• Australia, Smithfield, near Cairns:
Approximate date. Three farmers, among them Thomas Robinson,
saw a light growing in size for 2 min and flying between
them and Mt. Williams. Looking like a "light airplane on
fire, " it changed course, losing altitude and trailing
flames. It touched the ground, lighting up the whole area,
rose again, and began to "feel its way along the crooked
edge of the cane field and the swamp toward our house. " It
returned to earth four times. The dogs ran out barking as it
landed within 100 m of the witnesses before taking off
again. • England, Bradford: About
700 m away from Roundhill street, Mr. Wood, a warehouseman,
saw a bright, bullet-shaped, silvery object behind a
hillock. It measured about 4 m in height, 1. 5 m in
diameter, had a surface similar to chromium and made a
high-pitched buzzing sound.
• England, Bradford: Mr. Ernest Suddard, 35, and his
13yearold son were in a lorry on Roundhill Street when they
saw what seemed to be a human being about 1. 20 m tall,
dressed in skin-tight black clothes. It held its arms close
to its sides, its feet close together, and walked by a
series of jumps. On its chest was a silver disk perforated
with holes. It turned off suddenly into a passageway and was
lost to sight. The witnesses were too amazed to follow it.
• England, Galloway: A disk with a row of blue lights on the
periphery slowly maneuvered above a car on a deserted road.
BUFORA VICAT indicates location is "Near Newton Seewart,
Galloway, Scotland". The following is cited from that
catalog: "Mr. Maurice Brazier was driving his van along a
lonely stretch of road when he noticed a large illuminated
object flying toward him at low level. The object was shaped
like a double saucer with a ring of apparently rotating
light around the outer rim. When about 20m distant, the
object banked sharply and flew around the van. A high
pitched buzzing sound was heard as the object approached ,
and a clicking sound which became louder as the object
banked more sharply. Mr. Brazier noted that the engine of
his van stalled as the object approached... Weather
conditions were reported as clear and the duration of the
incident was about 5 mins."
• France, Boisseuges: A young shepherd heard a whistling
sound as a dark mass appeared to fall from the sky and a
rush of air swept him from his feet. The object looked like
a machine with an opening where a stairway became visible.
Two occupants were seen. One was observed to have a reddish
face, a bald head and very fine teeth. The craft was round,
about 3. 5 m diameter, 2 m high, lighted with neon-like
light. The occupants gathered some plants and flew away to
the northwest.
• France, Bru: Mr. Gamba saw an oval red object 50 m away.
When he tried to approach it, he found he was unable to
move. As soon as this "paralysis" subsided, he ran to get
his brothers and came back to the craft, which turned white,
then red. It rose and flew away toward the east. It had been
on the ground for at least 15 min. Strange traces were
found, as if the ground had been dug up. Small trees near
the river were found damaged, as if they had been cut with a
knife.
• France, Buzancy, Ardennes: Messrs. Coisin and Mahieu saw
five brown, disk-shaped machines coming down and up again at
great speed. One of them flew under the others, then two
disks appeared to land 300 m away near the German cemetery.
The others flew away toward the south at tremendous speed.
• France, Plessiel Airfield: Mr. Maupin and five other
witnesses on the airfield were blinded by a light from a
disk-shaped object 150 m away. It left orange glows in its
trail. Silent, flying slowly, it hovered near the Metro
station, close to the ground, but did not actually land. It
left toward the northwest. A woodsman from Mareul Caubert,
Mr. Rolle, saw the object half an hour earlier. It came from
the direction of Amiens.
• France, Puy Saint Gulmier: A farmer, 74 year old J. B.,
was watching his cows on a clear, calm morning when he
suddenly observed, in an easterly direction, a vertical
circular object about 3 m away, the bottom edge about 30 cm
from the ground. It measured about 10 m in diameter, was
very luminous, white, but not blinding. Many filaments of
various colors were radiating from the disk. Their length
varied between 0. 5 and 2 m. The object rose over a hedge
and was lost to sight behind some woods.
• France, Salon, near Arles: Two persons in a car saw a
lighted object dive toward them and hover about 30 m above
the road. A disk, 12 m in diameter, it flew around the car
and went away without noise. The witnesses were tourists,
who went straight to the Arles police.
• USA, California, Casa Blanca, near Riverside: A group of
children was playing in the garden of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas
when they observed a hovering object which disappeared and
reappeared as a spinning disk with curved lines radiating
from it. Other objects, silvery and semitransparent, soon
appeared and were seen by all children. They made musical
sounds as they vanished and reappeared. One of them landed,
and a creature the size of a 4 year old child, transparent,
wearing a belt with a bright disk, was seen nearby. Another
creature appeared and spoke to one of the boys. All the
children experienced visions of the object and the
creatures, as well as "arms" which appeared to beckon to
them.
• USA, Florida, Williston: Deputy sheriff A. H. Perkins, C.
F. Bell, and a dozen other witnesses saw six bell-shaped
objects moving by successive leaps. One came close to a
patrol car; the men inside felt that their arms and legs
"went dead" and that their clothes were burning them.
• USA, Georgia, Stockton: Mrs. Wesley Symmonds was driving
near this town when she saw four "bug-eyed" creatures near
the road. They were small beings with thin arms, large eyes,
and pointed chins. Two were turned away from the witness;
one was bending over with something like a stick in its
hand; and the fourth one was facing her with its right arm
raised. It had bulging eyes, a sort of cap, no visible
mouth, a long pointed nose, a chin which came to a sharp
point, and long thin arms with claws.
• USA, Illinois, Huntley: A car was followed for 10 min by
three elongated "balloons, " each showing eight red lights
and about 7 m long.
• USA, Kentucky, Hopkinsville: The Sutton family saw a light
landing near their farmhouse, then several nightmarish
entities about 1 m tall, with glowing silver clothing, an
oversized round head, huge eyes and ears, and a slit-like
mouth harassed them for several hours, in spite of heavy
gunfire. At one point, one of the entities was knocked down
from the roof by a bullet: it "floated down. " Running out
of ammunition, the Suttons got the police, who observed a
lighted object in the sky, flying very fast.
• USA, Kentucky, Kelly: A crowd told of how something
resembling a space ship or flying saucer had landed at the
back of their house near Kelly and 12 or 15 men, who
appeared to be about 4 feet tall, had got out of ship and
come up to the house and done battle with the occupants.
• USA, Minnesota, Great Falls: Little League baseball coach
films two objects streaking across sky near an AFB. Original
explanation was that objects were F-100s on approach to AFB,
but photo-analysis shows objects to be travelling much too
fast.
• USA, New Mexico, Cochise: An instructor and student pilot
in USAF B-25 bomber trainer witness a metallic disc, shaped
like two pie pans face-to-face, and 120- 130' in diameter,
paced the B-25, showing both its edge and its face, for 5-7
minutes.
• USA, New York, Bush Pine: Mr. and Mrs. Bordes, of New York
City, were fishing when they heard a loud splash and a
"gurgling sound, " saw a pink, iridescent, mushroom-shaped
object rise about 70 cm above the water, and sink into the
reservoir. Later, they saw the object again, about 5 m long
and surrounded with turbulence. It reversed direction
several times without turning around and finally flew away
very fast.
• USA, Ohio, Branch Hill: Robert Hunnicutt, a businessman,
saw three men kneeling on the side of the road. They were
about 1 m tall, had gray skin, and wore tight fitting gray
clothes. They had froglike face, long slender arms, normal
eyes, but no eyebrows. One of them held a dark object
(emitting blue flashes) between his raised arms. Hunnicutt
tried to go near but "must have lost consciousness, "
because he found himself driving to the police station
without remembering what took place in the meantime.
• USA, Ohio, Chardon Road: Mr. Sheneman, who was coming from
Willoughby, came out of his car and saw a circular object
with a red light on it that came down fast, hovered, and
emitted two beams of light. The witness fled toward his
house, and the object appeared to chase him at less than 70
m altitude. It measured about 30 m in diameter and supported
a dome. Mr. Sheneman, his wife, and their two children saw
it fly away.
• USA, Ohio, Greenhills: Four adolescents in a car saw a
creature with a luminous body, standing near a fireplug.
• USA, LOOK Magazine Article Volume 19, June 14, 1955:
Despite hundreds of "eyewitness" accounts of flying saucers,
none has been captured and no government has come forward to
take credit (or blame) for their reported aerial
shenanigans. So, barring the possibility that the saucers
are from other planets (a theory ardently supported by
science-fiction fans), it seems reasonable to conclude that
"there ain't no such animal."
But persistent and fairly credible rumors recur that a
Canadian aircraft manufacturer, A. V. Roe, Canada, Ltd., has
had a saucer design under development for two years. One
report has it that the project was abandoned by the Canadian
government because it would cost over $75 million to get a
prototype flying model into the air. The A. V. Roe people
maintain a confusing silence about the whole thing. They
can't deny the project has been abandoned because they never
announced it had begun. Our own Air Force offers "no
comment."
At a recent meeting of engineers, it was indicated
that, while flying saucer or sphere projects may still be
purely hypothetical, new air-defense problems are setting up
requirements for aircraft performance that would seem to be
most ideally met by a saucer craft such as illustrated
above.
One problem, recently stated by Brig. Gen. Benjamin
Kelsey, deputy director of research and development of the
Air Force, is this: "Airplanes today spend too much time
gathering speed on the ground and not enough flying in the
air." Today's fighters, he pointed out, need extremely long
runways and there are few in existence that are now long
enough. These few, and the concentration of the planes using
them, provide a worth-while target for an A-bomb. With a
single blow, the enemy might cripple a substantial portion
of our air defense.
Planes that could take off vertically would not need
long runways, which cost millions of dollars. They could be
dispersed widely and safely. In this country, four
vertical-rising aircraft already have been revealed. All but
one, however, are modifications of conventional plane
designs. None yet approaches the performance a true saucer
might be capable of.
What are the requirements of an ideal defense fighter?
1) Ability to take off and land vertically; 2) high speed of
over Mach 2. (more than 1500 mph); 3) high rate of climb; 4)
excellent maneuverability; 5) heavy armament; 6) ability to
operate at 60,000 feet.
These sketches indicate a highly educated guess of what
a flying saucer to fulfill these requirements would look
like. It provides for a one-man crew, housed in a glass
bubble that would provide excellent visibility.
The prone position of the pilot not only allows
improved streamlining but also enables the pilot to
withstand high accelerations and quick turns. The design
contemplates use of cannon, rockets or guided missiles.
Exact armament would depend on the mission. The target would
be sighted by radar, and the actual firing would be computed
and accomplished electronically, as in several interceptors
now in operation.
Power unit is key to design. The whole success of the
saucer design depends on the unusual engine. The sketched
design is remarkably similar to a conventional jet engine
but is many times larger. It consists of a set of combustion
chambers and a large turbine. These produce blasts of
propulsive air around the circumference of the saucer. Air
entering the intakes around the pilots cockpit is deflected
to the engine. This pressurized air is swept up by the
impeller, with a subsequent rise in pressure and
temperature. Next, the air goes to the combustion chamber,
where fuel is added and ignited and a propulsive gas is
formed. The hot gases rush through the turbine blades, in
the process turning the impeller wheel. The gas then expands
and exhausts at high velocity through the many-fingered jet
pipes. The large turbine acts as a stabilizing gyroscope
keeping the plane level even when it is hovering.
Design is structurally strong. The saucer shape lends
itself to engineering for strength much more readily than a
conventional aircraft does, with its long fuselage, thin
wings and troublesome tail unit. The simple saucer shape
makes structural rigidity much less of a problem. New
materials will also come into the picture. Titanium, for
example, is 60 per cent heavier than aluminum but with
qualities of steel and is not as vulnerable to temperature
effects as the light alloys now used in supersonic planes.
Landing problems are simple. In contrast to present vertical
take-off designs, the saucer need not make a touchy
stall-type landing. It is already in the correct flight
attitude for landing and only the forward jets need be
switched on and all jets deflected downward to provide the
necessary lift to hover and land.
This description is brief and highly simplified.
Military security and rapidly changing defense problems not
only cloud many details of a project like this but also
obscure whether anything comparable actually exists. But
based on the current requirements of our defense effort and
the demonstrated abilities of our designers, an educated
guess is that a flying saucer much like this one may well be
flying within the next few years.
• Frank Halstead, an astronomer observed a cigar-shaped
object followed by domed disk on November 1. •
General Douglas MacArthur. General MacArthur is believed to
have been involved in establishing the Interplanetary
Phenomenon Unit (IPU), which was formed to investigate
crashed and retrieved flying saucers. In 1955 MacArthur
stated: "The nations of the world will have to unite for the
next war will be an interplanetary war. The nations of the
earth must some day make a common front against attack by
people from other planets." This statement has led to
intense speculation that the IPU uncovered more facts about
UFOs than has ever been revealed.
1955 Project
Blue Book Unknowns
•
Iceland May 4, 1955; Keflavik, Iceland. 12:38 p.m. Witnesses: Lt. Col. E.J.
Stealy, lst Lt. J.W. Burt. About 10 round, white objects, one of which left a
brief smoke trail, flew in an irregular formation, some of them making erratic
movements during the 5-8 second sighting.
• Iceland Aug. 11, 1955; Iceland. 11:45 a.m. Witness: 2nd Lt. E.J. Marlow.
Twelve grey objects, from cigar to egg-shaped, varied their formation from
elliptical to wavy line to scattered to straight line to trail formation. Speed
varied from hover to 1,000 m.p.h. Sighting lasted 3-4 minutes.
• USA, California Feb. 2, 1955; Miramar Naval Air Station, California. 11:50
a.m. Witness: USN Cmdr. J.L. Ingersoll. One highly polished sphere, with
reddish-brown coloring, fell, then instantly accelerated to 1,000-1,500 m.p.h.
• USA, Colorado Nov. 25, 1955; La Veta, Colorado. 10:30 a.m. Witness: State
Senator S.T. Taylor. One dirigible-shaped object (fat front, tapered toward the
tail) object, which was luminous green-blue and jellylike, appeared overhead
diving at a 45’ angle, then reduced angle to 30’. Object seen for 5 seconds.
• USA, Florida Jan. 26, 1955; Lakeland, Florida. 6:15 p.m. Witness: J.M.
Holland. A black smoke trail made a circle. There was an explosion and some
objects fell. No further information in file.
• USA, Indiana Oct. 8, 1955; Loogootee, Indiana. 4:38 p.m. Witnesses: R.D.
Prather, H. Ahern. One round, silver or white object flew straight and level at
more than 1,000 m.p.h. for an unstated length of time.
• USA, New Mexico Jan, 1, 1955; Cochise, New Mexico. 6:44 a.m. Witnesses:
instructor and student pilot in USAF B-25 bomber/trainer. A metallic disc,
shaped like two pie pans face-to-face, and 120-130’ in diameter, paced the B-25,
showing both its edge and its face, for 5-7 minutes. Only item in case file was
summary form.
• USA, New Mexico Feb.l, 1955; 20 miles east of Cochise, New Mexico. 7:55 p.m.
Witnesses: Instructor Capt. D.F. Ritzdorf, aviation cadet F.W. Miller in TB-25
bomber/trainer. One red and white ball hovered off the left wing of the TB-25
for 5 minutes, then made a very fast climb. Total time of sighting was 8
minutes.
• USA, Maine Dec. 21, 1955; Caribou, Maine. 111 p.m. Witness: Roberta V.
Jacobs. One round, very bright gold, domed disc made a short climb, rotated,
hovered and then accelerated during the 6-8 minute sighting.
• USA, Maryland Feb. 10, 1955; Bethesda, Maryland. 10:03 p.m. Witness: E.J.
Stein, model maker at U.S. Navy ship design facility. One object, shaped like a
small portion of the bottom of the Moon, with a radiant yellow color, hovered
for 30 seconds. Its bottom changed to a funnel shape. Total sighting lasted
1.5-2 minutes.
• USA, Maryland Oct. 11, 1955; Pt. Lookout, Maryland. 4 p.m. Witnesses: B.
Hale, A. Ostrom. One round object which looked white in the daylight and turned
red with sparks toward the end of the 2.5 hour sighting, made a deep roar,
unlike an aircraft.
• USA, Missouri Nov. 17, 1955; St. Louis, Missouri. 6:10 a.m. Witness: J.A.
Mapes. Twelve round, flat objects, silver on top and dark on the bottom, flew in
4-deep formation, tipping in pitch and roll, for 45 seconds.
• USA, Tennessee Sept. 9, 1955; near Alcoa, Tennessee. 12 noon. Witness: M.N.
Dawkins, using binoculars. One brown, almost square object flew with a circular
motion for 10-15 minutes.
• USA, Tennessee Nov. 20, 1955; Lake City, Tennessee. 5:20 p.m. Witnesses:
Operations Officer Capt. B.G. Denkler and five men of the USAF 663rd AC&W Sqdn.
Two oblong, bright orange, semi-transparent objects flew at terrific speed and
erratically, toward and away from each other. Observed by various persons form
4 to 15 minutes.
• USA, Texas April 30, 1955; Travis County, Texas. 7:30 a.m. Witness USAF Wing
Intelligence Officer Maj. L..J. Pagozalski. Four black objects in a cluster made
a whooshing sound like a zephyr. Sighting lasted 2-3 seconds.
• USA, Nebraska July 29, 1955; Columbus, Nebraska. 10:45 p.m. Witness:
Morrice Raymond. Four orange flashing lights and one whIte flashing light moved
up and down like yo-yos for 5-6 minutes.
• USA, Wyoming May 23, 1955; Cheyenne, Wyoming. Midnight. Witnesses: USAF
Airman/Basic I.J. Shapiro and E.C. Ingber. During a 5 minute period, two
slender, vertical rectangles were seen low on the horizon, and two ovals with
tops (dark, with dark blue illumination) flew higher.
• USA, Virginia Aug. 23, 1955; Arlington, Virginia. 10:45 a.m. Witness: G.M.
Park, using a 400x telescope. Several orange lights moved singly or in groups,
circling and stopping during 30 minute sighting.
• USA, Washington Sept. 3, 1955; Bellingham, Washington. Witness: observer
Saunders for Ground Observer Corps. One white pinhead moved slowly across 30^ of
sky in 15 minutes. No further information. • USA,
Washington, D.C. Sept. 7, 1955; Washington, D.C. Witnesses: two photographers,
one plate maker for the Army Map Service (one named Smith). One glowing round
object flew an arc for 1 minute.
