Herbert Scoville

Read Suggest an edit View history

From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person

Contents 3

Herbert Scoville

Illustration of a radar screen tracking unknown returns — Illustration: a radar screen tracking unknown returns. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

Type	Person
On the Timeline	1 event, 1957

Herbert Scoville Jr. (1915–1985) was an American physicist and CIA official who headed the agency's Office of Scientific Intelligence and later became its first Deputy Director for Research. He later worked on arms control.

The Mach 3 target

Illustration of official papers and files — Illustration: official papers and files. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

In September 1957, the chief of Air Force intelligence warned that a radar target had been tracked crossing the United States at about three times the speed of sound. Scoville and CIA scientific intelligence staff commented on the report, which raised concern about possible Soviet aircraft. The case is one of several from the 1950s showing intelligence agencies tracking unexplained fast objects.

On the UAP Timeline

Christopher Mellon — Christopher Mellon Photo: Max Moszkowicz · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Mach 3 radar target alert (1957) (24 September 1957) — The Air Force intelligence chief warns of a radar target crossing the U.S. at Mach 3.

Connected articles

References

CIA memo on the 20 Sept 1957 radar object — CIA reading room · cia.gov · archived copy
NORAD national air defense UFO alert, Sept 20 1957 — Christopher Mellon · christophermellon.net · archived copy
September 20, 1957: radars track a very fast target · uapdiscovery.discourse.group · archived copy
Intelligence Advisory Committee / Watch Committee memo — UFOScans · ufoscans.com · archived copy

Categories: Central intelligence agency | Federal bureau of investigation | Montauk project | Person | Us air force

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.

Talk 0

Discuss the article: missing sources, mistakes, or what should be added.

Join in seconds to post your comment — or sign in

📜 Terms of Use Scroll to the end to continue Open in a new tab ↗

These terms are an agreement between you and ufos.dev (“we”, “us”), who runs ufos.dev (the “site”). By using the site you agree to them. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the site.

1. You must be 18 or older

The site is for adults only. You may not use the site, create an account or post anything unless you are at least 18 years old. By using the site you confirm that you are. We will close any account we believe belongs to someone under 18.

2. Your account

Keep your password safe — you are responsible for everything done with your account. Give accurate information when you sign up, and tell us if you think someone else has used your account.

3. You are responsible for what you post

Sightings, comments, statuses, profile posts, board posts, articles, messages, pictures, links and anything else you post (“your content”) are yours, and you alone are responsible for them. We are a platform that hosts content provided by members; we do not create, check or endorse it, and it does not reflect our views. We are not responsible or liable for any content posted by members or for anything that happens because of it.

When you post, you confirm that you have the right to share it (you took the picture or video yourself, have the owner’s permission, or are linking to where it was published), and that it doesn’t break the law or anyone’s rights.

You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, display, translate and share your content on the site and in connection with running and promoting it (for example in newsletters and social media posts about the site). Sighting reports and articles become part of the site’s public record: if you delete your account they stay on the site under your username. This licence ends when your content is removed, except for copies kept in backups or already shared by others.

4. Pictures and videos

Pictures and videos on the site are posted by members as links to the third-party websites that host them (such as YouTube, Reddit, X or news sites). To keep sighting pages working when an original disappears, the site may also keep a thumbnail or archival copy. We remove any picture, video or copy promptly when its copyright holder asks — see Copyright & takedowns.

5. What you may not post

Anything illegal, or anything that infringes someone’s copyright, trademark, privacy or other rights.
Sexual content, content involving minors in any sexual or harmful way, or graphic violence.
Harassment, threats, hate speech, or personal information about someone else (doxxing).
Spam, advertising, scams, malware, or links posted to promote something.
Content you know is fake but present as real (hoaxes are welcome only when clearly labelled).

6. Moderation

Admins and volunteer moderators may remove any content and suspend, ban or close any account at any time, for any reason, with or without notice — including automatically (for example by our spam, AI and bad-word filters).

7. Sightings and other information on the site

Sighting reports are claims made by members and are not verified by us, unless a sighting is marked “Verified witness” (which only means we checked the member recorded it — not what it shows). Sky conditions, flight data, AI summaries, AI photo checks and similar features come from automated tools and outside services and can be wrong or incomplete. Everything on the site is provided for entertainment and general information only.

8. Artificial intelligence (AI)

The site uses AI services to help run it. AI may be used for:

Writing short summaries of long sighting reports, board topics and articles
Suggesting labels for sightings (shape, colours, movement, place, date and tags)
Looking at pictures and video stills to describe what they show, likely explanations, and signs of editing or AI-made fakes
Matching sightings by meaning, for search, “Similar sightings” and spotting duplicates
Answering questions in “Ask the archive” and helping members fill in the submit form
Writing overviews at the top of place, year and shape pages, and summaries of case files
Checking new comments, posts and submissions for spam, abuse and bad language
Explaining what’s in the night sky on Tonight’s Sky and answering questions about it (using sky data only, never your location)
Drafting “Skeptic’s corner” notes, comparing view counts with what’s reported online, and finding copies of videos
Detecting whether a person’s face appears in sighting pictures and video stills (Google Cloud Vision — it detects faces, it never identifies anyone), so close-ups of people can be hidden

AI output is generated automatically, may be inaccurate, and is not our opinion or a statement of fact. Public content (like a sighting and its pictures) may be sent to an outside AI service to do this — see the Privacy page. You can hide AI summaries on your Account page.

9. Advertising

The site may show advertising, including ads from Google and its partners. We are not responsible for the products, services or websites advertised. See the Privacy page for how ads use cookies and how to opt out of personalised ads.

10. No warranties

The site is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We don’t promise the site will be available, secure or error-free.

11. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent allowed by law, ufos.dev will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profits or reputation, arising from your use of the site or from any content posted by members or third parties. Our total liability for any claim relating to the site is limited to US $50.

12. Your promise to cover us (indemnity)

You agree to defend and hold harmless ufos.dev from any claims, damages, losses and costs (including reasonable lawyers’ fees) arising from your content, your use of the site, or your breaking these terms or the law.

13. Ending your account

You can delete your account at any time on your Account page. Sighting reports and articles you posted stay on the site under your username; your profile, statuses, messages and other personal data are removed, and comments and board posts no longer show your name. We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and of the state where the site’s owner lives, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be handled by the courts that have jurisdiction under those laws.

15. Changes

We may update these terms. When we do, we’ll change the date at the top; continuing to use the site means you accept the new terms.

16. Contact

Questions about these terms: no-reply@ufos.dev. Copyright complaints: see Copyright & takedowns.

✓ That’s everything — thanks for reading.

I am 18 years of age or older. I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and I understand that I am solely responsible for everything I post, and that ufos.dev is not responsible for content posted by members.

No discussion yet.

© 2026 ufos.dev18+ onlyTerms Privacy Copyright & takedownsMembers are responsible for what they post. Pictures and videos are linked from third-party sites.