China Lake surveyors' sighting (1966)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 4
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| Date | 18 January 1966 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Propulsion & physics (topic) |
| People | J. Allen Hynek |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 68 |
| Year | 1966 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1966 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 1 |
China Lake surveyors' sighting (1966) — Two surveyors at China Lake see a UAP pass low overhead and maneuver.
On 18 January 1966, two surveyors working at the Naval Ordnance Test Station at China Lake in California's Mojave Desert reported seeing an unidentified object pass low overhead and then manoeuvre. China Lake was, and still is, one of the Navy's main weapons research and testing ranges, where missiles such as the Sidewinder were developed.
The account was published in 1982 in the International UFO Reporter, the journal of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, under the title "A Professional Observation". The testimony includes it because the witnesses were trained observers working on a military range. We couldn't locate a Blue Book file or Navy record for it.
China Lake has a long history of UFO reports. A physicist who worked there in the 1950s later said he knew dozens of professionals with sightings during weapons tests. In the 2020s it was again in the news as a base for Navy aircraft and test ranges where UAP were reported.
In the testimony
The testimony cites: “A Professional Observation,” IUR 7, no. 2, March 1982.
People and topics
- China Lake — The Navy's weapons test center in the California desert.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- J. Allen Hynek — Astronomer and Air Force UFO consultant from 1948 to 1969 who later founded the Center for UFO Studies.
- Center for UFO Studies — The research center founded by J. Allen Hynek in 1973.
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
On the Timeline
- Lockbourne AFB object and Kecksburg (10 December 1965) — An Air Force guard says he watched over an object brought from Pennsylvania before it went to Wright-Patterson.
- Gerald Ford's call for UFO hearings (3 April 1966) — Rep. Gerald Ford is told an upcoming UAP study won't be tied to the Air Force.
See every 1966 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- cufos.org · cufos.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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