Big Sur UFO film
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | September 1964 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Ocean & underwater (topic) |
| People | Robert Jacobs, Florenz Mansmann, Kingston George |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 66 |
| Year | 1964 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1964 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
The Big Sur UFO film refers to footage taken in September 1964 by a U.S. Air Force camera team filming an Atlas missile test from a mountaintop near Big Sur, California. The team's commander, Robert Jacobs, later said the film showed a UFO disabling the missile's dummy warhead and that it was taken away by men he understood to be from the CIA; the project's engineer said it showed decoys being released in a classified test.[1][2]
The filming
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From August to November 1964 an Air Force team managed by the 1369th Photographic Squadron used a sensitive telescope, borrowed from Boston University, in the Los Padres National Forest to film missiles launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. On 15 September 1964 the team filmed the launch of an Atlas missile carrying a dummy warhead; during one launch, of an Atlas nicknamed "Buzzing Bee", it recorded the re-entry vehicle releasing decoy warheads, a classified technique meant to defeat Soviet missile defences.[1][3]
Jacobs's account
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Lieutenant Robert Jacobs, the site's commander, said that two days after the launch Major Florenz Mansmann showed him the film in his office, with two men in plain clothes. According to Jacobs, the footage showed a light entering the frame, circling the warhead and firing flashes at it, after which the warhead tumbled; Mansmann told him never to speak of it, and the film was taken away. Jacobs went public in the National Enquirer in 1982, expanded the story in the MUFON UFO Journal in 1989, and took part in a 2021 press conference. Mansmann supported key parts of the story in a 1987 letter, describing the object as saucer-shaped.[1][3][4]
The engineer's explanation
The Air Force has said there was no UFO incident. Kingston George, the project's engineer, wrote in Skeptical Inquirer in 1993 that the film recorded the release of decoys and chaff, whose deployment produced the flashes Jacobs described, and that Jacobs had misinterpreted it because he was not cleared to know the test's purpose. The film has never been produced, so the dispute remains unresolved.[1][2]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Vandenberg Space Force Base — The California missile and space launch base.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Robert Jacobs — Air Force officer who said he filmed a UFO intercepting a test warhead at Big Sur in 1964.
- Florenz Mansmann — Air Force major who confirmed parts of Robert Jacobs's Big Sur story.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Kingston George — Engineer who argued the Big Sur film showed ordinary missile hardware.
On the Timeline
- Holloman landing and hangar claim (1964) (30 April 1964) — A claimed UFO under guard at Holloman AFB; the same day a pilot reports an egg-shaped object.
- Fort Riley incident (1964) (10 December 1964) — A Fort Riley guard says soldiers were marched toward a large object lit by a helicopter.
See every 1964 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Big Sur UFO — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Kingston A. George, "The Big Sur 'UFO': An Identified Flying Object", Skeptical Inquirer (Winter 1993) · cdn.centerforinquiry.org · archived copy
- "Big Sur, California", NICAP · nicap.org · archived copy
- Robert Hastings, "Big Sur UFO film: government whistleblower reveals he watched it" · ufohastings.com · archived copy
- ufohastings.com · ufohastings.com · archived copy
- ufohastings.com · ufohastings.com · archived copy
Further reading
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Vandenberg Space Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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