1951

11

1951

• Australia, Central Australia: A group of Unmatjera aborigines observed a shiny circular object land near a similar craft, about 12 m in diameter. Several min later, a dwarf dressed in a shiny suit and having “a round, shiny head” came out of one craft and entered the other; both took off with a buzzing sound.

• Australia. The driver of a transcontinental train on the east-west line saw an object that illuminated the countryside like the full moon. It flew very fast, came close to the train, appeared ready to land in the desert, then took off and disappeared.

• Denmark, Sonderborg: Joseph Matiszewski, a mechanic, heard a whistling sound and saw an object land in a meadow. Approaching within 50 m, he found himself paralyzed and observed that birds had stopped singing and cows seemed to be similarly unable to move. From the object emerged four handsome men who had brown skin and wore black shiny suits and translucent helmets. Eight objects also emerged from the craft and hovered above it. Other men inside the craft and on its deck appeared to be making repairs, then the objects flew to about 100 m altitude and climbed rapidly out of sight. Only then did the paralysis subside.

• South Korea: U.S. Army platoon fires armor-piercing bullets at a hovering bell-shaped UFO in Chorwon, South Korea.

• USA, California, Mojave: Two forest observers were in a canyon 50 km north of the Mojave when they saw a disk-shaped flying object in the southwest; 10 m estimated diameter, 3 m thick, blue-green, well-defined, surrounded with a glow of same color. Stopping their jeep, they signaled to the object, which approached within a few meters, flew away, seemed to play with them. Eventually it vanished “like a magician’s trick.”

• USA, Nebraska, Peru: A man from Lincoln was driving to Indiana when he saw a blue light in the northwest sky. It vanished to the southeast. The witness missed a turn, had to go back toward Auburn, and had reached a point northwest of Peru when he saw an orange glow in the sky. Coming near, he observed the glow came from a cauldron-shaped object on the ground, about 12 m from the road. He stopped to examine the object, which measured about 10 m diameter and seemed to be made of cast iron. Thirty cm from the top was a row of windows, 25 cm in diameter, from which the orange light was coming. On the other side was a blue flamelike glow. There was no noise, no sign of life or activity, and no antenna or protrusion. The witness drove away.

• USA, North Carolina, Red Springs: Sam Coley and his two children saw an object with a human-looking occupant.

• Walter Webb, an astronomer saw a bright glowing light moving in an undulating path.

1951 Project Blue Book Unknowns

• Japan Feb. 1, 1951; Johnson Air Base, Japan. 5:10 p.m. Witnesses: pilot and radar operator of F-82 night fighter. One amber light made three or four 360* turns to the right, reversed toward the F-82 and then climbed out of sight.

Korea ; Chinnampo, Korea. 9:51 a.m. Witnesses: crew of USAF B-29 bomber, including scanners and tail gunner. A large red-yellow glow burst and became blue-white. No further information in files.

• Labrador, Canada. 9:30 p.m. Witnesses: T/Sgt W.B. Maupin, Cpl. J.W. Green. Three objects tracked on radar. Two were on a collision course, then one evaded to the right upon the request, by radio, of one of the radar operators! No aircraft were known to be in the area. A third unidentified track then joined the first two. More than 15 minutes.

• Okinawa Oct. 3, 1951; Kadena, Okinawa. 10:27 p.m. Witnesses: radar operators Sgt. M.W. Watson and Pvt. Gonzales and one other Sergeant. One large, sausage-shaped blip tracked at an estimated 4,800 m.p.h.

• South Africa Feb. 21, 1951; Durban, South Africa. 4:55 a.m. Witnesses: three men in a truck, several other persons, none named. A dark red, torpedo-shaped object with darker center, flew straight and level.

• USA, Alaska Feb. 26, 1951; Ladd AFB, Alaska. 7:10 a.m. Witness: USAF Sgt. J.B. Sells. One dull grey, metallic object, estimated to be 120’ long and 10-12’ thick, hovered, puffed smoke and sped away after 1-1.5 minutes. Note: may have been Feb. 25. Mar. 10,

• USA, California Sept. 6, 1951; Claremont, California. 7:20 p.m. (not really clear). Witnesses: S/Sgt W.T. Smith, M/Sgt L.L. Duel (?). Six orange lights in an irregular formation, flew straight and level into a coastal fog bank after 3-4 minutes.

• USA, California Mar. 13, 1951; McClellan AFB, California. 3:20 p.m. Witnesses: USAF lst Lt. B.J. Hastie, Mrs. Rafferty. A cylinder with twin tails, 200’ long and 90’ wide, turned north and flew at incredible speed. Two minutes.

• India Mar. 15, 1951; New Delhi, India. 10:20 a.m. Witnesses: 25 members of a flying club, including the chief aerial engineer and his two assistants. One metallic cigar-shaped object with white exhaust which turned black when it accelerated to an estimated 1,000 m.p.h. and made a large loop. Seven minutes.

• USA, Georgia Jan. 12, 1951, Ft. Benning, Georgia. 10 p.m. Witness: U.S. Army 2nd Lt. A.C. Hale. One light with a fan-shaped wake remained motionless like a star about 20 minutes and then sped away.

• USA, Indiana Oct. 9, 1951; Terre Haute, Indiana. 1:42 p.m. Witness: CAA Chief Aircraft Communicator Roy Messmore at Hulman Municipal Airport. One round silver object flew directly overhead, reaching the horizon in 15 seconds. Note: a very similar incident happened 3 minutes later near Paris, Illinois (15 miles NW) and was also listed as “unidentified” for several years, but was eventually reclassified.

• USA, Minnesota Oct. 11, 1951; Minneapolis, Minnesota. 6:30 a.m. Witnesses: General Mills balloon researchers, including aeronautical engineer J.J. Kaliszewski, aerologist C.B. Moore, pilot Dick Reilly in the air, and Doug Smith on the ground. The flight crew saw the first object, a brightly glowing one with a dark underside and a halo around it. The object arrived high and fast, then slowed and made slow climbing circles for about two minutes, and finally sped away to the east. Soon they saw another one, confirmed by ground observers using a theodolite, which sped across the sky. Total time first object was seen was 5 minutes, second was a few seconds.

• USA, Minnesota Nov. 24, 1951; Mankato, Minnesota. 33:53 p.m. Witnesses: USAF or ANG pilots W.H. Fairbrother and D.E. Stewart in P-51 Mustangs. One milky white object shaped like Northrop flying wing (broad, slightly swept-back wing with no fuselage or tail). Estimated 8’ span. Flew straight and level for 5 seconds.

• USA, New Hampshire July 24, 1951; Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 7:10 Witnesses: Hanscom AFB Operations Officer Capt. Cobb, Cpl. Fein. One 100-200’ tubular object, 5 times long as it was wide, with fins at one end, and colored greyish with many black spots. Flew 800-1,000 m.p.h. at 1-2,000’ altitude, leaving a faint swath. 20 seconds.

• USA, New Mexico, Gallup: I was on the air at radio station KGAK in Gallup, New Mexico, just prior to the 8 a.m. news during November of 1951 and I got a call on the phone. A voice said Would you look toward the southeast and see if you see what those of us up on the mountainside see? I put on a long record…and I looked toward the southeast over the mountains (just before sunrise). There were five objects and…I had never seen a jet airplane in those days…with the flame out of the back. This is what they looked like…a cigar would kind of describe it. They were elongated objects, flame-colored…it was almost as if they were in formation moving in place in this formation…on a horizontal plane…not much vertical motion. I had to run back…get another record on…(give) five minutes of news…(I mentioned) it on the air…went back out and looked. The sun had come up by then and it was the exact color that these objects were, but the objects were gone. Later…I got to thinking a disc-shaped object, if it were metallic, could have reflected the sun in this elongated pattern…certainly a presumption on my part. There was a military radar post about 20 or 30 miles east of Gallup at that time… and I thought it was some kind of a military thing because the White Sands Proving Grounds were to the southeast of us quite a few miles away.

• USA, New Mexico Jan 16, 1951; Artesia, New Mexico. Time unknown. Witnesses: Two members of a balloon project from the General Mills . Aeronautical Research Laboratory, the manger of the Artesia Airport, and three pilots. The balloon crew was observing their 110’ balloon at an altitude of 112,000’ when a dull white, round object was spotted. It appeared larger than the balloon, but made no movement. Later, the balloon crew and the others saw two objects from the airport; flying side-by-side, they circled the balloon and flew away to the northeast. The second observation lasted about 40 seconds. Note: there is confusion over the date of this case, with some USAF records showing it as 1952; however, 1951 appears to be correct.

• USA, New Mexico Aug. 25, 1951; Albuquerque, New Mexico. 9:58 p.m. Witnesses: Sandia Base Security Guard Hugh Young and wife. A flying wing-shaped craft passed over their heads at an estimated 800-1,000’ altitude with no sound. Size estimated at 1.5 times wingspan of B-36 bomber,or 350’. Dark, chordwise stripes on underside, and 6-8 pairs of soft, glowing lights on trailing edge of “wing”. Speed estimated at 300-400 m.p.h., object seen for about 30 seconds.

• USA, New York June 1, 1951; Niagara Falls, New York. 4:20 a.m. Witnesses: M/Sgt H.E. Sweeney, 2 enlisted men. One glowing yellow-orange, saucer-shaped object with arc-shaped wings, flew straight up. Seen for 30-40 seconds.

• USA, Ohio Oct. 2, 1951; Columbus, Ohio. 6 p.m. Witness: Battelle Memorial Institute graduate physicist Howard Cross. One bright oval with a clipped tail flew straight and level, fading into the distance after 1 minute.

• USA, Ohio Dec. 7, 1951; Sunbury, Ohio. 4:30 p.m. Witness: amateur astronomer Carl Loar. One silvery sphere seen through telescope. Two specks sighted at sides, object seemed to explode and was replaced by a dark cloud and many specks. 30 minutes.

• USA, Tennessee Dec. 7, 1951; Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 8:15 a.m. Witness: Atomic Energy Commission guard J.H. Collins. One 20’ square object, white-grey but not shiny flew above ridge to clouds and back again twice, taking 30-40 seconds each time.

• USA, Washington D.C Nov. 18, 1951; Washington, D.C. 3:20 a.m. Witnesses: Crew of Capital Airlines DC-4 Fliqht 610, Andrews AFB Senior air traffic controller Tom Selby. One object with several lights, followed the DC-4 for about 20 minutes and then turned back.

• USA, Texas Jan. 8, 1951; South of Ft. Worth, Texas. 10:45 p.m. Witnesses: Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Boggus, plus unidentified drivers and passengers in other cars stopped to watch. Two groups of red and green lights in triangular formations were stationary and then moved.

• USA, Texas Aug. 31, 1951; Matador, Texas. 12:45 p.m. Witnesses: Mrs. Tom Tilson, one or two other women, all apparently of excellent reputations. One pear-shaped object with a length of a B-29 fuselage (100’), aluminum or silver with a port or some type of aperture on the side. It moved with smaller end forward, drifting slowly at about 150’ altitude, then headed up in a circular fashion and out of sight after a few seconds.