, Vinter spoke into the radio, asking the pilot of the unidentified plane to again blink his lights; Vinter reported the light blinked a second time. [6] [7]
Vinther could see the plane had a "fuselage like a B-29" but estimated the it was "as large or half-against as large" as a B-29. [4] [7] Vinter reported observing the plane's silhouette against the moonlit sky, he could not make out details but could tell that leading edge of its wing was "absolutely straight". [4] Said Vinter: "We've always thought a swept-back wing was necessary but it appears somebody has come up with something new" [8] Co-Pilot Jim Bachmeier corroborated the sighting. The unidentified aircraft reportedly passed under Vinther's plane and continued traveling until it was out of sight. [4] At no point did they observe the plane travelling at "super speeds". [9]
Vinter told press that "Just after I had turned my head to watch him pass, there he was again flying some 200 feet by ours side -- and going in the same direction as we were... You can't turn ordinary planes that fast!" [10]
The United Press, International News Service, and the Associated Press all covered the story in papers nationwide on January 22. Reporters learned that Col. Matthew Thompson of Offutt Air Force Base had been a passenger aboard the flight; While Thompson declined to comment and was reported sleeping at the time, his aide reported seeing the mystery plane. [3] Thompson was, ironically, involved in the Air Force's ongoing investigation into "flying saucers", and took the opportunity to interview the crew. [7] Local press argued the sighting was likely an optical illusion. [11]
In June 1951, Flying magazine published a first-hand account of the sighting authored by Vinter. [12] Aviation Week likewise reported on the sighting. [13] The following year, the incident was covered in Life magazine, then the most widely-read magazine in the nation. [14]
The Air Force response to the incident was detailed in the 1956 book by Project Bluebook chief Edward J. Ruppelt. [14] Ruppelt recalled that an Air Force investigator ultimately attributed the sighting to a B-36 that was in the area of Sioux City at the time, though Ruppelt expressed skepticism, saying "it didn't take an expert to see that a B-36, even one piloted by an experienced idiot, could not do what the UFO had done - buzz a DC-3 that was in an airport traffic pattern." [14] In 1968, physicist and UFO researcher James E. McDonald's testimony before Congress included discussion of the 1951 incident, concluding "[Co-pilot] Bachmeier stated to me that, at the time, he felt it had to be some kind of secret device, but, in the ensuing 17 years, we have not heard of any aircraft that can execute instantaneous course-reversal." [15] [16] [5] Local press recalled the incident in 1965 and 1969. [17] [18]
In his 2010 memoir, UFO buff James W. Moseley recalled the incident and his subsequent interviews of its witnesses. [2] In 2021, journalist Ralph Blumenthal detailed the incident in his biography of psychiatrist and "alien abduction experience" researcher John E. Mack. [1]
An unidentified flying object (UFO), or unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP), is any perceived airborne, submerged or transmedium phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation, most UAPs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained.
UFO conspiracy theories are a subset of conspiracy theories which argue that various governments and politicians globally, in particular the United States government, are suppressing evidence that unidentified flying objects are controlled by a non-human intelligence or built using alien technology. Such conspiracy theories usually argue that Earth governments are in communication or cooperation with extraterrestrial visitors despite public disclaimers, and further that some of these theories claim that the governments are explicitly allowing alien abduction.
Kenneth Albert Arnold was an American aviator, businessman, and politician.
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The Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter occurred at approximately 2:45 AM on July 24, 1948, in the skies near Montgomery, Alabama, United States. Two commercial pilots, Clarence S. Chiles and John B. Whitted, claimed to have observed a "glowing object" pass by their plane before it appeared to pull up into a cloud and travel out of sight.
The Westall UFO was a reported UFO sighting in Australia that occurred on 6 April 1966 in Melbourne, Victoria. The object was observed by multiple individuals, including students at Westall High School. Specific details vary between accounts, which increases the difficulty of identification. The sighting has been commemorated with documentaries, reunions, and a local UFO playground.
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The Flight 105 UFO sighting occurred on July 4, 1947, when three crew members aboard a United Airlines flight reported seeing multiple unidentified flying objects in the skies over the Pacific Northwest. The incident was among at least 800 similar sightings in the United States within a few weeks in the summer of 1947, but the first report by professional pilots. The U.S. military ultimately attributed what the crew members saw to "ordinary aircraft, balloons, birds, or pure illusion".
The 1947 flying disc craze was a rash of unidentified flying object reports in the United States that were publicized during the summer of 1947. The craze began on June 24, when media nationwide reported civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold's story of witnessing disc-shaped objects which headline writers dubbed "Flying Saucers". Such reports quickly spread throughout the United States; historians would later chronicle at least 800 "copycat" reports in subsequent weeks, while other sources estimate the reports may have numbered in the thousands.
The Rhodes UFO photographs, sometimes called the shoe-heel UFO photographs, purport to show a disc-like object flying above Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The two photographs were reportedly taken on July 7, 1947, by amateur astronomer and inventor William Albert Rhodes. They were printed in The Arizona Republic newspaper on July 9, along with Rhodes's account of his sighting of the object. Published near the end of the 1947 flying disc craze, the photographs were among the first showing an unidentified flying object. They continue to be discussed in the media into the 21st century.
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects is a 1956 book by then-retired Air Force UFO investigator Edward J. Ruppelt, detailing his experience running Project Bluebook. The book was noted for its suggestion that a few UFO sightings might be linked to spikes of atomic radiation. Contemporary media summarized four topics discussed in the book:
"Have We Visitors From Space?" was an article on Flying Saucers by H. B. Darrach Jr. and Robert Ginna that appeared in the April 7, 1952 edition of Life magazine. The piece was strongly sympathetic to the hypothesis that UFOs might be the product of extraterrestrials. Publicity surrounding the piece is believed to have contributed to the 1952 UFO flap, a subsequent wave of reports that summer.
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