SUNlite

Shedding some light on UFOlogy and UFOs

Volume 4 Number 1 January-Februnary 2012

 Left: For this illustration, the background is an im-
age I took of the Rosette Nebula a few years back.
The B-47 comes from Flight Simulator X.
Front: The B-47 on display in Savannah, Georgia at
the eighth air force museum.

What I figured out was not so much the

solution as the punch line. You have the
critical issue: Aliens with radar?

It does seem rather odd that the UFO

would decide to use an S-band radar sig-
nal to track or test an Air Force RB-47. It is
this clue that seems to have been glossed
over/down played by those presenting
this case as the best evidence.

I want to thank all the people, who were

involved in this year long effort. Those
in the Reality Uncovered group were
very helpful in this effort (specifically
the forum member Access Denied, who
unearthed some important documenta-
tion). Hopefully, this issue will help oth-
ers, who might want to pursue this case
in the future.

UFOlogys best case TABLE OF CONTENTS

A bout a year ago, Paul Kimball private- been covered and review the arguments Whos blogging UFOs..................................2-3
ly accused me of taking on only easy that had been presented to date. Comments from my mail box..............3
UFO cases and felt that skeptics were
purposefully ignoring the RB-47 UFO Some might suggest that I am question- The Roswell Corner .......................................4
incident. I replied that the reason skep- ing the honesty/integrity of the air crew The RB-47 case: UFOlogys best evi-
tics/debunkers/disbelievers/whatever on this RB-47. I strongly disagree with dence?............................................................. 5-6
could not explain the case was because that characterization. As a retired sub-
An RB-47 UFO case primer................7-12
there just wasnt enough information mariner, who has conducted his share
and, without a time machine, it would be of intelligence gathering missions that RB-47 Phase I: The up-scope inci-
impossible to satisfy UFO proponents. I were similar to what the RB-47 crews dent.............................................13-18
felt there was little hope of any success were performing, I know the risks they RB-47 Phase 2: The 1010Z encounter......19
in resolving the case but, I was intrigued took under very adverse and stressful
by his challenge. Therefore, I decided to conditions. I have nothing but respect RB-47 Phase 3: The approach to
conduct a review of the case. for what they accomplished. However, I Duncanville.........................20-25
will not allow my respect for them to pre- RB-47 Phase 4: Pursuit! ..........................26-30
I was of the opinion that all the explana- vent me from suggesting the possibility
Af te r m at h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 - 3 2
tions to date had their flaws. That would that errors could have been made at the
include Klass and Brad Sparks, who had time or their memories of the event can Various theories for the UFO lights...32-34
self-crowned himself the RB-47 expert be flawed. RB-47 Conclusions.................................35-36
(Just look at his e-mail address). In order
to address the challenge, I began some One of the skeptics I have been in contact The radar contacts from 1955................36
private conversations with several UFO with about the case is Marty Kottmeyer. I PhilKlassvsLewisChaseandhowitrelatesto
skeptics in an attempt to review the case sent him a copy of Sparks article on the the Echo/Oscar flight shutdowns......37-38
materials to see what might have been subject and, after reading it, he gave me
overlooked or erroneously reported. My the following response in a letter dated UFOlogy drops the ball!........................38
intentions were not to debunkor explain March 31, 2011: UFOs on the tube..........................................39
the case because I thought those expec- Buy it, borrow it, bin it.................................39
tations were too high. I decided the best I have to say after mulling it over this eve-
thing to do is see if all possibilities had ning, I ended up with a big old silly grin.

1
Robert Sheaffer rehashed the Betty
and Barney Hill story with the help of
Whos blogging by another witness who identified them
as jets. One wonders why the UFO exam-
James Macdonald of NH. I have been
aware of Mr. Macdonalds article for some UFOs? iner did not bother to do a cursory exam-
ination of the events before attempting
time and it is interesting reading. Recent- to promote them as something exotic.
ly, I had the time to make a night trip into If this was one of the better UFO reports
the White Mountains to check out his ar- Hot topics and varied opinions from the Lee Summit area, it makes one
ticle. I hope to put together an article in question the rest of the UFO reports from
the next few months. this location.

Somebody thought they Seattle also had some UFO

saw rod UFOs during a Colts- reports, which included a
Saints NBC broadcast. The video. They looked and be-
intrepid individual froze one haved a lot like Chinese lan-
of the frames of several ob- terns. It always amazes me
jects flying behind a cathedral how people still figure these
in New Orleans. They must are UFOs. Didnt they read
never watch many NBC Sun- my IFO university article on
day night games as it is com- Chinese lanterns in SUNlite
mon for them to broadcast a 3-1 (page 23)?
time-lapsed sequence showing
planes landing at an airport or There were some UFO re-
cars moving through the city. ports from Wisconsin in
These are simply airplanes in a mid-November. This in-
time lapse image and nothing cluded videos that looked
more. I couldnt believe that vaguely familiar. They
Spiegel found this compelling. He would looked like military flares being dropped
later publish the explanation. I guess it other inexplicable event when just a tiny from a jet fighter seen from a distance.
is better to admit you were wrong than bit of a homework would have resolved Sure enough, the witnesses (from three
have somebody point it out elsewhere. it. I wonder if Mancuso knows the source different locations) were looking in the
of the videos yet or is he still denying that direction of a the Volk Military Operating
Robert Sheaffer provided us with the it can be explainable. Area (MOA). One has to wonder if this is
details regarding a UFO video shot at the case.
a high school football game in Scotts- Missouri continues to be a hotbed of
dale, Arizona. Ian Ridpath had noted it IFO activity! The UFO examiner says Kathleen Marden and Denise Stoner
and sent out an e-mail about it and sug- so and then posted some videos from.... announced an abduction experience
gested that these were parachutists with wait for it.....Lees Summit! Yes, the same research project. Among the various
pyrotechnics attached to their legs. I had place that the KC flight demonstration items described is an abduction expe-
looked at the video and noted that the team operates from, is the location of a riencer ET technology survey, which is
weatherman, Marc Mancuso, did not ap- major UFO sighting with videos! Inter- supposed to increase our knowledge of
pear to be very bright when he stated that estingly the UFO, which Marsh refers to ET technology. Nothing can be learned
he guessed we would never know what as a huge hovering disc, looks a lot like from these anecdotal accounts unless
the source of the lights were. The video some planes in formation complete with they produce an actual alien implant that
was very similar to the Golden Knights anti-collision strobes. This happened on can be analyzed by scientists outside the
and Red Bull parachutists videos (referred October 31, 2011, which was a Monday UFO community. The same can be said
to as the silver surfer UFOs) mentioned in night. Was KC flight out over Lees Sum- for the UFO experiencer survey. This is
SUNlite 3-1. I began to look into the pos- mit that night? It is no surprise that they more pseudo-scientific nonsense.
sible sources and discovered that the vid- were part of the Monday Night Football
eo was shot from Horizon High Schools game festivities at Arrowhead stadium, The November/December 2011 Skep-
football stadium west stands at an azi- which is about 11 miles from the witness tical Inquirer presented an article by
muth of about 140 degrees. I followed location. According to the media story, James McGaha and Joe Nickell with the
this line on Google Earth to the first open they were up in air in a holding pattern title: Exeter Incident Solved! The bot-
area and it came to Salt River Fields. About over Lees Summit before the game. The tom line of the article is that USAF aerial
this time, Bob e-mailed the group stating witness heard this explanation and de- refueling operations being conducted at
he had isolated it to a Halloween Balloon nied that could be the case because it the time of the initial sightings were the
Spooktacular where a group of skydivers was all one object and acted so strangely. cause of the UFO reports. CSIs web site
would perform at 9PM. The location was On the video, she proclaimed it was like has not been updated but I expect the ar-
at.....Salt River Fields! Bobs quick work the Close Encounters spaceship! Where ticle to appear in the next few months.
closed the case. The funny thing is that a have I heard that reasoning before? Two
few UFO blogs were presenting this as an- days later, Marsh published an account The Rendlesham Incident Forum was

2
 Whos blogging UFOs? (Contd) Comments from my mail box
I received several comments about some
previous issues, that I wanted to present
closed down recently. Prior to the web People in Cowley County, Kansas were to my readers. I also needed to explain
site going down, Jim Penniston and John exposed to a craft being transported that two of those who contacted me, ap-
Burroughs promised new revelations in through their town. This sort of thing peared to misunderstand the content of
the future. Do people actually still believe has happened before and it usually is those articles.
them? some form of military vehicle. Reports
The first comment came from Anthony
are is the object was an X-47B drone.
Bragalia, who has done all sorts of re-
I have received an e-mail with some
search regarding the Wanaque sightings
links by an individual in Germany, who Imagine my shock when the UFO ex-
in 1966. He seemed to get the impres-
has taken the time to debunk some aminer stated that multiple Pennsylva-
sion that I was commenting about his
UFO videos. The first was the MIG-21 nia witnesses were reporting multiple
work but I was not. I gave a link in the
video, which I discussed in SUNlite 3-2. UFOs were falling from the sky on
commentary to the UFO Iconoclasts blog
It just confirms what I wrote about the the nights of December 11 and 12th.
in the Whos Blogging section but he
video. The other video came from the Ste- Hmmm....as an astronomer, I think this
missed it and thought it was about his
phenville sightings. When I saw this video may have had a lot to do with the Gemi-
articles on the case. Bragalia did not
many years ago, I felt it was a star shot with nid meteor shower, which was active
present the M31 photograph, which was
a slow shutter speed. Now my suspicion is during this time period (maximum was
what I was describing. It is important to
confirmed. on December 14th). The descriptions all
note that this photograph was presented
sounded like bright meteors.
in an article about the sightings from a
Robert Sheaffers bad UFOs has some
1967 magazine. Clearly, not all the Wa-
excellent historical documents avail- James Carlson took on Robert Hastings
naque sightings were legitimate as this
able for reading. They are interesting interpretation of the F. E. Warren missile
image showed.
glimpses into the skeptical past regarding shutdown back in 2010. Among many
Phil Klass and Robert Sheaffer. Sheaffers things, Carlson pointed out how Hastings Another comment came from James Mo-
exchange of letters with Hynek about his attempted to make himself appear legiti- seley, who took offense about Bob Young
book is most interesting. mate by getting it posted on the Reuters linking the Columbus UFO crash story he
newswire. Actual Reuters reporters have had written about and Kecksburg. Ac-
The blog Ghost Rockets recently a standard by which they are held for be- cording to a postcard, he sent me, There
appeared and has some interesting ing factual. Hastings was able to bypass is NO connection whatsoever between Ke-
discussions about top secret aircraft this standard through a newswire service cksburg and Scully or Kecksburg and Co-
programs from long ago. It makes for in- he pays to post his stories Reuters picked lumbus (NO bodies were ever claimed at
teresting reading. I am aware the author of it up (as they do with many such stories) Kecksburg!). I think Mr. Moseley missed
the blog also writes about UFOs. This will but did not endorse the truth of Hastings the point of the article. Bob Young was
be worth monitoring. claims. It was a self-promotion gimmick. trying to demonstrate how the various
Is this any surprise? parts of the stories told about Columbus
Billy Cox continues to pound the story and Aztec also surfaced in the Kecks-
about the UFO Petition and the Office Tim Hebert had a very interesting ar- burg tales. He demonstrated there was
of Science and Technologys response.I ticle about the Echo/Oscar flight shut- a link between some parts of the stories
saw Leslie Kean once again promote the down stories and how it relates to the and indicated these mysterious sources
idea of a government sponsored UFO oral histories passed down of the years were drawing upon these past tales to
study. I am astonished that such indi- between Missile crews. By the time he construct new tales regarding Kecksburg.
viduals would want to repeat the Condon arrived in 1981, he heard nothing of those Bob Young also pointed out to me that at
Study. What makes Kean think the results shutdowns but did hear of stories of one point, a witness did describe to Stan
would be different and, if they were the haunted missile silos from the 1960s. I have Gordon that a lizard-like alien was found
same, would she then complain that it experienced similar stories in my naval ca- in the Kecksburg object. So, I guess there
was fixed as UFO groups did fifty years reer. A submarine is a pretty tight group was a body after all.
ago? There is no way that politicians will and oral traditions do get passed down. I also received e-mails from Tom Wert-
stick out their necks to waste money look- This tribal knowledge can be passed on mann and William Jones of Ohio MUFON
ing into this sort of thing. If UFOlogists and, if the event is memorable enough pointing out that my comment about
want to conduct such a study, they need (especially if it was classified or exotic), it the Lake Erie videos in SUNlite 3-4 was
to get a private source of funding and an would have been retained (although the incorrect. I had called the individual Paul
independent group of scientists to accom- exact details would be lost). Something Hill. His name was actually Michael Lee
plish such a task. Kean appears to be quite like the Echo/Oscar shutdowns would Hill. I am not sure where I got the name
willing to spend the taxpayers dollar but have been passed down between the Paul as the article I linked clearly identi-
one wonders how far her dedication will crews. The absence of this tribal knowl- fied him. Mea Culpa!
go? Does any of her earning from book/ edge indicates the shutdowns were not
DVD sales go towards UFO studies? as spectacular as we are led to believe by
Salas and Hastings.

3
The Roswell mans differing opinions about Roswell
seems to make him unfit to be included
in this august company! Perhaps there
have heard this story before. The prob-
lem I have with the article I read is that
they make all sorts of claims that the de-

Corner was only so much room for all the egos.

Shortly after the initial announcements,
Kevin Randle posted the first discovery
bris they found came from 1947 but there
is no proof this. Couldnt it have been left
at the site in 1980, 1990, or 2000? I just
of the group. It was not really new. Ac- cant buy this seriously but we will have
Getting the band back together cording to Randle, everyone pretty much to wait. Stay tuned.......
knew the debris was weather balloon
Kevin Randle announced that the Roswell materials prior to the arrival of Irving Marcel passes lie detector test!
dream team (Carey-Schmitt-Randle) is Newton. This is supposed to mean it is
assembling and promised new and excit- evidence for a conspiracy. Of course, At least that is what Tony Bragalias head-
ing Roswell revelations. He has forgiven Randle ignores the testimony of Newton, line read. Bragalia apparently used the
Don Schmitt for his past lies and sloppy/ who had stated that Ramey suspected it software given to him by this research
erroneous research and is now working was from a weather balloon before he institute that uses it for determining if
with the infamous Carey/Schmitt au- even arrived. Based on this, it is no sur- people are lying. According to Bragalia,
thors to create a new opus that will put prise that before Newton arrived, several this software takes the transcripts of an
all skeptics to shame. If it is anything like individuals had already told the media it interview and analyzes them for decep-
Witness to Roswell, I would not expect was a weather balloon. tive content. It all sounded pretty hokey
much other than more unsubstantiated What this demonstrates is that, in its first to me when the claim is that you can take
rumors, second (and third) hand stories, swing at the Roswell case, the Dream any transcript and tell if somebody is ly-
and unverifiable claims made by aging Team immediately declared the case ing or not.
individuals who were located in Roswell was a conspiracy/cover-up. So, instead I decided to pull the thread on this and
at the time. of the promise of a new approach on found some interesting information. The
Randle then announced that Tony Bra- the case, we got the same old one. I am Mental Floss blog had a description of
galia and Chris Rutkowski were going shocked! the software Bragalia was using. It seems
to join this dream team. Rutkowski is it was primarily designed for looking at
an apparent agnostic about Roswell but Who believes Roswell involved fraudulent e-mails/spam. I am not sure
we know that Mr. Bragalia makes some aliens? how well it transitions to transcripts,
rather wild claims that will fit in well with which is what Bragalia was doing. Their
Schmitt and Careys approach. I guess A recent article with the title Roswell, web site does have an on-line deception
that means they are going to endorse his Aliens & Belief - Who Believes that Aliens detector tool, which is probably what
flawed work about Nitinol among other Landed at Roswell? by Frank Borzellieri, Bragalia used for his article. As a test, I
things. appeared in the latest issue of Skeptic used the deception detector tool by en-
Just as I was finalizing this issue, Randle magazine. Borzelleri conducted an on- tering several texts from the bible (there
announced that David Rudiak was also line poll to see what kind of people be- is a minimum of 50 words required).
now a member of the dream team. This lieve Roswell involved an alien spaceship Some of the texts were given the label as
is no shock but he also mentioned that crash. The bottom line is the following deceptive. I then lied to the on-line tool
he had asked skeptics to join the team characteristics apply to those who be- several times and it recognized no de-
but they turned him down. lieve in Roswell: ception! In another test, I ran a few Frank
About a month before this, I had posed 1. Religious beliefs Kaufmann (who has been discredited as
the question to several Roswell skeptics 2. High School education or less a Roswell witness) quotes into the tool
as to what their answer might be if they 3. Conservative political beliefs and it still reported no deception. Addi-
got an invite to the dream team (at that This was something of a shock to me be- tionally, I was able to get some quotes
point in time, none reported being asked cause what I have seen of many Roswell made by Marcel and Dubose to come out
to join). I could not see any condition, supporters is that they were educated deceptive. This tells me that this tool
where I would want to be involved and (or claimed to have college degrees) and may work for detecting e-mail fraud but,
neither could anybody else. I am curious liberal in their political positions. Maybe I in my opinion, it is inadequate for what
as to which skeptics were asked. It is have been talking to the wrong individu- Mr. Bragalia is proclaiming.
not that we are not interested at looking als. This poll, while interesting, does not
at new information but the usual rumor, add much to the Roswell story. I figured
innuendo, and tall tales that have been I would mention it here for information
presented seems to be what is going to purposes only.
result here. Actual verifiable documenta-
tion that supports the alien space ship Debris everywhere!
crash version of events, is what they
should be looking for. Art Campbell sent me an e-mail alert-
It is noteworthy that the dream team ing me to an upcoming revelation that
did not include Stanton Friedman. Un- the crash on San Augustin did occur and
like Schmitts past transgressions, Fried- they have found debris that prove it. I

4
 The RB47 case: UFOlogys best evidence?
plained. What was missing was the sup-
porting documentation and interviews
he conducted. Luckily, he left copies of
many of his personal files with the Ameri-
can Philosophical Society. For a fee, I was
able to get his entire RB-47 file consisting
of about 300 pages of letters, notes, in-
terviews, and technical data.

Other pertinent materials were collected

by various members over several months.
This included obtaining copies of the
notes Dr. McDonald made in his conver-
sations with the crew members and ob-
An RB-47 in flight. Note the various bumps/blisters on the underside of the aircraft and wings. (Source: USAF)
taining technical information about the
Introduction at the arguments for and against to see aircraft. Isaac Koi was helpful in obtaining
how good they stood up to serious ex- a copy of the Summer of 1977 CUFOS bul-

T his case is a rather extensive event

that is composed of two to three
separate incidents that UFOlogists have
amination.

I felt there was little hope of finding an

letin, which contained some pertinent in-
formation. Due to my obligations of writ-
ing SUNlite, family matters, and personal
linked together over the years as proof acceptable explanation for this case be- interests elsewhere, the going was slow
that a UFO was monitoring the move- cause of its status in UFOlogy. It was al- but steady as the group moved forward
ments of a USAF RB-47 aircraft through ready voted by many as the best UFO over the months.
the southern United States. The UFO was case ever, which means that no matter
seen by the flight crew and its electronic what I proposed, I seriously doubted Arguments for and against
signature was monitored by the intel- that UFO proponents would accept it. I
ligence officers inside the plane. It was
also reportedly tracked by ground radar
as well. This makes it an important case
would also be vilified/ridiculed for hav-
ing the nerve to suggest any explanation
was plausible. Despite these concerns, I
T he original paper written about this
case was by Dr. James McDonald back
in the late 1960s after the Condon report
for UFOlogists because it contains visual received positive feedback and felt the had concluded that it could not be ex-
observation and confirmation of these endeavor would be worth the effort. plained. McDonalds stamp of approval
observations with electronic data. had immediately made this case a clas-
Acquiring the documentation sic.
UFOlogists enjoy presenting cases that
are decades old because they know there
is little that can be added to what is al-
ready known. Much of what is presented
T he first thing was to accumulate ev-
erything that had been presented
about the case. Sparks article, while
Phil Klass took on the case in 1971 and
wrote a rather extensive study on the in-
cident. Klass suggested that it was equip-
by UFO proponents is what can be found proclaimed the best UFO investigation ment malfunction, a bright fireball, an
in the Blue Book files and in research of the event, was unavailable for many airliner, and reception of ground radar
conducted by those who examined the years, unless one had a copy of Jerome signals that made the event appear mys-
case previously. However, that does not Clarks expensive UFO encyclopedia. terious to the air crew. I was aware there
mean a case is considered good evidence About five years ago, after being unable were some errors in his explanation but
for something unknown to science. A to obtain an electronic copy from others, the overall explanation seemed plausible
mysterious incident in 1957 can remain I obtained a copy of it by driving down to most UFO skeptics, including myself.
mysterious simply because there is just to the Boston Public Library. I could have
not enough in the way of cold hard facts saved myself the gas because in the last In 1977, The Center For UFO Studies (CU-
(things that can not be denied and must few years, it has finally appeared on the FOS) published a rebuttal. It is not widely
be accepted) to support an explanation. internet. Several web sites now contain known and did not seem to make much
the contents. This web site (http://wiki. of an impact. The main argument had to
Objectives razing.net/index.php/(1957/07/17)_RB- do with a letter between Dr. Hynek and
47_radar/visual_multiple-witnesses) and Lewis Chase, the pilot, who Phil Klass had

D espite my reservations about look-

ing at this case, I decided to discuss
it with several skeptics and see if we
NICAP now contain the document in
question for all to see.
communicated with in his examination of
the case. Chase chose to clarify his posi-
tion on what transpired and felt that Klass
could come up with any information that The Klass explanation can be found in the had done a good job on the radar data
had not been previously discovered/re- Blue Book files (because he sent it there but had not fully explained the case.
vealed. My intentions were to take a look in the 1970s) and in his book UFOs: Ex-

5
This is pretty much where the case stood sented so the reader can get a basic idea vides a celestial simulation that proved to
until the late 1990s, when the case was of all the details that were needed to un- be interesting in pursuing some celestial
revived by Brad Sparks. He had written a derstand what is being discussed. I then explanations that had been made in the
lengthy entry in Jerome Clarks UFO En- broke the case down into four different past. While the celestial mechanics were
cyclopedia that was a very extensive re- sections. correct compared to planetarium pro-
buttal to Klass explanation for the case. grams, the twilight settings were not very
The article begins by promoting itself The first section of the flight occurred accurate even though the sun rose at
as solid proof of UFOs being something when the RB-47 crossed the gulf coast the correct time. This carried forward in
other than misperceptions and hoaxes: in Mississippi. One of the operators de- the imagery in this issue. The sky should
tected a radar signal that acted strangely have been brighter than the simulation
New findings by aerospace researcher as if it were an aircraft flying by or around showed when the plane was near Dallas.
and UFO investigator Brad Sparks estab- the RB-47. I refer to this part of the flight
lish this case as the first scientific proof of as The Up-scope incident. Presentation
the existence of UFOs, and it uses the first-
ever calibrated electronic measurements
of microwave signals which were emitted
by the UFO and which correlate precisely
The second section of the case occurred
some time later when the RB-47 was fly-
ing westward from Mississippi to Louisi-
T his issue will be dedicated to present-
ing what I discovered in my examina-
tion of the case. Some of it will be new
with eyewitness visual observations and ana. A very bright light flew across the and some of it will be more of the same
radar tracks. 1 front of the RB-47 and then disappeared. stuff previously mentioned. It is up to the
I have labeled this The 1010Z encoun- reader to judge if it has any merit. Hope-
I think this description is a bit of hyper- ter. fully, it will add some new information
bole. Some examples are: and views about the case that were never
After this event, the plane continued presented or publicly considered prior to
It is described as scientific proof. Sci- westward into Texas. As they flew west- this publication.
entific proof can be replicated and ward, the operators recorded many ra-
is subject to far higher protocols/ dar signals from different directions. A Notes and References
review than this article experienced. ground radar station became involved
Even the Condon study did not con- and reportedly tracked the UFO as well. 1. Sparks, Brad. RB-47 radar/visual case. The
sider the case scientific proof of The pilot and copilot saw a UFO in the UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon From
anything more than they could not same general direction from which the The Beginning, Vol. II: L-Z, 2nd Edition. Jerome
explain it. signals were emanating. I call this sec- Clark editor. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, Inc.;
tion of the sighting as The approach to 1998. Page 761
Sparks never proves the signals were Duncanville.
emitted by the UFO. He makes that
link but there is not one iota of real Interested in the UFO, the RB-47 turned
proof to establish the UFO was the towards it and began to pursue it. What
source of the signals. transpired is a series of maneuvers as the
RB-47 tried to close the distance. Howev-
Additionally, the observations of er, the UFO was elusive and would vanish
the witnesses do not correlate pre- every time the plane got close. The RB-47
cisely with the signals measured. would eventually start to run low on fuel
The observations of the crew were and had to depart for their home base in
estimates, which are subject to error. Kansas. I have tagged this final section
Stating they are precise is just more of the UFO event as The Pursuit.
exaggeration.
Simulation
Klass never bothered to publicly argue
with Sparks on the case. By the time this
was written, he was at an advanced age
and apparently had little interest in such
D uring my efforts to understand this
case, I chose to see what it would be
like to fly a B-47 on the course described
an exchange. As a result, Sparks was the to get a feel for the conditions under
last man standing and could declare his which this all transpired. The Microsoft
investigation had withstood scrutiny. Flight Simulator program (Flight Simu-
lator X) is an excellent device for such a
Case summary thing. It can give one the feel for what
the pilot had to deal with while flying his

A brief overview of the case is neces-

sary at this point. Prior to discussing
the case, I have a section where all the
aircraft and some limitations he encoun-
tered. You will see screen shots of the
aircraft throughout this article using this
pertinent facts and information is pre- program. Additionally, the program pro-

6
 An RB-47 UFO case primer

RB-47H aircraft component locations1

Aircraft operational radius chart3

T he purpose of this section is to famil-

iarize the reader with the technical
particulars. It will provide information
magnetic signals being radiated. The
plane had antennae in various places and
highly sensitive receiving equipment in
tember 1957.

that will be necessary in evaluating the order to detect these signals from great In Brad Sparks paper, he computes the
arguments being presented. distances. speed of Mach 1 at 34,500 feet (using
radiosonde data from July 17, 1957) as
The crew These planes were used to fly near and being 687mph (597kts). He did not show
over the Soviet Union in an effort to gath- his calculations but after examining the

T he RB-47 had six crew members.

Three were the flight crew and the
other three were the Electronic Counter
er information on the types of radar being
used to defend the Soviet Union. Several
were intercepted by Soviet aircraft and at
radiosonde data for three locations (Jack-
son, MS, Fort Worth, Tx and Shreveport,
LA), I computed similar results (ambient
Measures (ECM) officers who were re- least two were shot down. Despite the temperature at --39C to -40C at 10,500
ferred to as Ravens. The Ravens were in odds, one reportedly was able to fly 450 meters = 685-686 mph/595-6 knots using
a capsule that was located in the bomb miles into Soviet air space. an on-line calculator). Therefore, I used
bay of the RB-47. The names of the crew 686mph for computing airspeeds of the
members were: The air speed of the RB-47 has been some- aircraft, which will be necessary later.
what exaggerated by both Sparks and
Pilot: Lewis Chase Klass. This seems to have been inspired Examining the speeds for maximum fuel
by the pilots (Lewis Chase) recollections efficiency (upper right), we discover the
Copilot: James McCoid of speeds he felt the craft was flying at optimal speed is about 380-440 knots.
many years after the event. However, if This is confirmed by flight operating in-
Navigator: Thomas Hanley one looks at the actual flight character- structions manual for the B-47A, which
istic charts of the RB-47 and the pilots states:
ECM #1: John Provenzano manual for the B-47, one quickly realizes
that some of his speed estimates in the Maximum range is obtained by climb-
ECM #2: Frank McClure 1960s and 1970s appear to be slightly ex- ing to performance altitude as rapidly
aggerated. It also tends to validate what as possible and then maintaining 0.74
ECM#3: Walter Tuchscherer he wrote in his initial report back in Sep- Mach throughout the cruise portion of the
flight, slowly increasing altitude, about
It is hard to determine the ranks of all the 1500 feet per hour, as fuel is consumed.
crew members at the time but the report Although 0.74 Mach is optimum, the air-
states that Chase was a Major (O-4) and plane can be flown at 0.70 to 0.76 Mach
McCoid was a first Lt. (O-2). The naviga- with a maximum loss of range of only 3%.
tors rank was not listed but he was prob- Cruising at Mach numbers above or be-
ably a first Lt or Captain (O-3). The Ravens low these values will result in appreciable
were probably Captains at the time. All loss of range.4
were very experienced operators and
knew their equipment. Chase wrote in his report that at 1010Z,
the plane was flying at Mach 0.74, which
The RB-47 computes to 441 knots at 34,500 feet.
This was what the craft was flying at for

T he RB-47 was a B-47 bomber that had

been converted into a flying elec-
tronic intelligence gathering machine. A
most of the flight and is consistent with
the chart and manual.

capsule had been inserted into the bomb This brings us to when Chase pursued
bay of the craft, which contained the the UFO with his craft at maximum
three operators (EM#1, #2, and #3), who speed. This speed was listed as Mach
The RB-47 antenna locations.2
monitored their instruments for electro- 0.83 in his report. He told Phil Klass that

7
 have pushed it beyond that speed but
Mach 0.85 should be considered the limit
in any flight path consideration.

The RB-47 standard aircraft characteris-

tics manual shows the flight envelope for
the aircraft (see below). It confirms the
Maximum speed and accelerometer values shown for the B-47A 5
statement found in the B-47As manual.
The maximum speed for the RB-47H at
he pushed the aircraft to Mach 0.87 at 34,500 feet is shown to be Mach 0.85. I Diagram of the observers station on the B-47. Circled in blue is the
radar viewing scope.9
one point. Brad Sparks increased the top suspect it might be possible to fly faster
speed to values of around Mach 0.89. I but would a pilot really be interested in ALA-6 and AN/ALA-5 are the items of in-
suspect Sparks arrived at this Mach value jeopardizing the aircraft and his crew in a terest being used by Frank McClure when
by using the maximum listed speed of chase for a UFO? It just does not stand to he was analyzing the radar signals. They
around 610 mph (this value varies be- reason for him to do this. were able to display the direction the sig-
tween different versions of the B-47) to nal was coming from as well as the vari-
arrive at Mach 0.89 for 34,500 feet. While Based on this information, it seems that ous characteristics of the signal received.
this maximum speed is correct it is for an any speed computations have to be
altitude of about 15,600 feet, where the based on these limitations. Any values Another item of interest was the naviga-
speed of sound is much higher. Examin- above this previously used by Klass and tion radar (AN/APS-23, which was part of
ing the B-47A manual, we discover the Sparks have to be considered invalid. the AN/APQ-31 system). It was actually a
following statement about the planes Bombing/Navigation radar designed for
maximum speed: The equipment on the RB-47 looking down and not really designed
for tracking airborne objects. However,
The aerodynamic characteristics restrict according to Dr. McDonalds notes from
the maximum allowable indicated Mach his interview with the Navigator Hanley,
number to 0.85.6 it was possible to track some aircraft at a
limited range:
It goes on to note that this high speed
buffeting will depend on altitude and He said it was a pulsed radar, a regular
gross weight of the aircraft and that this search radar, similar to the APS-54if you
speed can be considered an adequate were hunting for a tanker that was below
safe speed. Flying outside the envelope Frank McClures station in the ECM pod. Many of the units at the
bottom are power supplies and amplifiers. The circled area indicates
you or in front of you, by eliminating the
would be considered hazardous and the units of concern, which were the AN/ALA-6 (azimuth indicator) time-delay, you would have the large
and AN/ALA-5 (pulse analyzer). 8
could result in a high-speed stall. This is band corresponding to six-miles of range
probably why, Chase noted in his report
the plane only flew at Mach 0.83 during
the pursuit. It is possible that he might
T he RB-47 was fitted with several piec-
es of electromagnetic sensors. While
they had various designators, the AN/
in which there would be no competition
between the ground return and the skin
paint from the aircraft. That would facili-
tate seeing the aircraft. Under that condi-
tion, the B-47 navigational radar could
ordinarily spot aircraft the size of a KC-97
out to a range of perhaps 4 miles10

One can then conclude that the Naviga-

tor might be able to pick up an airborne
target if it were large and close to the air-
craft.

Keeslers CPS-6B prior to its move to the annex west of the base.11

RB-47H operating envelope7

8
 Radar Frequency range PW PRF Revolution rate Locations

CPS-6B/FPS-10 EW 2860-2900 MHZ 1.0-2.0 sec 600 PPS (1.0 usec) 2-15 RPM Keesler annex, Duncanville, Ellington AFS, OK City AFS,
Bartlesville AFS
300 PPS (2.0 usec)

CPS-6B/FPS-10 Slant upper 2820-2860 MHZ 1.0-2.0 sec 600 PPS (1.0 usec) 2-15 RPM Keesler annex, Duncanville, Ellington AFS, OK City AFS,
Bartlesville AFS
300 PPS (2.0 usec)

CPS-6B/FPS-10 Slant lower 2700-2740 MHZ 1.0-2.0 sec 600 PPS (1.0 usec) 2-15 RPM Keesler annex, Duncanville, Ellington AFS, OK City AFS,
Bartlesville AFS
300 PPS (2.0 usec)

CPS-6B/FPS-10 Vertical upper 2740-2780 MHZ 1.0-2.0 sec 600 PPS (1.0 usec) 2-15 RPM Keesler annex, Duncanville, Ellington AFS, OK City AFS,
Bartlesville AFS
300 PPS (2.0 usec)

CPS-6B/FPS-10 Vertical lower 1.0-2.0 sec 600 PPS (1.0 usec) 2-15 RPM Keesler annex, Duncanville, Ellington AFS, OK City AFS,
Bartlesville AFS
2965-2992 MHZ 300 PPS (2.0 usec)

CPS-6B/FPS-10 Vertical center 1.0-2.0 sec 600 PPS (1.0 usec) 2-15 RPM Keesler annex, Duncanville, Ellington AFS, OK City AFS,
Bartlesville AFS
2992-3019 MHZ 300 PPS (2.0 usec)

WSR-1 10.5CM (2857 MHZ) 1.0-2.0 sec 650 PPS(1.0 usec) 12-24 RPM

325 PPS (2.0 usec) Texas A&M college, Carswell AFS, Witchita falls,

Shreveport, OK city, Tulsa, OK.

AN/APS-20 2880 MHZ 2.0 sec 300 PPS 6-10 RPM

Aircraft: TBM-3W, WV-2, PB-1W, ZPG-2W(EZ-1), AF-2W,

HR2S-1W, P-2V, WB-29, RC-121C, AD-5W

AN/FPS-3 1220-1365 MHZ 3.0-6.0 sec 200 or 400 PPS 3.3, 5, 6.6, 10 RPM Lackland, Texarkana

AN/MPS-11 1280-1350 MHZ 2.0 sec 360 PPS 0-10 RPM Sweetwater

AN/TPS-10D 9230-9404 MHZ 0.5-2.0 sec 530 PPS 0-6 RPM England AFB, Sweetwater, Houma AFS

FPS-18 2700-2900 MHZ 1. 0 sec 1200 PPS 5.33 RPM Sidney Gapfiller OPERATIONAL 1960

AN/FPS-4 9230-9404 MHZ 0.5-2.0 sec 530 PPS 0-6 RPM Lackland AFB

AN/MPS-14 2700-2900 MHZ 2.0-3.0 sec 300-100 PPS 20-30 CPM vertical England AFB, Houma AFS

AN/TPS-1D 1220-1350 MHZ 2.0 sec 360-400 PPS 0-15 RPM England AFB, Houma AFS

AN/MPS-7 1220-1350 MHZ 3.0-6.0 sec 200-400 PPS 5 RPM England AFB

SP-1M 2800 MHZ 1 & 5 sec 600-120 PPS Mobile

ASR-2 2700-2900 MHZ 0.83 sec 1200 PPS 25 RPM Fort Worth, Dallas, Shreveport, Meridian, Abilene*

ASR-3 2700-2900 MHZ 1. 0 sec 1200 PPS 25 RPM Fort Worth, Dallas, Shreveport, Meridian, Abilene*
*These locations were obtained by Phil Klass in his phone conversations with Mr. Waldon of
the FAA. These were some of the locations that he listed for 1957.

Ground Radars

N o examination of the case is complete without

grasping the electronic environment the plane
flew into. It is not like there were only a few air
defense radars present. There were actually many
throughout the flight. Each radar had its own unique
characteristics and some of these radar stations had
more than one radar. There is a table on this page
showing all the characteristics of the various radars
and locations for these radars.12 On the next page, the
locations for these radar sites are shown on a Google
Earth image. The green sites are the non-air defense
radar sites, while the red ones are USAF radar sites.
The dark blue site at Sidney was not active in 1957.

The most important radar on the list is the AN/CPS-

6B and FPS-10 radar. They are essentially the same
radar set with the same characteristics. The only dif-
ference had to do with the number and types of in-
dicators available (as well as the telephone system
not being supplied with the FPS-10). The AN/CPS-6B
was essentially 6 radar sets in one. It transmitted six
different beams (see the table above). Each beam
transmitted at different angles and used different fre-
quencies. The radar determined the altitude of the
object by calculating the difference in time between
9
the return on a target of the slant signals may have missed some locations. It ap- near Texas. I only listed it for the purpose
and the vertical signals. There was also pears one might be able to classify the of comparison.
a separate early warning beam that was area of Eastern Texas and Oklahoma as
radiated at a low angle to detect targets an S-band minefield! The Mission
that were far away. The basic beam cover-
age is shown on the previous page.13 It is
important to note that this coverage only
Airborne Radar
O ne aspect of the case has never been
really resolved because the crew
shows the ability of the beams to detect a
target with an effective size of one square
meter. It does not show all the side lobes
T he most common airborne radar that
operated in the same frequency range
of interest was the AN/APS-20. The B
members seem to disagree on what the
purpose of the flight was. McClure would
tell Klass that they were just shaking down
of each beam and the limit to which the version is listed in the table. It was found the aircraft after periodic maintenance
beams actually extended into space. on several aircraft. Some of these were and it was destined to be deployed over-
quite common in 1957. seas for use by another crew. The copilot,
Another ground radar that operated in McCoid, agreed with this. The other ECM
the same frequency band (S-band) was Another less common airborne S-band operators, Provenzano and Tuchsherer
a modified AN/APS-2F airborne radar. It radar was the AN/APS-82. It was essen- told Dr. McDonald that they felt there
was obtained by the National Weather tially experimental in 1957 and was fit- was a recording of the events no matter
Service (NWS) and used as a weather ra- ted on top of the E-1B tracer aircraft (the what kind of mission it was. Major Chase
dar. It had the designation of WSR-1. predecessor of the E-2 Hawkeye aircraft). told Phil Klass it was not a shakedown but
It operated at a frequency between 2850- was a training flight instead. A training
According to Phil Klass research, there 2910 MHZ. The first flight of the proto- flight would have been recorded in many
were several airports in the region that type was not until December 1956. The ways (wire recordings/photographs of
employed Air Surveillance Radars (ASR) same radar was mounted on a WV-2E in displays, etc.), while a shakedown flight
that operated in the S-band. These were August 1956, which was designated EC- might not have been. Chase stated that
designated ASR-2 and 3. 121L. the intelligence report (written by the
intelligence officer Piwetz) proves this.
There were other ground radars in and Mobile S-band radar However, the report only mentions that
are listed in the table on page 9. I am not ECM #3 began a recording at time 1048Z,
even sure this table is complete since
the military and civilian ASRs might have
existed at some airports not listed. The
T he Marines had a radar called the SP-
1M which was a mobile version of
the SCR-615B. It was used sparingly and
which means they probably were not re-
cording anything prior to this. There is
no indication that any photographs of
WSR radars seems to be complete but I there is no evidence that it was anywhere any of the displays were ever made and

10
McClure denies having such a capability 750 2620 13.6 3.1 158 10 400 7617 -17.5 -32.7 44 4

that morning. One would think that he 700 3199 9.0 3.0 156 12 350 8605 -24.2 -37.4 72 12

would remember operating this equip- 693 3300 8.1 2.6 X X 300 9712 -32.0 X 53 12

ment to record the displays. 650 3800 4.7 -3.3 160 10 250 10872 -43.0 X 50 2

600 4457 1.4 -14.2 163 12

Sparks rejected the idea that this was a 550 5160 -1.6 X 146 12 OK City (Will Rogers airport)*
shakedown flight and has determined 502 5890 -5.6 X X X
Press height temp dewpt Wind Spd
this had to have been a training mission. 500 5907 -5.9 X 165 12 (mb) (m) (c) (c) dir (kts)
This means that everything must have 450 6720 -10.1 X 225 10 970 392 22.4 18.0 180 10
been recorded. I am of the opinion that 400 7623 -16.6 -27.3 186 6 950 580 25.9 16.5 202 27
McClure was probably right because the 350 8612 -24.0 X 162 6 945 610 26.4 15.4 X X
original date of September 1957 was se- 300 9718 -33.2 X 180 8 900 1050 24.5 12.8 210 31
lected based on McCoid and Chase look- 250 10970 -43.9 X 134 6 850 1549 21.1 10.6 202 21
ing at their old flight logs to determine 800 2071 17.0 8.9 194 12
what date they had conducted a training Jackson, MS 750 2600 13.1 2.6 200 8
flight that matched their memories. If the Press height temp dewpt Wind Spd
700 3194 9.5 0.1 177 8
July 17th flight was listed as a shakedown (mb) (m) (c) (c) dir (kts)
650 3800 6.0 -6.6 134 13
flight, Chase might have overlooked it as 1005 94 23.1 21.9 0 0
622 4170 3.1 -3.9 X X
the one he remembered. 1000 145 23.4 21.1 0 0
600 4457 1.5 -5.8 150 17
978 320 25.0 17.5 X X
550 5140 -2.4 -11.1 150 13
One can not say for sure but it seems to 950 590 23.7 16.2 287 2
500 5903 -6.9 -15.5 144 17
be part of the conspiracy theory that this 900 1068 21.3 14.0 300 2

critical data was taken away and never 850 1561 17.5 13.6 302 4 450 6710 -12.0 -17.6 128 17

shown to project Blue Book. One can hurl 800 2077 14.4 11.0 347 2 400 7612 -17.3 -26.3 124 21

all the accusations one desires but it does 750 2620 11.3 7.8 292 4 350 8599 -24.4 X 143 19

not change the simple fact that there is 700 3197 7.9 4.3 299 8 300 9703 -32.8 X 139 19

no tape recording to examine. I will let 650 3800 4.2 4 300 4 250 10962 -42.4 X 119 21

the reader decide if it is conspiracy, foul 600 4454 3 -3.8 340 4 *OKC - Will Rogers Airport had radiosonde data for 1200Z. Tinker AFB

up, or there was very little information re- 550 5140 -3.8 -7.9 4 8 only had data for 0600Z. Will Rogers did not have data for 0600Z for

corded on the flight. 500 5895 -7.6 -13.4 36 8 comparison.

475 6290 -9.4 -16.3 X X

Radiosonde data14 464 6470 -9.4 -21.7 X X
So what do these readings mean? I am
not an expert on analyzing these values

A
450 6700 -11.0 -24.1 38 10
n important item to understand in all 400 7607 -16.2 X 34 17
but I did do some reading on the subject
of this is the conditions in the atmo- of how they can affect radio waves and
350 8597 -23.9 X 40 12
sphere at the time of the event. We dont how one can calculate the atmospheres
300 9703 -32.5 -44.1 8 10
have actual data from the exact time the ability to refract those waves.
281 10160 -36.0 -47.0 X X
plane was transiting the area but we have
250 10963 -42.2 X 356 10
a fair approximation. I was able to ob- The atmosphere normally does refract
tain radiosonde data from NCDC for Fort radio waves allowing their direct wave
Worth, Shreveport, OK City and Jackson Shreveport, LA components to be received at locations
at 1200 Zulu time, which was shortly after farther than the optical horizon. The
Press height temp dewpt Wind Spd
the plane passed through the area (1000- (mb) (m) (c) (c) dir (kts) measure of this refraction is called the
1100Z). I have the original readouts and 1007 76 23.5 22.3 170 4 lapse rate and is measured in N-units/
there may be some transcription errors. If 1000 138 24.4 22.5 177 6 km. The normal lapse rate is -40 units/
anyone desires the data, I can send it to 977 350 27.1 21.4 X X km. I made an attempt to calculate those
them in the form I acquired it. I only in- 950 600 25.5 19.4 248 10
values based on the radiosonde data us-
cluded up to the data point above 34,500 900 1068 22.3 15.6 170 4
ing the formulas provided by Dr. Willis
feet/10,515 meters: 850 1563 19.1 11.7 135 6
web site. On page 12, there are graphs
800 2083 15.9 7.9 124 8
showing Temperature and Dew Point vs.
Fort Worth (X indicates no data) Altitude as well as N-Units vs Altitude for
750 2630 12.5 4.2 110 8
two of these sites. There are two points of
Press height temp dewpt Wind Spd 700 3207 8.5 1.6 120 6
(mb) (m) (c) (c) dir (kts) interest in these computations:
650 3810 4.1 -0.7 110 2
994 180 25.1 19.0 0 0
622 4170 1.5 -2.1 X X
950 590 27.5 18.8 210 19 The Fort Worth data shows a sig-
600 4462 0.1 -3.6 32 4
900 1058 23.9 15.1 194 17 nificant decrease in the dew point
550 5150 -3.0 -7.3 18 4
850 1555 20.0 11.2 169 10
around the 7000 foot level. The lapse
500 5907 -6.7 -11.2 65 2
800 2074 16.9 1.4 146 8
rate in this region I computed was
784 2260 15.9 -3.6 X X
450 6720 -11.6 -20.4 280 2
about -75 units/km, which is higher
than the normal lapse rate for the in-

11
 N units vs Altitude
Temperature and Dew Point vs Altitude
5000

5000
4500

4500
4000

4000
3500
3500
Temperature (C)

3000
3000

Altitude (M)
Temperature
2500 2500 N-Units
Dew Point Temperature

2000 2000

1500
1500

1000
1000

500
500

0
-20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Altitude (m) N-units

N Units vs altitude
Temperature and Dew Point vs Altitude
5000

5000

4500

4500

4000
4000

3500
3500

3000
3000
Altitude (m)

Temperature

Altitude
N Units
2500 2500
-157 slope
Dew Point Temperature

2000 2000

1500 1500

1000
1000

500
500

0
-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

Temperature (C) N units

The two graphs display temperature and dew point vs altitude on the left and N-units vs altitude on the right. The bottom graphs are for OK City and the top graphs are for Fort Worth. On the OKC N-Units graph I plotted
a pink line showing the critical slope of -157 N-units to demonstrate how the temperature inversion at low altitudes indicated super refractive and possibly ducting conditions. The Fort Worth conditions are not as severe
but display a higher than normal index of refraction at the 7000 foot level.

8. Tegler, Jan. B-47 Stratojet: Boeings magnifi-

dex of refraction. role in the events that transpired. cent bomber. McGraw-Hill. New York. 2000.
Kindle edition. location 1420
The OK city data had a temperature Notes and references 9. Glenns computer museum. Old Bombsights,
inversion of significance up to the 1. USAF. Standard Aircraft Characteristics: RB- Gun Sights & Navigation Computers. Avail-
2000 foot (610 meters) level, which 47H. 25 September 1956. Available WWW: able WWW: http://www.glennsmuseum.com/
http://www.alternatewars.com/SAC/RB-47H_ bombsights/bombsights.html
had a lapse rate of about -242 units/
Stratojet_SAC_-_25_September_1956.pdf
km. This is also significantly higher 10. McDonald, James. Interview notes with
2. Tegler, Jan. B-47 Stratojet: Boeings magnifi- Thomas Hanley. February 2, 1969.
than normal but this value is for a
cent bomber. McGraw-Hill. New York. 2000.
narrow band of the atmosphere. The 11. 1950 Keesler CPS-6B photograph. Available
Kindle edition. location 1350 WWW: http://www.radomes.org/museum/
Tinker AFB data for 0600Z (0000 CST)
3. USAF. Standard Aircraft Characteristics: RB- equip/radarequip.php?link=cps-6.html
indicated a lapse rate of -53.2 to -58.8
47H. 25 September 1956. Available WWW: 12. This table was constructed using data from
at these levels. It appears that these http://www.alternatewars.com/SAC/RB-47H_ several sources with http://www.radomes.
condition was forming around mid- Stratojet_SAC_-_25_September_1956.pdf org/museum/, American Philosophical
night local time. Is it possible that a 4. USAF. B-47A Flight operating instructions Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series
condition called a tropospheric duct handbook. Secretary of the Air Force and the II-6, David Winklers Searching the skies, and
had formed? Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. 1 July Roger Whiton and Paul Smiths History of
1950 updated 30 October 1950. P. 40. Operational Use of Weather Radar by U.S.
Weather Services as the primary sources.
Now these values may mean nothing 5. ibid. P. 75
13. TO no. 16-30CPS6-7. Page 69. 16 August 1954.
(I may have calculated incorrectly) but 6. ibid. P. 40A American Philosophical Society. Philip Klass
the fact there were some suspect atmo- 7. USAF. Standard Aircraft Characteristics: RB- Collection. Box Series II-6.
spheric conditions in the OK city and Fort 47H. 25 September 1956. Available WWW: 14. National Climatic Data Center. Radiosonde
Worth area is something that should not http://www.alternatewars.com/SAC/RB-47H_ Data of North America 4-disk CD-ROM.
be ignored. They could have played a Stratojet_SAC_-_25_September_1956.pdf

12
T he RB-47 flew from Forbes Air Force
Base in Kansas to the south over the
Gulf of Mexico. There they conducted
RB47 Phase I: The Up-
scope incident
the statements that they crossed the
coast NEAR Gulfport, Mississippi. How-
ever, Lewis Chase, the pilot, had told Dr.
gunnery exercises and navigation train- Roy Craig they crossed the coast NEAR
ing. The next phase of their flight in- radar and there was a malfunction of the Biloxi. Considering they were recalling
volved flying north towards the gulf ALA-6 relay causing an error in the signal details from an event that had occurred a
coast at Mississippi. As the plane neared display: decade earlier, it seems likely there were
the coast, ECM#2 Frank McClure noted a going to be errors.
radar signal that confused him. 1. The aircraft crossed the coast west
of Keesler at Gulfport. Therefore, Brad Sparks has interpreted this to mean
According to McClure, the radar signal it would have been impossible for that the plane was flying due north at
started out from the rear starboard quar- there to be an upscope event even 89 degree west longitude (Gulfport is at
ter of his scope and moved up to the with a faulty relay. approximately 89.08 deg longitude and
forward quarter. Thus, the radar signal Biloxi is at 88.9 deg). This argument ap-
moved up-scope. In some interviews, 2. In addition to going up scope, Mc- pears to be based on the assumption
he also stated that the signal then moved Clure also stated it then went in front that the Navigator was to navigate by the
down the port side in a down-scope of the aircraft and then down scope stars along a specific line of longitude.
maneuver. This implied the signal was on the port side indicating the ob- While this is an interesting theory, why
airborne and passed the aircraft on the ject was circling the aircraft. use the 89th meridian? Why not 89.5 or
starboard side or moved around the air- 88.5? What is so magical about 89 de-
craft in a complete circle. 3. The Keesler radar was not in opera- grees? In fact, how would they know the
tion at the time because it was closed Navigator was right if he states he was on
This part of the case was considered down for the summer break. 89 degrees unless they had a landmark to
highly unusual and unexplainable. How- reach? It seems like the nice round num-
ever, Phil Klass thought he explained it by This seemed to make Klass explanation ber is the only reason that Sparks chose
stating that what they detected was the invalid but how good are these argu- this path.
Keesler AFB CPS-6B radar and a faulty ments and do they positively prove that
relay caused the signal to be reversed. it could not be a faulty relay and the Kee- Unfortunately, the 89 degree longitude
Instead of going down-scope on the port seler AFB CPS-6B? path does not agree with what Lewis
side as it should have appeared, it went Chase put in his UFO report in 1957. He
up-scope on the starboard side. Biloxi or Gulfport? That is the does not describe where they met the
question coast but he did draw the flight path. It
Rebuttal appears to go due north and end at Me-

In his lengthy analysis of the case, Brad

Sparks makes three significant argu-
T he first argument put forth against
the Klass theory of the upscope inci-
dent has to do where the RB-47 crossed
ridian, Mississippi. The intelligence report
appears to confirm this by stating that
the plane flew towards Meridian. They
ments against the Klass theory that what the coast. Early on, Dr. McDonald had were probably trying to navigate towards
was detected was the Keesler AFB CPS-6B interviewed the witnesses and received Key Field on the west side of Meridian as
a way point. This would be a recognizable
landmark to verify that the Navigator had
done his job correctly. Its longitude was
8845 7W. Had they crossed the coast
at 89 degrees west longitude, the due
north course would have put them about
14 miles west of Key Field, where there
are no known landmarks to verify the
navigators work (unless you can consider
the small crossroads of Hickory at 89.02
an easily recognizable landmark from
34,500 feet).

It will never be possible to determine

where exactly they crossed the coast
without the navigators log but to state
they positively crossed at Gulfport and
could not have crossed anyplace else, is
just wishful speculation. The possibil-
ity the plane crossed east of Biloxi on a
A flight simulator X view of a B-47 flying just east of Biloxi, Ms. This is the location the RB-47 would have crossed the coast if it were flying directly course due north to Meridian is not an
north to Key Field at Meridian, Ms.
unreasonable to consider and remains a

13
distinct possibility. first picked up the signal when it was BE- I know we were flying straight and level.
HIND HIM going forward! This was when And it did come in front of the aircraft and
Up-scope/down-scope: Two ver- he was northbound near the coast at down the other side. At this time I dont
sions of the same story Gulfport. He stated to me that he called think we were all mixed up with Utah,
forward to see if anything was seen up Shorthorn, and all those other radars.6

S hortly after the crew returned to Kan-

sas, they were debriefed by the wing
intelligence officer, Piwetz. He wrote a
there, but they saw nothing, and he forgot
it at the time. This is the first moment he mentions to
Klass a signal went down the other side
four page report on what transpired. He Equally surprising was his description of the aircraft.
described this part of the incident in a that the XXXX( lined out with something
single paragraph: inked above blip?) on his scope indi- Klass kept pushing McClure to describe
cated that the source orbited the B-47 in the up scope signal in more detail and
At approximately Meridian, Mississippi, a a counter-clockwise manner. When he McClure obliged him:
signal with the following characteristics: first picked it up in the Gulfport area, it
Frequency 2995 to 3000 MC; Pulse-width was a little bit to their right and it moved I only worked it 2, 3, 4 minutes, wed
of 2.0 microseconds; Pulse repetition fre- UPSCOPE on the right side, went around moved quite a way in that time, but it
quency of 600 cps; sweep rate of 4RPM; the front, and then came down on the left was not too long after that we turned,
Vertical polarity. Signal moved rapidly up side. In reply to my query, he indicated it but thats just my recollection....It over-
the D/F scope indicating a rapidly moving slipped around at about a constant angu- took, well Id say it went from 180 deg to
signal source; I.E. An airborne source. Sig- lar velocity... 3 abeam of us in 50 seconds, you could see
nal was abandoned after observation.1 it move, I couldnt___it, becuz it was com-
In his communications with Klass, this ing up so fast just like we were standing
At this point, there was no mention of a description is not as clear as Dr. McDon- still, and thats why I asked the pilot, becuz
down-scope component to the signal. ald described, Klass had him describe the if he had been in a turn to the left or to the
One would think that such a detail would signals behavior several times and what right, I mean that would make it look just
be mentioned. he received from McClure was a mix of like that....7
answers. For instance, in his initial letter
During the Condon Study, Dr. Roy Craig to Klass he stated: This continued to be a description of just
interviewed several of the crew mem- an up-scope signal. Late in the interview,
bers. Frank McClure described this part I knew that it was not a signal operating McClure gave a time line of events that
of the incident as nothing more than an from the ground sight (sic), because it disagreed with the earlier part of the in-
up-scope event: moved from 180 degrees to approximate- terview:
ly 60 degrees. I asked the pilot if he were
I originally picked the signal up behind me. in a turn and he replied negative. I made I first picked it up behind me, and it came
It went up the right side of the aircraft and other checks on related signals - looking up by me, and it came up fast, then it got
then it just hovered out there, out in front for other beams etc.....So I considered it as out to around 30 deg. And just hung there,
of us. The we lost it, and then it turned up a fluke signal and dropped it.4 and then it came around the front of the
on the other side of the aircraft and moved airplane.So I played around with it for
clear around us, as I remember. But we At this point, there is no mention of a 4 or 5 minutes from the time I first inter-
would lose it from time to time.2 down-scope incident. Because of the cepted, until I left it until about 20 minutes
letter, Klass was able to conduct a long or so later and we were heading west.8
McClure, at this point, appears to be de- phone interview with McClure. The de-
scribing the behavior of the radar signal scriptions in Klass notes are contradic- Like, the interview with Dr. Craig, the
over the entire flight. After the upscope tory. Initially, McClure stated: length of time he described seems to
incident, according to the intelligence be a combination of the initial incident
report, the signal did appear on the star- This was what we were doing was check- and the subsequent Duncanville signal.
board side of the airplane and, after flying ing every piece of operating equipment He had stated that he worked the initial
between Fort Worth and Dallas, it moved on there. And thats why I wasnt particu- signal for just a few minutes but he now
around to the port side of the aircraft. So, larly alarmed when I saw the signal go up- describes something that is about 20
McClures description at this point can be scope. I just made a mental note of it that minutes in duration.
interpreted as a recap of the entire inci- somethings wrong with the ALA-6.5
dent. In a later letter to Klass, McClure contin-
This is consistent with a simple up-scope ued to describe this incident just as an
Dr. James McDonald interviewed Mc- description. However, McClure then stat- up-scope signal with no down-scope
Clure in February 1969 over the phone. ed: component:
McDonald was the first to get McClure to
state the signal also had a down-scope I noticed that, I can recall that it wasnt I was working the S band when we left the
component: abeam of us exactly, but it was around 30 gunnery range and was confronted with
deg, just ahead of us, and it stayed at the a signal moving up scope. I checked it out
I learned, to my surprise, that McClure same relative bearing for a long time, and as to being a spurious response or image
14
 and looked for other beams without suc- used only for training purposes and evi-
cess. I called the pilots and asked if it was dently was not operating in the middle of
possible we were turning. The front end the night in the middle of the summer of
said negative so I dropped the signal and 1957.According to ATC, in 1957 only one
leisurely changed to L band to work then course operated the CPS-6B the training
when I was alerted, I returned in haste to course AB300332D, AC&W (Aircraft con-
my original freq-whatever it was-......9 trol and warning) Radar repairman, con-
sisting of 18 weeks of classroom teaching
This description is similar to the one he and 18 weeks of training on the various
gave in an even later letter to Klass types of equipment (not just the CPS-6B
but also the FPS-6 radar and two GPX-6
I doubt that it was any thing but a hap- IFF radar sets so the CPS-6B portion of the
penstance that the signal went up scope equipment training covered less than 9 of
at the onset. I know that no other signal the 18 weeks; letter of ATC to Sparks, June The AN/CPS-6B at the Keesler annex in 1955. Photo courtesy of the
acted that way and when I first came back 6, 1977.) Since it was a nine-month course Murphy dome web site12

to the signal it was still moving strangely it was apparently run during the normal Class 30017 graduated September
as it hung about 70 degrees for a while. academic term from September to June 10, 1957
After that I am sure we were turning so approximately. In other words, there
much that it would have made it move would not have been a class in session to Class 27027 graduated October 8,
funny.10 operate the CPS-6B even in the daytime, 1957
let alone nighttime, in the midst of sum-
Once again, McClure seems to be con- mer vacation, on July 17, when the RB-47 (The class numbers appear to be the date
vinced that it was only an up-scope sig- incident took place. 11 the class started. EX: Class 05076 started
nal near the Gulf coast. on 5 July 1956)
Sparks argument is stated as if it were
What this indicates to me is that we have factual and accepted by all as being cor- The two individuals I directly talked to,
some memory issues here. He is confus- rect. However, he makes a lot of assump- who were present at Keesler in 1957, told
ing all the events as one, which is where tions that are just plain incorrect. First of me that they graduated on March 14,
we probably get this down scope busi- all there is no such thing as an academic 1957 and June 25, 1957. While this sam-
ness after the up-scope readings. It term from September to June or sum- ple is not complete, it appears that there
seems possible his description of the mer vacation when it comes to military was at least one (possibly two) graduat-
down scope relates to the Duncanville training. It is year-round (with the ex- ing class every month of the year. There
event, when the signal did move to the ception of breaks occurring around the seems to be plenty of evidence that
port side of the craft (around the turn Christmas holidays). Military courses in classes involving the CPS-6B were in ses-
northwest of Fort Worth). The 30 degree enlisted training are done in assembly sion in July of 1957.
bearing he keeps describing is pretty line fashion such that when one class
consistent with the signal described in completes a phase of instruction, anoth- Additionally, the school had to operate in
the Piwetz report, which was described er takes its place. There could be as many shifts. Their basic electronics course had
as being at 40 degrees. as 12 or more classes graduating each at least three shifts of training (06-12,12-
year in order to keep up with the AF de- 18,18-24), so they could cover the course
When asked by Klass, Chase stated they mand for radar technicians because every of instruction for all the students there.
saw no UFO at anytime in this part of the month, techs are promoted to supervisor Communication with various alumni of
flight. It seems the only source that de- positions, exit the service, or are assigned the Keesler radar training indicated that
scribes the down scope portion of the elsewhere for other reasons. there were three 6-hour shifts at the an-
incident is not very consistent and may nex, where the CPS-6B was operating, as
be mistaken. As a result, one can not Going through the graduating class pho- well. As one alum pointed out, they were
cherry pick certain comments to falsify tographs available at the Keesler AF grad- long on students and short on equip-
what Klass proposed as the explanation uates forum and communicating directly ment at the annex. Maximizing the use
for this part of the case. to two of its members, I was able to find of the equipment was a priority.
several graduation dates for the training
Summer vacation and burning course 300332 in 1957. Klass only became aware of the CPS-6B
the midnight oil at Keesler because Frank McClure told
Class 31056 graduated January 8, him about it in his initial letter to Klass

T he Keesler radar not in operation is

the main argument by Sparks. In his
rebuttal he makes the following com-
1957

Class 05076 graduated February 12,

and that he expected the radar to be op-
erating that morning. When Klass asked
him about the school in a phone call and
ment: 1957 if the CPS-6B operated at night, McClure
stated:
The most serious problem with Klasss Class 19126 graduated July 30, 1957
explanation is that the Biloxi radar was Yes sir, up to midnight when I was there,
15
 I was an instructor there for two yearsI specific freq of 2800 MC it was a ballpark
was a supervisor instructor there for three figure.17
yearsand they worked from early in the
morning until after midnight.13 This value of 2800 MHZ was repeated in
many interviews with the crew. One won-
This brings us to the CPS-6B operating ders why the number was remembered
between 0000-0600. I posed the ques- so vividly (while 3000 MHZ was a nice
tion about it to several individuals and round value). If the signal was near 2800
this eventually was forwarded to two Ya- MHZ, then it would have been near the
hoo discussion groups (AF Radar veterans vertical upper beams frequency range
and AF Keesler graduates). Concerned of 2740-2780 mhz (or the slant upper
that I would be ignored by bringing up beams frequency range of 2820-2860
the subject of UFOs, I did not describe What was detected where mhz), which means the plane could de-
this as a UFO event. My request stated: tect the signal when it was as close as 11-

I am researching an incident where an RB-

47 aircraft flew near Keesler and reported
A more compelling argument against
the Keesler radar was Martin Shoughs
argument that the CPS-6 could not be
12 nautical miles or less from 34,500 feet.

According to McClures discussion with

a radar signature that was very similar to detected as the aircraft passed over Klass, the signal moved very fast and he
the AN/CPS-6. However, this was at 4AM Biloxi. This was based on the aircraft not had just enough time to determine the
on July 17th of 1957. Since the AN/CPS-6 spending enough time in the radiation pattern was very much like a CPS-6B.
was used only for training, I was wonder- pattern to determine the revolution rate There is no indication that he determined
ing if it could have been in operation early of 4 RPM described in the intelligence re- the revolution rate for the antenna at this
in the morning. I also would like to know port. In Klass interpretation of the ALA-6s point. He just noted the frequency was
what groups were using the radar besides sensitivity to the CPS-6B, he states that an S-band radar like a CPS-6B and that it
the radar maintenance techs.14 the upper side lobe of the vertical center moved fast. This kind of angular speed
beam would only be detected in a narrow could have been the result of the RB-47
The basic consensus was that there were 2-mile stretch about 28-30 miles from the flying very close to the ground radar.
three 6-hour shifts of training (one of radar. Inside that radius, the ALA-6 would
which may have involved officers) and not detect the beam. However, these Klass discussed the issue of close proxim-
that the mid-shift was used for mainte- values for the signal actually come from ity detection with Rod Simons, an expert
nance on the radar system and getting it the notes made by McClure the second on the APR-9 used to receive the signals
ready for the morning shift at 0600. The time he saw the signal near Duncanville that were displayed on the ALA-6. In an
existence of a 51-week officer course is and not from any notes he made near the October 8, 1971 phone call, Simons stat-
described (although it is seven years af- coast: ed the RB-47 could detect the side lobes
ter this event changing the radars being from the vertical center beam at a dis-
trained upon) by a commentary at ra- I did not write anything down until the #3 tance of 20 miles (this distance was sug-
domes.org. One former student thought Raven said the remark about the front end gested by Phil Klass).
it was possible that there may even have chasing flying saucers.15
been some live student operator train- ...that thing is packing a fair amount of
ing (the radar operator students were This reference to writing the informa- power, so at those distances I think there
referred to as scope dopes) after hours. tion down means the signal described would be no question about detecting it.
Since the 17th of July was a Wednes- in the intelligence report reflects the That was an APR-9 on the front end and so
day, there would have been classes that signal characteristics they saw in Texas. Id say theres no question that you would
morning and it COULD have been oper- The signal seen during the up-scope in- get a good strong signal.
ating between 3 and 4AM (CST) so it was cident could have been any of the beam
ready for the beginning of the 0600 class, frequencies. In fact, Dr. McDonald stated Even if you had a crystal video receiver
as a retest for maintenance performed on McClure told him that this frequency was when you are in that close you would pick
the unit, or for training purposes. 2800 mhz: it upyou might even get a signal all the
way into the radar. 18
We will never know if the CPS-6B was ac- In discussing it with me, his recollection
tually operating that morning without was that the frequency was near 2800 Assuming the aircraft flew directly to-
the operating logs for the annex on the mcs....16 wards Meridians Key field, it would have
date in question. However, the argument crossed the coast at about longitude
that it could not be operating because it McClure clarified this in a letter to Klass, 8845 7W. At its closest point, the RB-
was summer time or in the middle of the where he stated: 47 would fly by the CPS-6 (located at
night is not accurate based on what is 885736.00W, 302426.00N - see 1992
known about how the annex operated. I do recall the signal was in the neighbor- Google Earth image above) at a mini-
hood of GCA and the lower end of the CPS- mum distance of about 11 nautical miles
6B, which runs from 2770 to 3200 MC if I (12.65 statute miles). Considering all of
remember right. So if McDonald quoted a this information, it seems possible that

16
 Can a bad connection go undetected? the equipment could detect one of the
CPS-6 radar beams at that distance.

D uring my naval career, I was an elec-

tronics technician. For the nuclear
power plant, my division was responsible
and we were scratching our heads. One
of the other technicians had a wooden
stick and he was pointing towards vari-
As stated previously, no visual sighting
was ever reported even though, the UFO
passed in front of or to the front right of
for the electronic equipment monitoring ous components when he touched a di- the aircraft. The pilot/copilot/navigator
and controlling various reactor param- ode and it sprung downward. The diode saw nothing. It is really hard to suggest
eters. One of the units was to monitor the had been wrapped around its turret but this as a good unknown when we dont
reactor power and sending that signal to had very little solder on it. The electrical even have a visual verification that some-
the protection system as well as to vari- solder connection had been essentially thing was there. Instead, all we have is an
ous indicators throughout the plant. On broken. Recognizing a potential clue, we anomalous radar signal, which Frank Mc-
my first submarine, we had discovered an looked up what the component did. It Clure described as an, ...almost a picture-
anomalous trip signal had mysteriously limited negative surges and we initially book display of a CPS-6B type signal.19
appeared when the power monitoring shrugged figuring it did not make sense
equipment was powered up. This did not until we examined subsequent circuitry The stuck solenoid theory
happen every time and was something that would interpret any surge (posi-
new. So, as technicians, we were asked
to troubleshoot the problem. We found
it very difficult to isolate because every
tive or negative) as a positive signal and
produce the trip signal. Our wise Senior
chief asked us to remove the component
P hil Klass proposed an explanation to
this up-scope signal. After examin-
ing the manual for the ALA-6 he identi-
time the problem would appear and we completely and test it out. This produced fied a faulty solenoid/relay that could
would attempt to isolate it to a specific the fault signal every time. Apparently, as have caused a 180-degree error in the
cabinet, it would disappear. Eventually, the cabinet was opened and closed, the signal as the plane flew east of Keeslers
we did isolate it to a specific unit and re- component would change its contact radar. See the table above that comes
moved that drawer for troubleshooting and produce the errant signal. This fault from the troubleshooting section of the
on the bench. There were three first class (weak/poor solder connection) existed technical manual. Trouble item number
petty officers (E-6) involved in the trou- since the installation of the unit over a 3 appears to describe the symptoms of
bleshooting (myself and two others) and decade before since there was no men- the 180 degree error.20
one would think it would have been easy. tion of the component being replaced in
Our effort to isolate the faulty circuit came the material history card. This fault only In order to explain why the rest of the sig-
down to determining which one was re- materialized under the right conditions. nals later did not do this, he suggested
sponsible for limiting positive surges on Had it not created the spurious signal, it the fault was an intermittent one (such
power up (which is what the signal indi- would probably have been ignored for as a loose lead or relay that was initially
cated). However, we discovered that this much longer or not even found. stuck/frozen in position) that disap-
circuit responsible for this had no faults peared. This seemed to be a reasonable

17
theory. that I convey to you his comments. He 11. Sparks, Brad. RB-47 radar/visual case. The
was an instructor for the Air Force teach- UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon From
When McClure read this explanation, he ing maintenance on the AN/ALA-6 unit The Beginning, Vol. II: L-Z, 2nd Edition. Jerome
disagreed: and he said, Had I been asked what could Clark editor. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, Inc.;
have caused the 180 degree ambiguity, I 1998. Page 771
I dont agree with the malfunction would have immediately responded that
though, because I flew that equipment for the most probable cause would have been 12. Murphy dome web site. Available WWW:
1000 hours in a period of four years and failure of the K-301 relay.24 http://murphydome.tripod.com/KAFB/KAFB.
I never saw any sign of a malfunction of htm
this nature, and I never heard any of the While the failure of a relay in such a man- 13. Klass, Phil. Interview notes with Frank McClure.
hundreds of experienced ravens we had ner seems unlikely, it is not impossible 22 September 1971. American Philosophical
voice any thing which would lead to this for such a failure to occur and go unde- Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
conclusion. I do feel strongly that some- tected again for a long time period (see 14. Printy, Timothy. E-mail to Lowell G. Wood-
thing malfunctioned, but I have no notion inset box for one of my experiences with worth. 18 March 2011.
of what it could be.21 troubleshooting such a fault). It is plau- 15. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated 1
sible that this could have caused a signal November 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
He repeated this objection, in another from the Keesler Annex CPS-6B to appear
letter (apparently after receiving a copy the way McClure described in many of his 16. McDonald, James. Science in default: Twenty-
two years of inadequate UFO investigations.
of UFOs: Explained): interviews.
UFOs: A Scientific Debate. Sagan, Carl, and
Thornton Page, eds New York: Barnes & No-
I certainly agree the equipment malfunc- Summary bles, 1972. p. 60
tioned some how, but I cant quite buy the 17. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated 1
relay you stated was the cause. It seems to
me if it malfunctioned that all the signals
would be moving wrong, and that since
W hile Sparks appears to present a
good argument, he did not falsify
Klass explanation and some of his rea-
November 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
18. Klass, Phil. Interview notes with Rod Simons.
the tail of the aircraft would have reflected sons for dismissing it are incorrect. As a 8 October 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
the true heading of the aircraft, the ninety result, we have to consider Klass explana- ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
degree and 360 degree points would have tion for this part of the flight as plausible 19. Klass, Phil. Interview notes with Frank McClure.
been changed.22 and more likely than some unknown 22 September 1971. American Philosophical
Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
intelligence that was emitting a CPS-6B-
McClures concern about the equipment like radar beam towards the RB-47. 20. Operating Instructions handbook Direction
Finder Group AN/ALA-6. TO 12P3-2ALA6-1.
failure seems to ignore the possibility American Philosophical Society. Philip Klass
that the relay failure was intermittent. In Notes and References Collection. Box Series II-6.
fact, this type of fault was mentioned by 21. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated
a technician the next day according to 1. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations. 30 December 1971. American Philosophical
McClure: Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www. Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
fold3.com/image/#6962260 and http://www. 22. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated 6
The day after the incident, when several fold3.com/image/#6962271 January 1975. American Philosophical Society.
of them were talking to a technician at Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
Forbes AFB and the technician suggested 2. Craig, Roy. UFOs: An Insiders View of the Of- 23. McDonald, James. Interview notes with Frank
that a loose lead on the ALA-6 might have ficial Quest for Evidence. Denton: University of McClure. February 1, 1969.
caused the sweep around signal in Mis- North Texas Press, 1995. P. 145 24. Letter from D. G. Erskine to Phil Klass dated 23
sissippi, Provenzano asserted that he had February 1972. American Philosophical Soci-
3. McDonald, James. Interview notes with Frank
ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
seen the same phenomenon on his APD-4 McClure. February 1, 1969.
monitor.23 4. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated
10 September 1971. American Philosophical
It is not clear if the technician found a Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
loose wire and fixed it or suggested a 5. Klass, Phil. Interview notes with Frank McClure.
loose wire might be the cause. If he had 22 September 1971. American Philosophical
Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
found the connection loose, he would
have simply reattached it correctly and 6. ibid.
nobody would have ever seen the prob- 7. ibid.
lem again. 8. ibid.
9. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated 1
When Klass forwarded his paper on the November 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
incident to D.G. Erskine of Bendix, he re- ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
ceived the following reply: 10. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated
20 December 1971. American Philosophical
One of our engineers here, Jim Watson, Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
read the RB-47 case write up and asked

18
A fter the up-scope in-
cident, the plane pro-
ceeded due north until it
that what I saw was a distant
meteor. The visual sighting was
approaching from head-on, 11
reached Meridian, where Oclock, not left to right, for a
it turned westward. The long enough time, apparently
plane then proceeded at our altitude, for me to discuss
on, what was described it with the crew, and warn them
in Chases UFO report as, I might have to take evasive ac-
a course with a bearing tion. Its course changed nearly
of 265 degrees. The flight 90 degrees, flashed in front of
seemed to be uneventful us so quickly, that I had not time
until 1010Z (0510 CDT or for evasive action.4
0410 CST), when the pilot His comment about alerting
and copilot saw the UFO the crew may be an inaccurate
appear at their 10 Oclock recall as McClure stated he
position and move north- knew nothing until #3 opera-
ward to their 2 Oclock posi- tor told him they were chasing
tion. The UFO then simply flying saucers. The event may
vanished. The description have only lasted a few seconds.
he gave in his UFO report would be washing out faint stars and If that is true, the UFOs behavior would
can be seen below1. meteors. For a meteor to be prominently have been consistent with a meteor.
McClure stated he first realized there was visible it would certainly be near or great-
er than the brilliance of the planet Venus. Surprisingly, Brad Sparks agrees with the
a UFO present when Tuchsherer told him
Such events are unusual for the casual meteor explanation so there is no need
that the pilot was chasing flying saucers.
observer. The sudden disappearance of to beat this dead horse any longer. This
McClure, remembering the anomalous
the object is consistent with the actions part of the incident can be considered
signal near the coast, began searching for
of a meteor. When Klass mentioned this explained.
it. However, was it really that unusual an
object that initiated this search? potential explanation to Colonel Chase, Notes and References
he responded:
It seems that it was Klass that first sug- 1. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations.
gested that this was just a bright meteor. I certainly do not rule out the possibility. Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www.
All I ever had to comment was that it was fold3.com/image/#6962379
That morning, the moon was a waning
gibbous in the southwestern sky and once in a lifetime occurrence. Dont know 2. Letter from Lewis Chase to Phi Klass dated16
the odds??2 October 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
ety.Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
It is most interesting that this is 3. MUFON UFO report database. Available WWW:
the sort of comment one sees http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_han-
in UFO reports of bright mete- dler.pl?req=view_long_desc&id=31819&rnd=
ors. For instance, in a MUFON 4. Herb, Gert. A rebuttal to Philip J. Klasss analy-
UFO report for the very bright sis of the RB-47 incident of July 17, 1947. Cen-
September 14, 2011 fireball, the ter for UFO Studies (CUFOS) Bulletin. CUFOS.
Evanston, Ill. Summer 1977. P. 4.
witness stated:
But Ive seen shooting stars and
meteors before and this was like
nothing Ive ever seen. It looked
huge and it was very bright. Ive
also never seen a meteor that was
green like this one (although I
have heard of their existence).3
Klass and Chase butted heads
over several issues during their
letter exchanges but, at this
point, Chase seemed willing to
accept the idea that what they
saw was an unusually bright
meteor. In October 1976, Dr.
Hynek contacted Chase about
the Klass analysis. At this point,
Chase disagreed:
I dont accept the explanation

19
A fter the meteor/UFO
event at 1010Z, Chase
continued his flight west-
due west along the
32nd parallel. His
proof that this was
ward. It was always ac- correct is the 1042Z
cepted that the flight path bearing listed by
was a 265 bearing towards Chase (again this
Waco based on what was value is stated to
written about the case in be a true heading)
the 1957 reports. Dr. Mc- being 260 degrees,
Donald, Phil Klass, and CU- which is close to the
FOS all used that value but magnetic reading if
it really did not work with the true heading was
the subsequent path the 270 degrees (the ac-
plane would take towards tual true heading for
the northwest. As a result, 260 magnetic would
Brad Sparks came up with be about 269 de-
a new and interesting ap- grees).
proach to the problem.
Sparks takes some
Straight and narrow other liberties in
creating his path.

A ccording to the intelli-

gence report made shortly after the
event, the RB-47 was flying in the direc-
ficult to obtain precise measurements.
In his computation,
he uses speeds of Mach 0.75-0.87 mach
during the time period of 1010-1042Z.
tion of Waco, Texas from Meridian, Mis- The golden path? These are assumptions based on what
sissippi. If this was true, they were prob- Colonel Chase would mention in his
ably navigating towards James Connally
Air Force Base. To go from Key Field, to
Connally AFB, one needs to fly at a true
B rad Sparks flight path is based on
reaching a point northwest of Fort
Worth and working backwards to com-
interviews, where he stated he had de-
creased/increased his speed. However, in
his report, the last speed listed they were
heading of 266.6 degrees, which is close pute a flight path that matches. There traveling at was Mach 0.74 until they
to the 265 true heading that Chase stated is absolutely no solid evidence that the took up pursuit towards the northwest.
in his report concerning the 1010Z sight- plane actually made it to this point north- As previously noted, the cruise speed
ing. west of Fort Worth other than this being of Mach 0.73-0.76 was what one would
the location of the UFO some two min- expect until there was a need to change
In describing the flight, Lewis Chase told utes before 1050Z. Are we led to believe that speed. Even if Chase did increases
Phil Klass: the UFO just remained stationary at this his speed as he states, he would not have
point or is it possible it moved TOWARDS exceed the rated speed of Mach 0.85 be-
We actually turned over Meridian, but by or AWAY from the RB-47? Are we even cause he would not want to enter a high
the time we got over Jackson we have to sure that the estimated location is correct speed stall.
be very accurately on course, straight and from dozens of miles away of a light at
level for the work to be done. So Meridian night and the radar actually painted the There are also problems with trying to fly
would have been the actual turning point same object? We are not sure but Sparks along a parallel line of latitude as Sparks
with the ECM mission starting at Jackson, has simply assumed that this was all ac- suggests. It is not quite as simple as fly-
in other words the Navigator would have curate and made the flight path fit this ing along a 270 degree bearing and you
to have a precise fix and youre on course pre-determined conclusion rather than will stay along the latitude line. The up-
with no turns so he chart the points along seeing other possibilities. per level winds will push the aircraft off
the line.1 course. In this case, Shreveport, LA had a
In order to get the plane to this point, wind from about 51 degrees of about 6.5
It was important to maintain a constant Sparks has determined that the plane mph and Jackson, MS had a wind of 11.5
bearing during these kinds of exercises. was not flying on a true bearing of 265 mph from about 0 degrees. Both of these
The sensor equipment did not measure degrees. Despite Chases statement of winds would push the aircraft off track
the true bearing of the signals but, in- the heading of 265 being a true heading towards the south. In order to maintain
stead, measured the bearing relative to in his report, Sparks states it was actually this type of track, the pilot would have to
the heading of the aircraft. As long as a magnetic bearing. According to Sparks, fly a zigzag path to maintain his latitude.
the plane maintained a constant head- a 265 degree magnetic bearing actually This sort of makes it difficult for the crew
ing, the values obtained by the operators means that the RB-47 was flying due west of the RB-47 to obtain precise measure-
could be easily converted to the actual at 1010Z (actually the true heading would ments. To add to this problem, the pilot
azimuth relative to the position of the air- be about 271.5 degrees for a magnetic would also have to keep altering his mag-
craft. However, if the plane was constant- heading of 265 at that longitude). This netic bearing (assuming he was using a
ly changing direction, it became very dif- implies that the plane was actually flying magnetic bearing as Sparks suggests) to

20
 the navigator was trying to plot a course
that takes into consideration the upper
level winds he expected to encounter. In
addition to being briefed about what to
expect prior to the flight, the navigator
also would have noted the winds as the
plane flew south in the early part of the
flight. When the plane turned towards
the west at Key Field, the navigator prob-
ably gave a heading to Chase that com-
pensated for these winds, which is why
the plane was on a bearing to the south
of Waco.

However, at time 1010Z, things were not

Interpolated Wind direction and speed for 34, 500 feet at 0000 and 1200Z on July 17, 19572 right. If one uses the 265 degree true
compensate for the changing magnetic Another factor to consider is that we really heading from Key Field and flies towards
declination as he flew west. only have two data points to work with in 91 degrees 28 minutes longitude, the
computing a flight path from the 1010Z plane arrives at 32.1 degrees and not
As noted by Chase, the goal of this part of position. The report states the general 32.0 degrees. This is about 7 miles north
the flight was to try and maintain a con- course of the RB-47 but we only know of their actual location. It appears they
stant heading with no turns. Sparks flight the heading of the aircraft at times 1010Z were off course! This was probably due
path along a line of latitude using a mag- and 1042Z. Can one really determine ex- to the high level winds, the navigator did
netic heading does not seem to match actly what the craft was doing between not consider in his flight planning. Ac-
this goal. Instead, it introduces constant these two data points (and these values cording to the 1200Z radiosonde data for
changes in the planes true heading. As a were produced two months later)? All we Jackson, the winds were blowing from
result, I dont think Chase was following know is the craft ended up somewhere the north at 10 knots. This is the kind of
a magnetic heading or a constant line of southeast of Dallas-Fort Worth. wind that would throw the course off
latitude. track. After this 1010Z point, the navi-
At this point, I dont think anybodys path gator probably issued a new heading to
Problems galore! is going to be that accurate because of all Chase to compensate for this error. This
the potential errors associated with the correction probably would put the RB-47

T here are many factors to consider

when trying to compute a poten-
tial flight path for the RB-47. The first of
data, which is far from being complete.
However, I believe that I may have dis-
covered something that indicates Sparks
on a 270 degree heading. Once the navi-
gator got to a point where he could take a
course towards Waco/Connally, he would
these are the margins for error. was half-correct in his flight path compu- then have changed the course to 260
tation. degrees true heading to get to the way
The times given are, at best, approximate. point. Considering how important it was
Was the time 1010Z actually 1010.0Z or Course correction? to maintain a fixed heading, there were
1010.5Z or 1009.5Z? At Mach 0.74, thirty probably only two course changes one to
seconds of travel (about 4.1 miles) in lon-
gitude will cause a change in about four
minutes of arc. The same speed will cause
P reviously, I noted that the 265 degree
true heading does not take the RB-47
towards Connally field. If one draws a line
a true heading of 270 and another back
to a true heading of 260. When those ex-
actly occurred is unknown but they were
about 3.5 minutes of arc in latitude. As along this path from Key Field, they dis- after 1010Z and before 1042Z.
speed increases for the plane, the mar- cover that they end up south of Waco by
gins of error increases. For the purpose a few miles. Did the Navigator give Chase A possible ground track
of this section of the flight, it would be the wrong course?
best to consider any location given to be One thing the pilot mentioned during his
+/-3-4 minutes of arc. The potential explanation for this is that interviews was that he was adjusting the
speed of his aircraft between 1030 and
1042Z. Chase told Dr. Roy Craig:

So I reached up and pulled the power

back on the airplane-slowed way down.
Oh, maybe a hundred knots. He stayed at
exactly the same azimuth - 2 Oclock. So,
then I speeded back up, only this time to
A 265 degree straight line course from Meridian (blue path) was apparently made to compensate for the strong winds blowing to the north-
northwest at 0000Z for Shreveport/Fort Worth. This path would have placed the RB-47 about 7 miles north of the reported position at 1010Z max speed. Same thing. Stayed there. So I
indicating the plane was drifting off course to the south (red path). This was probably due to the winds around Jackson blowing the plane to the
south. As a result, the navigator would have changed the 265 bearing course to due west (somewhere between the two white paths). Eventually,
called the center and told them...And they
he would have to turn to a bearing of 260 degrees to reach Waco/Connally AFB. gave me at this time ten miles range....So

21
 again I go through the procedure, when I would consider the values listed as ap- ceived may have been at a frequency
he calls the ten-mile range, of the slow up, proximate at best. For the purpose of other than the one listed. It is important
the speed up, and everything, and they evaluating the radar signals, they will to note that before the Intelligence re-
keep calling, ten mile range. Regardless serve as a reference but I do recognize port surfaced, the general consensus of
of what I do, it stays at ten miles.3 there are margins for error. the crew was the actual frequency seen
was around 2800 MHZ. Why would that
When asked if he turned during this Radar signal characteristics frequency be so fixed in their minds?
time period, Chase stated No, not at this
time4.

According to Dr. McDonalds notes from

O ne of the most interesting aspects of
this case are the various radar signals
that were documented in Piwetz report.
If one reads McClures statements to Klass
about these signals, he appears to con-
firm that more than one frequency was
his interview with Chase: At least one of the signals mentioned had involved on two occasions:
the following characteristics7:
He only did speed changes, but didnt do I will be anything that the signals inter-
any heading variations in that interval in Frequency 2995-3000 MHZ cepted when we were in the Dallas area
the first part.5 Pulse-width 2.0 sec were all CPS-6B signals.10
Pulse repetition 600 pulse per
So, when did this occur? Sparks starts frequency second After that I am sure we were turning so
these speed adjustments around time much that it would have made it move
1030Z. However, the intelligence report Sweep rate 4 RPM funny. By this time we were deluged with
does not mention any visual observation Polarity Vertical CPS-6B/FPS-10 signals.11
until 1039Z. As a result, we really cant
say for sure exactly when those speed However, the report never really states If they were signals from different radars,
changes were made. I chose to split the that all of these signals had the same they could not possibly be using the same
difference between when the radar sig- characteristics. It does mention that at frequency. This implies that McClure was
nal was received and when the visual 1030Z the same signal was received as sweeping over a range of frequencies
observation was made for increasing the the one at Meridian, which supposedly other than one specific frequency. With
speed of the RB-47 (time 1035Z). I used had the characteristics listed. However, that in mind, we have to consider the
the speed of Mach 0.83 since this is the recall that McClure stated he never wrote possibility that these radar signals were
value that Chase lists for his time mark of anything down until after he started see- from a range of frequencies in a band of
1042Z. ing all of these signals around Dallas-Fort about 2700-3000 MHZ or greater.
Worth.
In the following table, I compared this Tracking the beams
corrected path (Using Ed Williams Great I did not write anything down until the
circle calculator on-line) with the path
presented by Sparks. The two columns
to the right involve two course adjust-
#3 Raven said the remark about the front
end chasing flying saucers.8 A t some point near 1030Z, McClure
began to look for radar signals similar
to the one he had seen earlier. He then
ments. The first happened at 1015Z to And wrote these bearings on a piece of paper.
bearing 270 and the second to a bearing This was the primary source of informa-
260 at time 1040Z. In the course ad- I wrote it down on a piece of paper, we tion for Piwetzs report, which described
justed path, the RB-47 is estimated at fly- didnt have any logs, we didnt carry any the following signal bearings12:
ing Mach 0.74 until time 1035. After that logs on this mission....Those times came
Time Relative Bearing
point, I decided to use Mach 0.83 as that from what I just told you. I wrote it down
was the value described by Chase in his on a piece of paper and we gave it to Pi- 1030 70
report for time 1042Z. I did not add any wetz the next day. 9 1035 68
winds to the computation although I did 1038 40
use the track from Key Field to the 1010Z At some point, McClure probably received 1040 40 and 70
position (bearing 262.5 degrees) to com- a signal like the one described. However,
1042 20
pute the position at 1015Z. since these values apparently come from
hand written notes and a verbal debrief- McClure told Klass that the accuracy of
time Sparks Sparks Lon Lat
Lon6 Lat6 ing the next morning, there is going to be these bearings were Within 3-5 deg13.
1010 91-28 32 91-28 32-00 potential for error and confusion. As it is, So we have to give at least a +/- 3 de-
1015 X X 92-09 31-54 the intelligence report contained some gree margin of error on these values.
1030 94-28 32 94-15 31-53 errors, so there is reason to question that There are other margins for error. These
1032 94-47 32 94-32 31-53
the value given in the report might have values are relative to the heading of the
1035 95-15 32 94-57 31-52
come from only one or some of the sig- aircraft. If it was pointed to 270 degrees,
1039 95-56 32 95-35 31-51
nals detected by McClure. then one would add the number to 270
1040 96-04 32 95-45 31-51
to get the azimuth relative to the aircraft
With this assumption, I considered the of the signal. What if the plane was not
1042 96-24 32 96-04 31-48
possibility that several of the signals re- pointed exactly at the heading recalled?

22
Chase might think that he did not devi- great distances. Is it possible these radars There is another possibility for the 1030Z
ate his course but is it possible that he played a role here? Houston was to the reading and that is the Bartlesville FPS-10
might have shifted one or two degrees in south and it really is not to be considered radar near Tulsa. It was at an elevation
his flight path? The exact heading of the since McClure was focusing his attention of about 1000 feet, which would make
aircraft at the time of the measurement towards the northwest. However, what its radar horizon of 307 miles. It had a
must have a margin of error associated about OKCs radar, which was about 300 bearing of 343 degrees, which closely
with it. In my opinion, one has to give miles away at time 1030Z? matches the azimuth reported. Unfor-
+/-2 degree course error as well. As a re- tunately, it was 350 miles away from the
sult, one should expect the total margin According to the radar horizon calcula- RB-47, which is 43 miles beyond the radar
for error for these bearings to be at least tion, a plane at 34,500 feet can potentially horizon. Even closer at 307 miles with a
about five degrees and possibly more. see a radar signal from OK City (elevation bearing of 342 degrees was a WSR-1 at
1325 feet) from as far as 314 miles away. Tulsa, which had become operational in
If McClure had swept back and forth look- McClure was only trying to detect a radi- 1956. At an elevation of about 650 feet,
ing for signals in the range of 2700 -3000 ated radar signal. As long as the RB-47 its radar horizon was about 299 miles. As
MHZ, he could pick up signals from other was in the radar beam, and it was strong previously stated regarding the OK City
radar beams nearby. It seems probable enough, he probably could detect it. radiosonde data, there were potentially
that he would note any signals he re- unusual propagation conditions at the
ceived that were similar to the one he re- So exactly what did he detect if it was the 2000 foot level that might have allowed
called from the upscope encounter. OKC FPS-10? There are three beams that for signals to be seen beyond the radar
were at a low angle with respect to the horizon. Either radar site might have
With all of that in mind, lets give a rough ground: been detected and could have been the
idea of where the radar signals came from source of the signal measured.
using the course I described (Note: these 1. The Vertical lower beam at 2965-
bearings are similar if one uses Sparks 2992 MHZ At 1038Z, the signal reported appears to
positions except for the 1042Z bearing): be close enough to the Duncanville azi-
2. The EW beam at 2860-2900 MHZ. muth to be a match (Sparks agrees that
Time azimuth
this was Duncanville). At this point they
1030 335-345 3. The Vertical center beam or its lower were only about 100 miles away. Mc-
1035 333-343 side lobe. A tropospheric duct might Clure should have seen the signal sooner.
1038 305-315 allow it to be seen at a much greater He probably did but did not record it be-
1040 305-315 & 335-345 distance than previously calculated. cause it was not towards the northwest,
where the UFO was supposedly located.
1042 275-285
So what were the bearings the OKC and Only when it began to appear in the
According to Sparks, many of these sig- Duncanville radar? northwest sector, did he suddenly con-
nals came from the UFO and some came sider it something worth recording. Be-
Time Duncanville OKC azimuth
from the Duncanville CPS-6B near Dallas cause this signal was so strong, he proba-
azimuth
Texas. bly was able to record the characteristics
1030 289 324
of it and this is where the values listed in
McClure made a point in his discussion 1035 296 331 the intelligence report come from.
with Klass that there were a lot of radar 1038 302 336
beams present and he felt he knew the 1040 309 340 Both Klass and Sparks assumed the
sources of these signals. 1042 319 344 1040Z signals were two signals seen on
the display at the same time but the re-
I feel sure that at some altitude near Look at the OKC radar position of being port does not state this. It simply states
40000 ft I could have intercepted any of 325/324 and 333/331 at the times when that two signals were detected at these
the sights (sic) of OK city, Duncanville and the UFO was at an azimuth of 333-345 two bearings:
Houston.14 degrees. The time 1030Z signal is a mar-
ginal match for the OKC radar at best but AT 1040Z ECM OPERATOR NR 2 REPORTED
From his experience, he apparently felt the 1035Z bearing seems reasonably HE THEN HAD TWO SIGNALS AT RELATIVE
that the equipment was more than capa- close. BEARINGS OF 040 AND 070 DEGREES.15
ble of detecting these radar beams from
Another interpretation is that McClure
went between the two frequency ranges
to see if the signal he previously detected
was still there. His hand written notes
then noted the two signals were seen at
these two bearings. That 30 degree dif-
ference is also interesting because the
The radar horizon is further than the optical horizon by a factor of about 1.3 times due to normal atmospheric refraction (left). This range can be
extended further. Greater refractive conditions will extend the radar range beyond the normal and a several temperature inversion will trap the difference between the two azimuths for
radio waves and extend the range even further (right). 16
Duncanville and OKC at time 1040Z is 31

23
 1030Z 1035Z 1038Z

<1040Z

1042Z

The following Google Earth images show the location of the RB-47 (my estimated positions) and the various radar sites. The heavy red line is the apparent azimuth based on a 270 degree heading (except the 1042Z bear-
ing). While the 1030Z and 1035Z signal bearings are in the general direction of radar stations, the 1038Z and 1040Z appear to be very convincing matches for OK City and Duncanville.

degrees. Is this just a coincidence or is it a was located at Sidney, Texas (about 150 ing a light to their Two Oclock position
potential clue? miles at 270 azimuth) but that probably that was an estimated 5000 feet below
wasnt operating in 1957. A probable their airplane. The color appears to have
The final contact is interesting in that source is the Airport Surveillance radar been reddish and very bright. In the in-
it appears to be unrelated to the Dun- (2700-2900 MHZ) at Abilene, 220 miles telligence report, Piwetz states that they
canville and OKC radars. Looking at the away on a bearing of 282 degrees. There observed two lights. Chase and McCoid
sketch in Chases UFO report, we see him is also the possibility that an unknown S- deny that they ever stated they saw two
marking the visual contact at this point band ground or airborne radar was pres- different lights and it has been accepted
in time as being at the one Oclock posi- ent at this bearing (Dyess AFB is located that this was an error on Piwetzs part.
tion (roughly 30 degrees). If McClure was in Abilene). It gives reason to speculate
looking for a radar contact to match the that the source of this signal might have This light/UFO was supposedly tracked by
visual bearing, he apparently found one come from something other than an un- the Duncanville radar from a distance of
ten degrees away at a true bearing of 280 known intelligence. about 100 miles (about time 1038Z). As
degrees. On that bearing, approximately previously described by Chase, the light/
250 miles distant, was Sweetwater AFS. Ghost light! UFO maintained a fixed distance of 10
However, they only operated non-S band miles at the same position relative to his
radars (MPS-11 and TPS-10D) in 1957. In
1960, a gapfiller S-band radar (FPS-18) S tarting at 1039Z, the pilot Chase and
copilot McCoid are recorded as see-
plane (2 Oclock = 60 degrees relative) no
matter what his speed. This seems rather

24
interesting. It is almost as if the radar con- About the only significant difference be- 2. National Climatic Data Center. Radiosonde
tact was mirroring the RB-47s motions tween the two signals is the measured Data of North America 4-disk CD-ROM.
like a ghost. One wonders if this wasnt pulse-width. Phil Klass suggested that
just a ghost echo of some kind. the signal may have been smeared, based 3. Craig, Roy. UFOs: An Insiders View of the Of-
on information provided by radar expert ficial Quest for Evidence. Denton: University of
Only as they approached Dallas did the Rod Simons. North Texas Press, 1995. P. 137-8
lights relative position change. Chase
stated the object moved towards the Pulse width is one of the least accurate pa- 4. ibid. P. 138
dead ahead position. However, his UFO rameters measured on ALA-6 type equip- 5. McDonald, James. Interview notes with Lewis
report states it was at a relative bearing of ment. Two possible causes of inaccuracy: Chase. February 1, 1969.
roughly 30 degrees (290 degrees true) at one is ground-bounce which causes 6. Sparks, Brad. RB-47 radar/visual case. The
1042Z. According to Chase, the UFO then pulse-smearing; another possibility is that UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon From
turned towards the northwest: equipment is not tuned up properly.19 The Beginning, Vol. II: L-Z, 2nd Edition. Jerome
Clark editor. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, Inc.;
1998. Page 775
...it veered to the right, not by a very large Sparks implies it was impossible for this
angle (10 to 20, Chase estimated) and smearing to occur and I am sure that he 7. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations.
went up the valley between Fort Worth feels the equipment was tuned properly. Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www.
and Dallas.17 However, is it just a coincidence that the fold3.com/image/#6962260
other characteristics are the same as the 8. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated 1
Did this happen before or after the posi- AN/CPS-6B/FPS-10? November 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
tion in his sketch? Based on this visual de- ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
scription it would have been after since What about other possibilities for the 9. Klass, Phil. Interview notes with Frank McClure.
the bearing to the gap between Fort pulse width not being the same? Since 22 September 1971. American Philosophical
Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
Worth and Dallas was a true bearing of these were hand-written notes on a piece
320 degrees. of paper, what prevented this value from 10. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated 1
November 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
being a simple mistake on the paper, il-
ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
It is important to note that most of these legible number, or transcription error?
11. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated
visual bearings (which are ball park fig- All can be possible reasons for the mis-
20 December 1971. American Philosophical
ures and not precise measurements) are match. Stating the mystery signal could Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
in the direction of the Fort Worth/Dallas not be the CPS-6B/FPS-10 because of one
area. Was there anything over those cit- characteristic being off while the others 12. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations.
ies that might have produced the light? are matches for that radar is being overly Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www.
Potential sources of the light will be dis- dismissive. It ignores the nature of the fold3.com/image/#6962271
cussed in another section. data and how it was recorded. 13. Klass, Phil. Interview notes with Frank McClure.
22 September 1971. American Philosophical
The mystery signal Summary Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
14. Letter from Frank McClure to Phil Klass dated 1

M W
uch is made about the signal de- hile the ghost light will be dis- November 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
scribed in the Piwetz report as if it cussed later, the radar signals were
were proof of an unknown intelligence. the component that was addressed here. 15. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations.
Compare the mystery signal to the AN/ There is no evidence presented to date Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www.
CPS-6B: that shows the light was actually emit- fold3.com/image/#6962271
ting the signal. However, there seems 16. Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series
Mystery CPS-6B VC beam18
to be sufficient information to conclude Module 18: Radar Principles. Naval Education
signal
that most, if not all, the radiated signals and training professional development and
Frequency 2995-3000 2992-3019 technology center. 1998. Available WWW:
MHZ MHZ
received came from terrestrial sources if http://www.hnsa.org/doc/neets/mod18.pdf.
one assumes that all the signals did not P. 1-16 and17
Pulse-width 2.0 sec 1.0 sec
have the same exact frequency. If this is
Pulse repetition 600 pulse 600 pulse per 17. McDonald, James. Interview notes with Lewis
accurate, then the only thing mysterious Chase. February 1, 1969.
frequency per second second
about this part of the incident is a noc-
Sweep rate 4 RPM 2-15 RPM 18. TO no. 16-30CPS6-7. 16 August 1954. Ameri-
turnal light that nobody could readily can Philosophical Society. Philip Klass Collec-
Polarity Vertical Vertical? identify. If this is true, can this case really tion. Box Series II-6.
be considered solid evidence of anything 19. Klass, Phil. Interview notes with Rod Simons.
The polarity of the CPS-6B is never listed exotic? 20 August 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
in any of the documentation I could find. ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
However, based on what I could find Notes and References
about the polarization of electromag-
netic waves, it seems that the CPS-6B was 1. Klass, Phil. Interview notes with Lewis Chase.
probably vertically polarized. 19 September 1971. American Philosophical
Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.

25
T he RB-47 pursuit is actually
two segments. The first eight
minutes involves the aircrafts
The cockpit does not allow for a good
view unless the pilot banks the plane.
Chase told Klass that it disappeared
beeline approach towards Fort before it became invisible from his
Worth and Dallas towards the point of view. Flying straight and level
UFO. This was followed by a in Flight Simulator X gave the impres-
360 degree turn and departure sion to me that the pilot could not see
of the plane from the area objects below him about 3 miles in
front of the aircraft (at an altitude of
Eight minutes to Dallas 34,500 feet). I am not sure if this was
the case for a real pilot in the aircraft

A t 1042Z, the RB-47 turned

to the northwest to pursue
the UFO the saw in the direction
but if it were, that means that at a de-
pression angle of about 70 degrees,
things become difficult for the pilot
of Dallas-Fort Worth. In Chases to see from his position in the cockpit.
UFO report, he states he took a If the UFO were 5000 feet below him
bearing of 320 degrees true (Note: This 1050Z in his interview with Dr. McDon- at this point, this would mean the closest
is the only time that Sparks accepts the ald: the UFO was before they overshot it, was
heading written by Chase in his report as less than a mile away. Despite this prox-
being a true heading and not magnetic!). .He stated that, as far as his impres- imity, the UFO still was just a bright light
The path to Dallas was made at maximum sions as the pilot was concerned, all of the and nothing more.
speed according to Chase. Both reports closure motion was due to his own flight
(Chase and Piwetz) state they accelerated speed, as if the Unknown were then sta- Radar contact???
to Mach 0.83 at 1042Z and took up pur- tionary.2
suit. However, after looking at the flight
path with Klass, Chase stated: While Chase may have felt the light was
stationary, one could also conclude that
In addition to the ECM#2 operator re-
ceiving radar signals, Sparks states the
navigator was close enough for a radar
I dont think Mach .83 can be write (sic) for the light may have been moving towards contact:
an extended period of time as I went to or away from the aircraft at a much slow-
maximum allowable mach mach .87- er speed. The first UFO overshoot is evidently the
.92 sounds more like it.1 time when the RB-47 navigator, Maj.
He also described that he did not meet Thomas Hanley, briefly detected the UFO
Chase was speaking from memory but the light head-on. on his aircraft navigation radar, APS-23,
we know from the aircrafts specifications after apparently spending quite some
the maximum speed listed for the plane is I asked him the way in which he flew over time attempting to do so.5
actually Mach 0.85 and that speeds above the object. It became clear that he did not
that could cause a high speed stall. So, it pass directly over it, but flew to the right This part of the incident seems more fic-
seems that this value was something of of it. He said it was almost below them, tion than fact. His conclusion is based on
an exaggeration on Chases part. nearly 90 degrees below the horizon when two bits of information. One was the tes-
it blinked out .3 timony of McClure, who states that Han-
The air crew estimated the UFO/light ley tracked the UFO with his radar and the
was 10 nautical miles northwest of Fort Dr. McDonald thought he flew to the other is the comment in the CIRVIS report
Worth. This was apparently confirmed by right but what Chase told Klass was: that states the B-47 tracked the UFO.
Duncanvilles radar (although no altitude
was given for the object they tracked). ...I understand why you wouldnt under- However, this seems unlikely because
In his early discussions and his report in stand me keeping the object off to my Hanley told McDonald that he never
1957, Chase seemed to agree with this right. I turned right to an intercept angle, tracked the UFO.
position for the aircraft at time 1050Z. but even as I closed on it, in its apparent
Brad Sparks would use this position as his hovering, I kept it right.4 He said that he had search radar on and
endpoint for the flight to the northwest. was looking all around and in every way
Perhaps McDonald was confused in his he could, but never had any radar contact
At time 1050Z, as the plane approached notes about what was right and what with the object.6
the light, it disappeared, McClure lost the was left. In either case, Chase seemed to
signal he was tracking, Duncanville lost indicate the object was apparently sta- McDonald stated he could not confirm
its target, and the navigator supposedly tionary and he passed with the light off one way or the other by the Copilot, Mc-
lost his radar contact with the UFO. The to one side. Coid:
UFO had simply vanished from all sensors
as if it were never there. One item I noticed when flying the B-47 He could not recall whether the naviga-
in Flight Simulator X was that the pilot tor got any radar return on his set.7
Pilot Chase describes what happened at can not see directly below the aircraft.

26
Chases actual report, written in 1957, If this position is correct, it explains why which pilot Chase told Klass was not pos-
states they were unsuccessful on track- the radar signal disappeared for McClure. sible. It is clear that Piwetz was trying to
ing it with the planes airborne radar Although Klass felt the signal would dis- be accurate but the air crew just did not
(although he did mention scope photo- appear farther out, Rod Simons felt that get some of the details correct or he mis-
graphs were taken, which was denied by the sensors might be possible to detect interpreted what they told him.
Hanley). Chase may have been referring the Vertical center beam right up to the
to the ground radar and the CIRVIS report antenna. The disappearance may have At 1055Z, it was realized the plane had
probably reflects the crews reception of occurred due to the signal being too used a great deal of fuel and needed to
the radar signals and not an actual track- weak or the beam of the radar being be- return to base. The RB-47 continued
ing with the navigation radar. All of this low the antennas depression angle. It is flying in a circle and at 1058, they once
seems to indicate there never was any hard to ignore the proximity of the plane again saw the UFO at 20,000 feet some
tracking of the UFO with the airplanes to the Duncanville radar site when con- 20 NM northwest of Fort Worth. It is not
radar. templating why the signal was lost clear if Duncanville had any contact with
this UFO because at time 1057, they stat-
1050Z is where??? ed they had no contacts.

A t this point, it is important to discuss

the flight path and where the RB-47
may have actually been at time 1050Z.
The report is quite confusing at this point
and Piwetz made some mistakes in inter-
preting what the crew told him on several
One can not accurately determine where occasions. Chase mentioned some of this
the RB-47 was without the Navigators in his discussion with Klass:
log, but we can make some assumptions
and determine the possible position. Im sure the confusion in the intelligence
report is misunderstanding of times for the
We do know the capabilities of the aircraft Round and round we go object and times for the aircraft...What a
though from the flight envelope chart shame we werent shown the intelligence
and manual. Since the plane could only
travel at Mach 0.85 at maximum (about
9.7 miles/min at 34,500 feet), the plane
A fter overflying the UFO, Chase be-
gan looking for it again. The natural
thing to do would be to bank the plane
report then...9

Klass seems to think the final position of

could only displace about 68 miles in the and attempt to make another pass. In this the light may have been an error and the
seven minutes after the turn towards 320 case, he began a turn to port. In his in- actual position was southwest and not
degrees (which, according to Sparks took terview with Klass, Chase stated he was northwest of Fort worth. Chase never
a full minute). told by McClure that he had a bearing on mentioned any visual sighting of a UFO
the UFO and he looked in that direction after the second one, which he dove
In my computed path (which is an ap- and saw a light. He then maneuvered the upon. Could it be that Piwetz just misin-
proximation), the 1050Z mark occurs very aircraft in a big circle in order to intercept terpreted what the crew stated and was
close (about 2.5 miles SSW) to the Dun- the UFO. Exactly when his turn to port simply repeating the account concerning
canville radar (approx 96-54.5/32-39). began is hard to say but one can reason- the initial approach to Fort Worth-Dallas?
ably assume that it was between 1050 It seems plausible this was the case.
Time Lon Lat
and 1052Z.
1042.5 96-08 31-49
1043 96-11 31-52 In the Piwetz account, at time 1052Z
1044 96-17 31-58 Chase saw a light/UFO, which forced him
1045 96-24 32-05 into a turn. We are not even sure that this
UFO/light was the same one he had over-
1046 96-30 32-11
flown. All we know is that he saw a light
1047 96-36 32-18
that he estimated was at 15,000 feet. This
1048 96-43 32-24 is where he states he made a dive at the
1049 96-49 32-31 UFO. As he closed within 5 NM, the UFO/
1050 96-56 32-37 light simply disappeared. There was no
evasive maneuver, no rapid acceleration, RB-47s are not dive bombers
When discussing the flight path with and no craft visible. It simply winked out.
Klass, Chase recognized problems with
the speed and distance. He would even-
tually make the following statement:
At this point, the plane continued to fly in
a circle, looking for the UFO again. The ex-
O ne part of the Chase account seems
to be inaccurate. According to him
he was flying the RB-47 at high speed
act position of this circle is not that clear. and then dove on the UFO by dropping
We were just barely south of Fort Worth- We know it happened around the city 15,000-20,000 feet in a minute or so.
Dallas, or just abeam, when the object of Fort Worth but exactly where is hard Could the RB-47 accomplish such a ma-
disappeared.1050 was the time the object to say. The Piwetz report describes the neuver?
disappeared.8 plane being near Mineral Wells at 1055Z,

27
It seems highly unlikely that the plane over a much larger distance than a quick about 5,000-6,000 feet per minute, which
would (or could) be put in a steep dive change in altitude as claimed. is consistent with what Colonel Boyne
over a short distance from 34,5000 feet to wrote about the B-47 landing rate. The
15,000-20,000 feet. The B-47 operations This brings us into several possibili- angle of attack in that case would have
manual states: ties. We do know the plane eventually been something like five degrees, which
reached around 20,000 feet but how did may have not been that noticeable to
2-47 The extreme cleanness of this air- it get there? I think there are some pos- McClure in the ECM pod. I would incor-
plane and the fact that it is operating near sibilities that might explain the change in porate this scenario in my flight path in
the buffeting range in level flight limit it to altitude without a dive-bombing attack the circle around Fort Worth:
very shallow dive that must be executed on the UFO as described by Chase.
Time Alt Lon Lat
with extreme care. As with all high speed
operation, abrupt accelerations must be 2000 feet per minute 1051 32,000 97-02 32-44
avoided.10 1052 27,000 97-11 32-48

This seems to be within the guidelines

outlined in the B-47 operations manual,
Is it possible that the RB-47 actually be-
gan descending after the turn at 1042-
43Z? Chase made the following state-
1053
1054
22,000
17,000
97-21
97-30
32-48
32-44
1055 15,000 97-35 32-36
which describes the descent procedure ment to Dr. McDonald regarding the start
1056 16,000 97-34 32-28
as follows: of the pursuit at time 1042Z:
1057 17,000 97-27 32-23
Maintain cruising altitude until about 45 He had to contact FAA to get a clearance 1058 18,000 97-18 32-22
nautical miles from landing point....De- to change his flight path at this point. 1059 19,000 97-11 32-27
scend at the maximum rate but do not ex- They cleared all the traffic out of there, 1100 20,000 97-08 32-34
ceed Mach 0.82 and/or 304 knots IAS.11 and gave him an OK on it.14
1101 21,000 97-04 32-41
1102 22,000 97-01 32-48
This indicates that the maximum descent However, he stated almost the same ex-
angle would be less than 10 degrees. act thing to Dr. Roy Craig regarding the
Col. Walter Boyne states on his blog events near Mineral Wells: Some notes about this path are that the
that the plane descended for landing at plane was flying at Mach 0.85 initially and
high speeds using a rate of 6000 feet per So, as I came around, about half way continued on its 320 bearing for one full
minute. All of this indicates the plane around the turn, we picked him up with minute after that before beginning the
descended at an angle of less than 10 lights on again. Only now down at a low- turn. Initially, the turn was calculated at
degrees. For a plane to descend roughly er altitude. I told GCI that I estimate him 30 deg/min and I increased it to 40 deg/
15,000 feet in about 10 miles, the angle of to be at about 14,000 feet. I said Id like to min at time 1056-59 as the plane began to
attack would have been something like go down on him and they said, Roger. slow down. The planes departure speed
17 degrees so it appears that Chases de- We have the traffic in the Fort Worth area was Mach 0.74 (539 mph) on a bearing
scription of this event may not be quite cleared out. Its clear to go down.15 of 20 degrees.
accurate.
So, it might be possible that the plane
McClure was of the opinion that this dive actually began descending at 1042Z to-
never happened. wards 15,000 feet. If Chase continued
flying at the maximum possible speed,
I DONT REMEMBER NO PART OF THIS the lower altitude would allow higher air
DIVING BUSINESS AND I DONT BELIEVE IT speeds. By my calculations, it would ex-
HAPPENED...12 tend the 1050Z point about two miles to
the northwest.
Dr. McDonalds interview notes with the
copilot McCoid also indicated this ma- In that scenario, it is possible the plane The Departure
neuver probably did not happen as de- descended to 15,000 feet at a rate of
scribed:

He did not recall overflying the Unknown,

about 2,000 feet per minute. I doubt this
scenario is likely and suspect there is a
more likely sequence of events.
A t 1102Z , with the RB-47 running
low on fuel, Chase turned the plane
towards Forbes AFB near Topeka, Kan-
nor did he recall the bank or dive near sas and exited the area. Nobody knows
Mineral Wells.13 5000 feet per minute what happened to the UFO and nobody
seemed to care at this point. No fighters
McClure was in the capsule and probably
could only tell if there was a dive if the
planes angle of attack changed drasti-
A nother possibility is the plane be-
gan diving towards 15,000 feet over
a three-four minute period starting just
were sent up to investigate that morning
even though there were plenty of sources
for such aircraft in the area.
cally. This would be the case if it was a before time 1052Z. I think this is a more
sharp dive towards 15,000 feet. So, any likely possibility. In that scenario, the According to the Piwetz report, they were
change in altitude, must have occurred plane would have descended at a rate of able to observe the radar signal from the

28
UFO all the way up into Oklahoma when At time 1044Z, the plane was on a head- Except for the 1044Z signal, there seems
they were near Oklahoma City. These ra- ing of 320 degrees, which makes this sig- to be reasonable explanations for all the
dar signals were at a bearing of 180-190 nal interesting. The bearing of the signal other values. It is even possible that the
degrees. would be at 10 degrees true, which is too 1044Z signal is explainable. One can
far to the right to have been the OKC or reasonably suggest that the radar sig-
There is one point of contention in this Duncanville radar beams. However, at a nals during the pursuit phase really were
final portion of the report. The report true bearing of about 2 degrees is that not very mysterious and the only thing
states the plane was abeam of OKC at pesky Bartlesville, OK FPS-10 and 4.5 de- strange about this part of the incident
time 1140Z. The distance from Dallas to grees for the Tulsa WSR-1. Bartlesville was were the lights that vanished when the
Oklahoma City is only about 190 miles. still was about 330 miles away (beyond RB-47 came near them.
Does this mean the plane was operating the normal radar horizon) but Tulsa was
at speeds of about 300 mph (260 knots), closer at 290 miles (approx). Once again, Notes and References
where the planes fuel efficiency was it is important to note there were condi-
low (see the graph and comment from tions in the atmosphere that might have 1. Undated letter from Lewis Chase to Phil Klass
the B-47 manual on page 7)? In Klass extended the distance at which these with comments on 2 October 1971 letter from
original plot, he assumed this must have signal could be detected. Other potential Phil Klass. American Philosophical Society.
been an error in the 1102Z comment suspects would include unknown S-band Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
and that it really was supposed to read ground or an airborne radars.
1120Z. That would mean the RB-47 was 2. McDonald, James. Interview notes with Lewis
loitering around looking for the UFO for We do know that McClure was following Chase. January 30, 1969.
20 minutes after descent to 20,000 feet. one radar signal throughout this part of
One cant be sure and it seems unlikely the pursuit because he notes that the sig- 3. McDonald, James. Interview notes with Lewis
that the plane would have slowed down nal was lost at time 1050Z. Klass points Chase. February 1, 1969.
to a speed that was not efficient to con- out that if he were focusing on the center 4. Letter from Lewis Chase to Phil Klass dated 27
serve fuel. It is more likely that this time beam of the Duncanville radar and the October 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
of 1140Z was in error and it probably was plane passed close to the radar, this sig- ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
more like 1120Z. nal would simply disappear. 5. Sparks, Brad. RB-47 radar/visual case. The
UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon From
The Beginning, Vol. II: L-Z, 2nd Edition. Jerome
Radar signal analysis After leaving the area close to the radar,
Clark editor. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, Inc.;
the signal would reappear towards the 1998. Page 784

T here are several bearings to radar sig-

nals given in the Piwetz account that
should be discussed at this point.
rear of the aircraft exactly as described
at times 1051 and 1052. A turn towards
the west would cause the signal to move
6. McDonald, James. Interview notes with Thom-
as Hanley. February 1, 1969.
7. McDonald, James. Interview notes with James
towards the port side and go up scope. McCoid. February 2, 1969.
Time Relative bearing16
The plane continued its turn to port and,
1042.5 40 and 70 8. Undated letter from Lewis Chase to Phil Klass
based on my computed flight path, the with comments on 2 October 1971 letter from
1044 50 plane was about 24 miles SSW of Fort Phil Klass. American Philosophical Society.
1050 Signal lost Worth at time 1057Z. From this position, Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.

1051 160 the Duncanville radar station was at a true 9. Ibid.

azimuth of 60 degrees. With a heading of 10. USAF. B-47A Flight operating instructions
1052 200 moving up scope
about 120 degrees, the resultant relative handbook. Secretary of the Air Force and the
1057 300
bearing would have been the same 300 Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. 1 July 1950
after 1102 180-190 degrees in the Piwetz report. updated 30 October 1950. P. 42.
11. Ibid. P. 43
For the 1042.5 signals, the RB-47 was After 1102Z, the plane began its return to 12. Klass, Phil. Interview notes with Frank McClure.
about halfway into its turn from 260 to Forbes AFB in Kansas. The signal now ap- 22 September 1971. American Philosophical
320 giving a true heading of about 280- peared behind the plane in the direction Society. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
300 degrees. This gives us a true bear- of the Duncanville radar and disappeared 13. McDonald, James. Interview notes with James
ing of these two contacts of 320-340 when they approached OKlahoma City McCoid. February 2, 1969.
and 350-010. The true bearing towards (about 190 miles away). At this moment, 14. McDonald, James. Interview notes with Lewis
Duncanville was about 322 degrees and the plane was at 22,000 feet, which is be- Chase. February 1, 1969.
the bearing towards OKC was about 345 low the optical line of sight for the lower
degrees. Like the previous two signal ob- sidelobe of the Vertical Center beam and 15. Craig, Roy. UFOs: An Insiders View of the Of-
servations at time 1040, the report only probably beyond that sidelobes radio ficial Quest for Evidence. Denton: University of
notes that the operator recorded two sig- horizon. However, they were not below North Texas Press, 1995. P. 140
nals at these bearings. They did not have the radar horizon for the radars other
to be the exact same frequency. Consid- beams. The coincidence of the detected 16. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations.
ering the margins for error, this appears beams direction being towards Duncan- Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www.
to be a possible match. ville indicates it is plausible that this was fold3.com/image/#6962271 and http://www.
the source of the signal. fold3.com/image/#6962283

29
The two radar bearings mentioned during the approach to Dallas at times 1042.5 (left) and 1044Z (right).The 1042.5Z signal assumes a heading of 280 degrees and gives indication that the two signals might have been
Duncanville and OKC (about 260 miles away). As previously noted, the 1044Z bearing seems to point towards nothing but open ground until one reaches the Tulsa/Bartlesville radar sites, which were 290-330 miles to
the north.

Radar signal bearings after the overshoot at time 1050Z. The positions are approximate and, in this version, the plane does not start seeing the Duncanville beam at 180-190 until some time after 1102Z. All the bearings
given during this time period seem to indicate the Duncanville Radar was the source of these signals.

30
A fter the RB-47 returned to Forbes AFB
in Kansas, several reports were made.
Each contained information that was con- Aftermath
visual UFO. McClure and Hanley de-
nied taking any photographs so he
must have been talking about Dun-
tradictory and seemed to contain errors. canville, which denied ever tracking
recognizing it? One also wonders why the UFO in their report.
Duncanvilles CIRVIS report the radar sites at Texarkana, England, and
4. He incorrectly listed the upper level
S hortly after the events (at 1445Z), the Ellington did not see the UFO when the
RB-47 was moving through their area winds as coming from a bearing of
ground radar station (Duncanville), 260 at 50 knots.
filed a CIRVIS report. Some comments even though they should have seen it. It
worth noting are: is too bad that Duncanville did not obtain 5. He incorrectly noted that the plane
a very convincing target or file a report made the turn towards the north-
1. B-47, 30,000 feet, Mach 0.87, Forbes that was more informative concerning west at 1010Z.
AFB, Kansas. B-47 chased UFO over any targets they did have.
Fort Worth but was unable to over- Many of these errors could have been
come UFO. Debriefing 3 caused by simply memory issues and
clerical mistakes on the part of Chase.
2. Airborne radar was being used on B-47
to track object Aircraft stated they had
good contact however Utah had nega-
A fter landing, the crew was debriefed
by the intelligence officer Piwetz. It
was his report that added a lot to the RB-
However, it demonstrates that one has
to question how accurate the report was
when it was written two months later.
tive contact with object.1 47 case file. However, there are portions
The first comment seems to be an error.
of his report that appear to be erroneous Summary report5
based on what the air crew would later
The plane was supposedly at 34,500 feet
and the maximum speed was Mach 0.85.
Did the radar operators have problems
state to interviewers:
1. The up-scope incident was stated
A hand-written report is in the Blue-
book files. Exactly who wrote it when
is hard to determine as it is unclear. At the
determining the speed and altitude of to have occurred near Meridian, MS, very end of the report it states:
the aircraft or was the 34,500 feet given when, by all accounts, it occurred
A study of radar data that was later sub-
by the crew too high? near the coast.
mitted indicated that the aircrafts radar
The second comment also seems to con- 2. The report stated both pilot and co- signals had the characteristics of ground
tain errors. The first being that the RB-47 pilot saw two UFOs simultaneously, radar equipment. Further, there was no
tracked the UFO with their radar. We know when they only reported one. firm correlation between the ground
that the navigator denied this happened. 3. It was stated the plane was near intercept and the visual sightings. The
What it probably was referring to was the Mineral Wells, Texas at 1055Z, when change of colors: blue, white, red are sug-
tracking of the radar signal by McClure. it was not possible for the plane to gestive of aircraft lights which normally,
The second error is that Duncanville de- reach that location. all air crews would have little trouble rec-
nied tracking the UFO. Klass suggested ognizing. It was also strange that objects
that this was because they had identified Piwetz was convinced the UFO was emit- disappeared or stopped when they had
the UFO as an aircraft. It seems the CO ting the signals and stated so in his re- reached the large cities.
probably did not want to get involved port. However, this conclusion would
be considered somewhat hasty since he In joint review with the CAA of the data
in any UFO reports. It also may indicate
seemed to have little data to work with from the incident, it was definitely estab-
that the type of contact they saw may
other than notes by McClure and only lished by the CAA that object observed in
have not been a solid return and they de-
partial recordings (starting at 1048Z) of vicinity of Dallas and Fort Worth was an
termined it just was not a good enough
the events described. airliner.6
confirmation.
This was probably why the card for Blue-
Reading the Piwetz report, it is odd that UFO report4 book concluded it was flight 966, which
Duncanville had to be told where to look
for the UFO on their radar screen:
ADC REQUESTED AIRCRAFT TO GO TO
In September, Major Chase would com-
plete a UFO report. Some of the things
he noted were:
was a mistake.
Blue Book perplexed
IFF MODE III FOR POSITIVE IDENTIFICA-
TION AND REQUESTED POSITION OF
OBJECT. CREW REPORTED POSITION
1. There was no moon even though
there was a bright waning gibbous O n 30 October, 1957, a memo was
sent to Captain Gregory of project
Blue Book by AFCIN-4E1
moon visible.
OF OBJECT AS 10NM NORTH WEST OF
2. The radar operator never obtained This report is difficult to evaluate because
FT WORTH, TEXAS, AND ADC SITE IM-
any radar contact. there is such a mass of evidence which
MEDIATELY CONFIRMED PRESENCE OF
tends to all tie in together to indicate the
OBJECT ON THEIR SCOPES.2 3. He states that ECM equipment presence of a physical object or UFO....
This indicates that Duncanville needed to tracked the object and that radar since there are no firm correlation be-
be directed towards the UFO. According scope pictures were taken but then tween the ground intercept and the sight-
to Chases testimony, they were tracking circled NO on Were photographs ings from the aircraft, it is impossible to
the UFO for some time. Did they sud- taken? My guess is he was imply- make any determination from the infor-
denly lose it or did they have problems ing nobody took photographs of the mation submitted. On the other hand, it

31
 is difficult to conclude that nothing was problem. Differ-
present, in face of the visual and other Various theories for ent states and
data present.7
No conclusions could be drawn in this
the UFO lights cities had differ-
ent rules. It made
report but the author seemed convinced for great confu-
that there may have been something
present. O ne of the most interesting aspects of
the RB-47 is the source of the lights
that Major Chase reported seeing. Ac-
sion on airline,
train, and bus
schedules. The
Resurrection cording to Phil Klass, it was just an airliner encounter had

T he Condon study inadvertently resur-

rected this case. Lewis Chase was the
UFO officer at Malmstrom and he attend-
that produced the light.

The end of the flight 966 myth

occurred before
1100Z. If Dallas
were on Daylight Savings Time (CDT),
ed a meeting with the Condon represen- that would have been 0600. However,
tatives and Blue Book. He requested that
Major Quintanilla look for the records
and it caught the interest of Dr. Roy Craig.
P hil Klass did a lot of work trying to
locate the actual plane that the RB-
47 had seen over Dallas-Fort Worth. He
it wasnt. I checked several newspapers
from Texas in July 1957 and all listed the
times for Sunrise and Sunset as Standard
Unfortunately, Chase could not recall the had contacted somebody from American Time (see weather above from Denton
date and thought it was in September Airlines in 1971 and they had confirmed Record-Chronicle on July 17, 19573). This
1957. The records were not found until that 966 was supposed to land in Dal- means 1100Z was actually 0500 CST.
Dr. McDonald spent time with the Blue las at 6AM Central time. Klass felt that Flight 966 was not scheduled to land un-
Book files after the Condon Study was the landing lights of the plane were the til an hour later just as Sparks computed.
completed. It was Dr. McDonalds work cause of the lights seen by Chase. But the Klass information was correct but he
that first elevated this case to the status case was not that solid. When asked by made an error when he thought 1100Z
of best evidence. Dr. Hynek if the landing lights could have was 6AM in Dallas.
fooled him, Major Chase stated:
Notes and References The description of the lights
Not unless aimed at you. That aircraft
1. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations.
Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www.
fold3.com/image/#6961844
would have been in some kind of climb.
If the aircraft is landing, no way do his
lights seem much brighter than a car on
D r. McDonalds interviews with the Co-
pilot McCoid and Chase are interest-
ing. His notes regarding his phone calls
the freeway. 1 with Chase state:
2. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations.
Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www. Brad Sparks determined that flight 966 I asked him if he any impression of angu-
fold3.com/image/#6962283 could not have been in the area at the lar size of the red light, when it showed a
time of the RB-47 encounter because it red light moving over ahead of him. He
3. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations. was too far away. It had a near miss with wouldnt hazard a guess, except he did say
Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www. flight 655 near El Paso at 3:30 AM MST. it was far larger than any running light on
fold3.com/image/#6962260 The plane could not make up the dis- a jet at the known 10-mile distance which
tance during that time. Was it late or is radar was indicating. He also said it was
4. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations. there a reasonable explanation? not flashing or pulsating like a running
Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www. light.4
fold3.com/image/#6962301 In 1957, Daylight savings time was a
His notes with McCoid mention a descrip-
5. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations. tion of the light as well:
Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www.
fold3.com/image/#6961950 He brought up, voluntarily, the matter of
gas burn-off flames from oil wells. He said
6. ibid. that he had frequently seen them and, as
soon as the phenomenon began, it went
7. USAF Project Blue Book - UFO investigations. through his mind that he should be very
Fold 3 Web site. Available WWW: http://www. careful to be dead sure that he wasnt
fold3.com/image/#6961897 looking at any burn-off flames. He then
stated that the intensity of the light, and
its elevation angle (strictly below the ho-
rizon) ruled such flames as a source, in his
mind.He recalled that the Unknown
was, at times, distinctly above their level.
Definitely too far above the horizon to
Klass notes regarding flight #9662 confuse it with oil well flames.5

32
Throughout the interviews, both Chase few possibilities that I and other skeptics ing any astronomical explanation for
and McCoid implied the angular size of considered and why some were rejected the light over Dallas-Fort Worth un-
the light was not that large and usually as not plausible: tenable.
refrained from estimating an angular size.
It was perhaps a bit larger than the land- 1. The moon reflecting off of some- 4. The light of a train heading south-
ing lights of an aircraft but there seemed thing. This seemed highly unlikely bound. This was an interesting idea
to be little angular size to it. As a result, but there was a bright waning moon and there are tracks for the southern
one can assume the only thing the wit- in the southwestern sky. What ever pacific headed towards New Orleans
nesses saw was a bright light. this light reflected off would have from Fort Worth. Still, I felt that a train
to be airborne and the only thought is a stretch unless it had a high beam
The description of where in the sky the was clouds or ice crystals. This is very searchlight that pointed skyward.
object was is confusing because Mc- unlikely.
Coid seems to state the light was above 5. The Condon study at one point sug-
and below the horizon. Chase implies it 2. A red spot aurora could have been gested the light was an optical phe-
was below the horizon. Perhaps McCoid involved. This seemed to have merit nomena involving the city lights of
was confusing memories of the 1010 me- in that there was increased solar ac- Oklahoma City. They rejected this
teor event with the later events around tivity that year but there was no re- after further analysis. I mention it
Dallas-Fort Worth. In his letters with Dr. cord of widespread auroras visible here for information purposes only. I
Hynek, Chase could not recall if the light on the date in question. Additional- never considered this as a plausible
was above or below the horizon. He told ly, the bright moon and approaching explanation.
Klass he felt the light was about 5000 feet dawn would have washed out most
below him and, at one point, was as low aurorae. 6. Gas burn-off flames or a ground fire
as 15,000 feet. of some kind. McCoid described the
3. Astronomical objects were proposed light being similar. There are no re-
What this all indicates is the light was by Klass but the sky was rapidly cords of any fires but it is interesting
probably below 34,500 feet and not brightening with sunrise less than to note that there was a General Mo-
above the horizon. So, what was the an hour away when the plane began tors plant on the eastern side of Ar-
source of the light? its pursuit phase. Even first magni- lington along the RB-47s flight path.
tude stars would start to lose their It seems unlikely they would have
Potential Sources brilliance by the time the plane was some sort of gas burn-off flame but
flying over Dallas at time 1050Z. Ad- there may have had another light

Ihave gone down a path of many pos-

sible scenarios for the light. Here are a
ditionally, the pilot/copilot all agreed
the light was below the horizon mak-
source at the plant.

Approximate flight path of the RB-47 between Dallas and Fort Worth. The lines drawn are approximate and indicate a margin for error east or west (which may be even greater than indicated here). There are two major
factories (blue marks) along the flight path as well as two major airstrips (Dallas NAS and Great Southwestern airport). This topographic map is from 1954.6

33
 eventually be used in Taiwan and Eu- the area.
rope. The airplane had some unique
equipment (including side-looking So, what was the light? I really dont
radar and high intensity lights) and know but there are many possibilities.
was built at the skunk works. In In my opinion, I think it probably was an
1957, one of the RB-69As were flown aircraft of some kind and the P-2V Nep-
to Eglin AFB in Florida for testing tune with its searchlight beam is a good
and may have had to make a stop at candidate to start with. It also might have
Dallas NAS. The other aircraft would been just an aircraft landing at or tak-
eventually have been flown to Eglin ing off from Great Southwestern airport
as well. What are the chances of one or Dallas NAS. We really will never know
of these planes being in the area of at this point without the actual records
Fort Worth in July of 1957? If it was in of aircraft activity on the date in ques-
1958 aerial photograph of Dallas NAS. Various aircraft are visible includ-
the area that morning and involved tion. It is interesting that the handwritten
ing F-8 crusaders coming off the production plant line and P-2 Nep- in some way, it would explain the summary stated the CAA had confirmed
tunes.7
need not to have the aircraft men- the aircraft was an airliner (but not flight
7. Another plane taking off or land- tioned in any reports. While this is 966).
ing. While Dallas had Love Field, Fort compelling, it seems like the odds
Worth had created its own airport of it being involved is low. It is an av- Notes and References
and had called it the Greater South- enue for future investigation. 1. Herb, Gert. A rebuttal to Philip J. Klasss analy-
western airport. It is no longer in ex- sis of the RB-47 incident of July 17, 1947. Cen-
istence but was to the south of what 11. At Dallas NAS was the Vought plant ter for UFO Studies (CUFOS) Bulletin. CUFOS.
Evanston, Ill. Summer 1977. P. 8.
is now DFW international airport. In where the new F-8 crusaders were
1957, it was fairly active. The RB-47 being built. The day before, John 2. Phil Klass notes concerning the schedule of
flight 966. American Philosophical Society.
flight path takes it over this area. Glenn had just broken the cross coun-
Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.
try speed record in one of these F-8s.
3. Weather. Denton Record-Chronicle. Denton,
8. Dallas Naval Air station was also An F-8 may have been flying about
Texas. July 17, 1957. P. 1.
along the RB-47 flight path. Dallas that early in the morning with light-
NAS was often used as a way point ing the pilots were not familiar with. 4. McDonald, James. Interview notes with James
for aircraft making cross country This is a low probability scenario but McCoid. February 2, 1969.
trips Located at Dallas NAS were two can not be completely dismissed.
reserve squadrons of P2V Neptunes. 5. ibid.
The P2V had a large searchlight on 12. Some unusual ground lighting the
the starboard wing tip of the aircraft. pilots were not familiar with. South 6. Perry-Castaeda Library Map Collection.
Seen from a distance, the searchlight of Grand Prairie airport (the 1957 air- University of Texas libraries. Available WWW:
would have been unusual. field and not the one currently using http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/250k/
that name) is a water tower. It is pos- txu-pclmaps-topo-us-dallas-1954.jpg
sible this had illumination that might
have been confusing. Additionally, 7. Historic Aerials. Available WWW: http://histori-
the city of Fort Worth seemed to caerials.com/
have a large quantity of neon light-
ing downtown similar to one might 8. Neptunes of NAS Dallas as known on April 2,
expect from some place like Las Ve- 2002. Available WWW: http://www.verslo.is/
gas. 9 (See frame grab below) baldur/p2/dallas.htm

9. 1958 Fort Worth Texas neon lights at Night.

P-2 Neptunes on the flight line at NAS Dallas in 19608 YOUTUBE. Available WWW: http://www.you-
tube.com/watch?v=bO9FffqARYE
9. The U-2 was mentioned at one point
but it seems very unlikely to be the
source. The plane would have to have
been higher than the RB-47 and pos-
sibly reflecting the sun. There were
U-2s in southern Texas but they were
probably painted black and would
not reflect the sun before sunrise
when flying at 15,000-30,000 feet .

10. An RB-69A. This was a CIA modi-

fied P2V Neptune aircraft that would 13. An unknown man-made aircraft in

34
 Dallas, might generate some reports
RB47 conclusions even at that hour of the morning.
There were four control towers that

I s the case solved? I would never sug-

gest so unless there was much more
evidence as to aerial activities that morn-
cy and same characteristics. It is as-
sumed that this is the case but there
is no proof this is so. They could just
were manned in the area (Carswell,
Greater Southwestern, Dallas NAS
and Love field). Add to this list of po-
ing. As a result, the case is still unidenti- as easily have been in the same fre- tential witnesses were the military
fied so UFOlogists can rest easy on that quency range but not the same exact personnel on duty at Dallas NAS and
point. Of course, that is what the defini- frequency as the signal mentioned in Carswell AFB, police officers, early
tion of a UFO is, right? In this case, the the Piwetz report. morning commuters, civilian pilots,
visual was apparently flying and nobody etc. One wonders why there were
can positively identify it. 2. For a majority of the signals, there no other UFO reports. Additionally,
seems to be radars located along one would expect that some techni-
Skeptics have no problems accepting those bearings that might have been cians at Duncanville, might go out
the fact the case can not be positively detected by the RB-47. Only the and see if they could see the RB-47
identified. However, it is the proponents signals at time 1030, 1042 and 1044 chasing the UFO as it passed nearby.
that seem to have a problem with a case seem to have questionable radar The lack of any confirming reports
just having the label of unidentified. To sources. Since we dont know exactly indicate the UFO was not as obvious
have such a label is not good enough. what the planes heading was at that to ground based observers as it was
They have to draw conclusions that the instant, what the exact frequency of to those in the plane.
evidence does not support. the signals were for those bearings,
and what the exact conditions were It appears that Sparks characterization of
In the conclusion of his article, Sparks for radio wave propagation, can the data and what it proves is just not
states the case is irrefutable and the evi- we really conclude that these radar accurate.
dence is unassailable. I find such state- signals were emitted by some un-
ments hyperbole, which have no place in known airborne intelligence? In 1997, UFOlogists presented several of
a scientific endeavour. However, in the their best cases to a panel of scientists.
following conclusion, one has to wonder 3. Sparks claims the UFO was large and Strangely, the RB-47 case was not one
what data he is looking at: metallic. However, the witnesses all of their primary cases (it was mentioned
stated the light/UFO sighted was briefly in the paper about the Condon
This mass of strikingly self-consistent data of small angular size. It never was Study). Is it possible that it has received
demonstrates the existence of a large seen as a physical craft of any kind the label of the best evidence because
metallic rapidly maneuvering airborne even when the plane was reason- it is now the flavor of the month? I can
source of S-band radar like signals and ably close. Is a point source of light recall reading UFO experts say the same
visible light - a UFO - that played tag with really something to get that excited thing about other cases before evidence
an Air Force intelligence-gathering jet for about? was unearthed showing they were not as
more than two hours on the night of July compelling as first thought.
17, 1957, across four states in the south- 4. Contrary to what Sparks stated, the
ern United States.1 UFO sighted never appeared to We do know the case was examined to
make any exotic maneuvers. There some extent by the Condon study with
He states this as if this was proven with- were statements it paced the aircraft the conclusion they could not explain
out a doubt. Objective observers would but this is not stated in any of the it. However, they also realized that it did
state that he has not come close to prov- reports from 1957. There are no in- not mean the case involved some super-
ing this conclusion and that he has re- dications the visually observed UFO natural event/intelligence. Writing in
jected other possibilities without good flew loops, stopped on a dime, or his book, UFOs: An insiders view of the
reason. zigzagged about. It was just a light official quest for evidence, Dr. Roy Craig
that was seen, and when the RB-47 wrote:
The greatest UFO case ever? got near the UFO, it disappeared.
This makes it nothing more than Are we left with only the extraordinary

T his case is being billed as the best

evidence for UFOs being some form
of exotic unknown phenomenon based
a nocturnal light, which Dr. Hynek
considered to be a waste of time: We
can forget about all this lights-in-the-
conclusion, or do misinterpretation of
observations and vagueness of memory
open the door to explanation in terms of
mostly on what Sparks wrote about the sky stuff, which we cant do anything the ordinary?3
case. This overinflated claim seems to about anyway...2
have been simply accepted without In my opinion, this latter scenario is more
questioning it. There are several reasons 5. There are no UFO reports mentioned plausible. When faced with choosing be-
to question this claim: by anybody but the crew. One tween the two scenarios of misinterpre-
would think a UFO that could be tation of events by the witnesses and the
1. We do not know if all the signals re- seen from dozens of miles away over presence of some unknown intelligence
ported were the same exact frequen- a major metropolis like Fort Worth- emitting radio waves that acted like a

35
ground radar in use at the time, one will The RB-47 contacts from 1955
tend to conclude that misinterpretation
is more likely.
I n Sparks article, he describes several
incidents where RB-47s had similar en-
counters with unknown objects in June
tem contacts were reported.
4. The fourth and final event happened
I doubt that most UFOlogists will side with on 8 June. This RB-47s gun radar
1955. The implication is that these inci-
this type of reasoning. This approach was once again detected something but
dents were the same types of UFOs moni-
noted in the Condon study: only briefly. The K-system detected
toring/harassing the USAF and, therefore, another radar apparently sweeping
are considered confirming evidence for
....others who desire to have a residue of the plane. The crew reported see-
the RB-47 case. But are can one really link
unexplained cases in order to add mys- ing an unidentified aircraft about
these incidents with the RB-47 case?
tery and importance to the UFO problem 5-10,000 feet above and 5-10 miles
incline to set impossibly high standards of The messages can be found at http:// to the rear. A contrail was sighted by
certainty in the evidence before they are www.nicap.org/docs/ufo00031.pdf and a second RB-47 trailing the original
willing to accept a simple explanation for describes four incidents: RB-47 from 80 miles away (Do UFOs
a report.4 actually leave contrails?).
1. The first incident occurred on 1-2
June 1955. An RB-47 flying over the The funny thing about all of these sig-
If only these UFOlogists set equally high polar regions near Devon Island re- nals is there are no actual radar signal
standards for evidence that an unknown ceived indications that it was being descriptions. We get hints of potential
intelligence was involved. In my opinion, swept by a radar using the RB-47s K- radar sweeps but we do not even know
the evidence in the RB-47 case is inad- system. Additionally, the RB-47s gun what frequency bands they came from.
equate to draw this kind of a conclusion. radar detected a bright return. This While these are interesting, one can not
also happened in the same general truly link these events to the RB-47 case
Lipstick on a pig? area on the return leg of the flight. since there is not enough information.
At this point, the gun radar had con- Additionally, one has to wonder why the

S ome might suggest that I have simply

put more lipstick on the same pig
(the pig being Klass explanation). I dis-
tact at 8,000 yards. No visual sight-
ing was made.
ECM operators in the pod did not record
the characteristics of the intermittent ra-
dar signals. Perhaps they saw nothing of
agree. My original goal was to evaluate 2. The second incident involved an-
significance and the only thing that saw
the two arguments presented in the case. other RB-47 on 4 June 1955 in the
the signals were the K-system radar sen-
In my opinion, I have done this and have Melville sound area. Once again,
sors which gave indications of intermit-
determined that nobody has positively the RB-47 gun radar had a contact
tent radar sweeps. Perhaps this was an
established a direct link between the ra- (this time at 7,000 yards) but a visual
equipment issue. Was the equipment
dar signals and the nocturnal light. There sighting of a bright metallic-looking
prone to giving false positives under cer-
seems to be other potential sources for object was seen to the rear of the
tain conditions? Was there something
the radar signals and the observed light. plane. Contrails (apparently from the
in the area that could have caused the
All the incidents can be potentially ex- RB-47) hid the intruder. Photographs
false positives? It is interesting that all of
plained and Klass argument, while con- were taken but they were so poor
these incidents happened near the Arctic
taining some flaws and requiring some in quality, nothing could be learned
circle.
tweaking, is still an adequate answer to from them.
the RB-47 case. Additionally, the use of active airborne
3. The third event occurred on June
radar was not something new. Various
7th. This time it was near Banks Is-
fighter interceptors and search aircraft
Notes and References land. The gun radar of an RB-47 once
had radar in 1955. What prevented these
again detected a contact at 3500
signals and sightings being something
1. Sparks, Brad. RB-47 radar/visual case. The yards. The pilot thought it was some
from the Canadian or US Air Force/Navy?
UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon From form of jamming. No visual or K-sys-
The Beginning, Vol. II: L-Z, 2nd Edition. Jerome Trying to link these incidents of brief ra-
Clark editor. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, Inc.; dar contacts and minimal information to
1998. Page 790 the RB-47 case in July of 1957 is simply
wishful thinking. There is just not enough
2. Close encounter still up in the air for UFO ex- information to link the two together.
pert by Michael Tenszen - Toronto Globe and
Mail. July 5, 1982

3. Craig, Roy. UFOs: An Insiders View of the Of-

ficial Quest for Evidence. Denton: University of
North Texas Press, 1995. P. 148

4. Condon, E. U., et al., eds. Scientific Study of

Unidentified Flying Objects. New York: Ban-
tam 1968. p 18.

36
 Phil Klass vs Lewis Chase and how
W hile reading the letters between
Phil Klass and Lewis Chase, I was
amused to read some of their exchanges.
it relates to the Echo/Oscar flight
shutdowns
Air Force the credit at the time, thinking
it was new equipment of our own! Later
I get angry when the information is not
Chase began the letter exchange with available to support the crew. Might you
Klass encouraged that he was performing think cover up? 5
an in-depth study of the case and looking Klass would respond describing his skep-
at all the possibilities. Eventually, Klass tical position and how he naturally tends Klass would respond:
would reveal information that would to question exotic reports no matter who
make Lewis Chases blood boil. I felt that makes them. Chase would apologize for Project Blue Book was generally staffed
this exchange needed to be described stepping on toes and reacting emotion- with clay pigeons and was considered
for the readers to demonstrate how Klass ally. But he would state why he felt this a comfortable berth, in which one could,
and Chase were at opposite ends when it way: after leaving, write a UFO book and make
came to the USAF and UFOs. some $$$$, like Captain Ruppelt....if you
Ive been ridiculed for a great number of or I had been chief of SAC, I doubt that
No Radar contacts? years for just reporting what happened he would have given any attention to the
as the crew saw it (underline). But when report of an RB-47 encounter with a UFO

W hen Phil Klass mentioned that Dun-

canville stated they had no radar
contacts, Chase became rather upset:
you shake your finger at me Phil and say
you dont believe this could have hap-
pened in the service then I figure you dont
in the summer of 1957. There were simply
far more pressing problems to face....6

know what went on at that time. I like This would be Chase and Klass last ex-
AN ABSOLUTE FALSEHOOD! THEY WERE very much your explanation of how the change of lengthy letters. Chase seemed
OBSERVING THE OBJECT AND REPORTING UTAH commander could have made his to have had enough of discussing the
IT TO US AS THE INCIDENT OCCURRED.1 decision to report negative contact. But case in detail and when Klass sent him
regardless of what he reported, the crew copies of his analysis, he simply respond-
Chase would then make the following ac- knows what UTAH reported that night!- ed that Klass did a thorough and excel-
cusations about Blue Book, the USAF, and definite, concrete painting with no men- lent job on it.
the UFO problem: tion of an airliner!
Is Chase a liar?
Phil: Remember the attitude of official- OK, Ill do my best to be objective, but Ill
dom at the time. Ridicule everything we
can not explain. The word was out at that
time to include Blue Book! Youve over-
admit I have sore toes. Hell Phil, Im the
last one to think weve had outer space
visitors, but I do say I wouldnt shrug off
L ewis Chases emotional exchanges
with Klass demonstrates to me that he
would never stand for being part of any
looked a key element in the intelligence what happened that night without a lie or cover-up. However, this is exactly
report Raven #3 recorded all conversa- good solid explanation or an acceptable what he has been accused of recently.
tion. The wire recording was confiscated possibility..4
upon landing and never heard of again. Chase was the UFO officer at Malmstrom
Another CO not going to appear foolish to Finally, Chase made accusations about AF base during the Echo Flight shutdown
the brass? Why didnt it go to Blue Book?2 Blue Book and the USAF regarding any incident and had told Dr. Roy Craig there
recordings made by the crew: was no UFO involvement. Because Rob-
Because Klass brought up this message ert Salas has used this case to prop up
and suggested the CO of Duncanville This was certainly available to SAC Hqs, his Oscar flight shutdown UFO case (of
might have identified the contact as an Blue Book, Air Force, etc. Where did it go which there is no record anywhere), he
airplane, Chase questioned Klass objec- Phil? Doesnt it strike you as being a little has decided to call Chase a liar:
tivity: strange that:
Within a few days, Chase replied. This
I have the distinct impression you have a) SAC never said word one to anyone office has no knowledge of equipment
long since made up your mind on the an- about the incident. We were Books, may- malfunctions and abnormalities in equip-
swer to this incident and have allowed be? ment during the period of reported UFO
your emotion to affect your objectivity. sightings. No validity can be established
Doesnt that put you in the same position b) Project Blue Book, in their thorough in- to the statement that a classified govern-
that you believe McDonald was in?.... vestigation, never thought the crew was ment experiment was in progress or that
worth talking to, nor ever requested one military and civilian personnel were re-
Let me again state my feelings Some- piece of information??? quested not discuss what they had seen.
thing tremendously out of the ordinary
happened that nightNo one has given c) No operational personnel or the wing These are blatantly false statements since
me any explanation of what happened, CO considered it all except to ridicule the I and others can attest that we were or-
although I did think you had made a good crew. dered not to talk to anyone about our in-
start. Certainly there is a good explana- cident and that our equipment certainly
tion for all that happened but it has to How would you react Phil? Would you did malfunction. And, if it had been a mili-
be together scientifically and logically. 3 consider the possibility of cover up? I gave tary experiment, we would have since had

37
 UFOlogy drops the ball!
the capability of easily disabling nuclear
missiles at will.

This correspondence was written after the

Condon Committee meeting with the Air
Force Base UFO officers. Since Chase was
I n an article on NICAPs web site, Brad
Sparks makes the following bold proc-
lamation:
ers for receiving deep space signals for
some time now. The SETI league techni-
cal manual describes how to build a radio
obviously not disclosing the missile shut- receiver for detecting signals up to 2GHZ.
down incidents even to another Air Force It is ironic that the SETI project attempts While this unit can not detect the radar
office, clearly the cover-up was ongoing, to detect radio signals from civilizations signals seen in the RB-47 case, it would
and he was in the middle of it. By the time around distant stars many light-years only require a receiver that could tune to
Roy Craig came to ask questions about the away from earth, and SETI scientists are the 3GHZ frequency to make it capable
Echo Flight incident, Lt. Col. Chase would very hostile and dismissive of the UFO of doing so.
know what he was expected to do. phenomenon. Yet here we have a UFO
transmitting radio signals from only 10 Why havent UFOlogists developed an ar-
....Chase lied to Craig about UFO involve- miles away from an RB-47 spy plane. One ray of receivers to detect this kind of UFO
ment in the Echo incident and did not would think SETI would be interested in signature in the past decade? Certainly,
mention the fact that Oscar flight was dis- this very-close-to-home type of evidence.1 UFOlogys greatest minds, like Brad
abled on March 24.7 Sparks, could create a simple network
According to Sparks and all those that such as this. Like the technology that is
Based on Chases comments to Klass, it ap- have proclaimed this case is the most im- present today to record UFOs with high
pears that he would never stand for being portant UFO case ever, I wonder why they quality video equipment, the technol-
part of this kind of chicanery. However, if feel that only SETI can detect this UFO sig- ogy exists for UFOlogists to look for these
Chase was knowledgeable about or par- nal? Why is it that Sparks et. al. want SETI specific radar signals. When Brad Sparks
ticipated in such a cover-up, why didnt to do their work for them? I was told that makes claims about scientists ignoring
he just tell Klass about it as evidence this skeptics need to put up or shut up about data when he could gather more data to
kind of thing happened all the time. In- explaining all UFO cases. The counter ar- back up his, in my opinion, overinflated
stead, Lewis Chase never mentioned it gument is that it is time for UFOlogists to claims of scientific proof, I just shake my
as if it never happened. Indirectly, Chase put up or shut up regarding these cases. head. This kind of behavior is so typical
has pointed out the missile shutdown at Presenting a mystery from over fifty years for UFOlogists.
Echo (as well as the mythical Oscar event) ago and then asking skeptics to explain it
never involved UFOs. to their satisfaction is a win-win scenario Notes and References
for them. They dont have to do anything
Notes and References other than create something mysterious 1. Sparks, Brad. Case Update : RB-47 case, July
and find reason not to accept any po- 17, 1957, Mississippi - Louisiana-Texas-Okla-
1. Undated letter from Lewis Chase to Phil Klass tential explanations. If they were really homa. National Investigations Committee on
with comments on 16 October 1971 letter interested in scientific research of UFOs Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) web site. Available
from Phil Klass. American Philosophical Soci- they would do something more than just WWW: http://www.nicap.org/reports/rb47_
ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6. create a mystery. update_sparks.htm

2. ibid. SETI for amateurs 2. Shuch, H. Paul. SETI League Technical Manual.
Available WWW: http://www.setileague.org/
3.

4.
ibid.

Letter from Lewis Chase to Phil Klass dated 27

A mateur astronomers have been de-
veloping and operating radio receiv-
hardware/blkdiag.htm

October 1971. American Philosophical Soci-

ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.

5. ibid.

6. Letter from Phil Klass to Lewis Chase dated 2

November 1971. American Philosophical Soci-
ety. Philip Klass Collection. Box Series II-6.

7. Salas, Robert. Back to Montana. US Intel-

ligence Examiner web site. March 30, 2010.
Available WWW: http://www.examiner.com/
us-intelligence-in-national/ufo-sightings-us-
air-force-captain-witnesses-ufo-deactivate-
nuclear-missile-warheads
Amateur SETI station block diagram2

38
 UFOs on the tube Book Reviews
Buy it! (No UFO library should do
UFO Files: Real UFOs Warren Botts says he was attending a pi-
without it)
lots reunion at Wright-Patterson when Psychic Vibrations - Robert Sheaf-
The last two months saw no new UFO he simply wandered into a secure hang- fer.
programs on television. So, I watched a er and saw one of these flying saucers.
2010 program about real UFOs on the After looking it over, an armed guard ap- This latest offering from Mr. Sheaffer is
history channel. peared and chased him away. One has to well worth looking at and has plenty of
wonder what the guard was doing if he good material for somebody researching
The show started with the old Nazi UFO allowed a civilian to simply wander into the history of UFOs. It is a collection of his
myth. Old photographs and artwork that the hanger he was guarding. The story Psychic vibrations column from Skepti-
supposedly show the top secret flying reeks of a tall tale and, like Picketts story, cal Inquirer over the years. I had to chuck-
saucers developed by the Nazis were pre- is just not credible. le as I read through the various bits and
sented. Scientists were named and spec- pieces. One quickly realizes, after reading
ulation was rampant. It is too bad that The show concludes with discussions the older entries, that UFOlogy tends to
Kevin McClure was not part of the inter- about the F-117 stealth fighter. Engineer repeat itself.
views. He had pretty much shot down the Alan Brown was interviewed and he stat-
Nazi UFO stories some time ago and his ed he was cynical of UFO stories and felt
Borrow it. (Worth checking out of
article can be found at the Magonia web the only real UFOs were ones designed library or borrowing from a friend)
site. A lot of the names were brought up and built by the United States. He did
UFO Crash Secrets at Wright/Pat-
again trying to rekindle the stories. Sup- not appear to mean they were the kinds
posedly, all these scientists made their of craft described by Pickett but the kinds terson Air Force Base - James Mo-
way to the US or the Soviet Union where of craft like the F-117. seley
they continued their research. Last issue, I gave a good plug for Mose-
After discussing how unmanned aircraft leys book. This book is very similar and
The show then jumps to 1947, where Ro- are the future of advanced design, the appears to have been a rougher version
swell and Kenneth Arnold were briefly show noted that even the latest craft for what was to come. It still contains
mentioned. There was an accurate de- do not appear to be anything like the some very good tidbits that are worth
scription of how the USAF tried to link the advanced designs described in the Nazi going through once. However, I would
Horton design with the Arnold sighting. UFO myth. In fact, the narrator correctly not consider this opus anything vital to
The script then jumped to various testing points out, Perhaps the science of flying a UFO library.
that had happened in the Southwestern saucers was never a reality and follows
US including Project MOGUL. I found this it up with AVRO aeronautical engineer, Bin it! (Not worth the paper it is
part of the show fairly accurate. Doug Garlands statement about the
saucer shape, As long as you stay close
written upon - send to recycle bin)
The program then tried to make much to the ground, you got yourself an effec- Situation Red: The UFO Siege -
about the AVROCAR story and how the tive lifting device. It does not make an ef- Leonard Stringfield.
designers believed that it was possible to fective lifting device in free air. He then
build a supersonic flying saucer. Howev- made the comment that saucer-shaped I bought this book long ago in a used
er, when the AVROCAR failed, the US was craft flying at supersonic speeds were es- book store. I did not find it very com-
supposedly able to seize all the secrets sentially figments of the imagination. pelling back then and still dont find it
that the company had uncovered regard- so today. It documents the UFO wave of
ing the supersonic capabilities of these Just when the show looked like it might the early 1970s from Stringfields point of
saucer shaped craft. have put a nail in the coffin about this, view but I found nothing new here. The
Mike Shratt reappeared and demanded chapter on scientific UFOlogy contains
Those secrets were apparently used to the US government release all its records very little science. It is just a bunch of
build actual working flying saucers. The about the saucer shaped craft described opinions from UFOlogists with scientific
source of this information is one Jack by Pickett. Shratt, like so many UFOlo- backgrounds. Stringfield then makes
Pickett, who saw all these flying saucers gists, was grandstanding for the camera the claim that scientific UFOlogy was
at McDill AFB in the 1950s. They were, with his conspiracy theory. seriously studying all these cases. Unfor-
according to UFO writer Mike Shratt, ca- tunately, scientific UFOlogy has done
pable of flying at 16,500 mph and going The program was OK but I would have nothing. The rest of the book is more of
into space! Almost all of this information preferred to have seen a complete de- the usual UFO claims that get repeated
can be traced back to Jack Pickett, who bunking of the Nazi UFO and Pickett over an over again as if they were proven
really cant prove his claim. The only evi- tales. Both of these parts of the program facts. It presented nothing really new
dence provided to support his story is a have no basis in fact and a better pro- and was not worth the effort to read.
taped recording of a retired pilot by the gram would have been for producers to
name of Warren Botts. debunk these outrageous stories.

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