RB-47 UFO encounter
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 3
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | RB-47 case, RB-47 incident |
The RB-47 UFO encounter took place on 17 July 1957, when the crew of a U.S. Air Force RB-47H electronic reconnaissance aircraft reported following an unidentified light across Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma for more than an hour, with the object detected by the aircraft's electronic intelligence equipment, by ground radar and by eye. The Condon Committee classified it as unexplained, and it is often cited as one of the strongest multi-sensor cases.[1][2]
The encounter
The RB-47H, flown by Maj. Lewis Chase and carrying electronic warfare officers, was on a training flight over the Gulf of Mexico and the southern United States. Its electronic intelligence (ELINT) equipment, designed to detect enemy radar signals, picked up an unusual signal that appeared to move around the aircraft. The crew then saw a very bright light, and the ground radar site at Duncanville, Texas, operated by the 745th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, reported a target at the same position. Over the following period the light was seen to move, stop and disappear, while the electronic signal and radar target appeared and disappeared together at times.[2][3]
Investigation
The case came to the University of Colorado UFO Project only because Chase, by then the UFO officer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, mentioned it at a project conference in June 1967. The Condon Report treated it as Case 5; its investigators considered several explanations, found none satisfactory and classified it as unknown. However, the original Air Force file had been misdated, so the committee's radar and weather analyses were done for the wrong date.[2][4]
Atmospheric physicist James McDonald researched the case in detail, and in 1971 a subcommittee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics published his analysis as one of two sample cases; Chase confirmed the accuracy of the account. Skeptic Philip Klass proposed that the electronic signals came from a ground radar and that the visual sightings were an airliner and other ordinary lights; researcher Brad Sparks has argued for its significance. No contemporaneous written report by the crew has been found.[3][5]
References
- "RB-47 case file", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Condon Report, Case 5 · files.ncas.org · archived copy
- "UFO Encounter I: Sample Case Selected by the UFO Subcommittee of the AIAA" (1971) — NARCAP · narcap.org · archived copy
- Kevin Randle, "Lewis Chase and the RB-47", A Different Perspective (2021) · kevinrandle.blogspot.com · archived copy
- "The RB-47 UFO Encounter", HowStuffWorks · science.howstuffworks.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 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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