Incident
editSince the start of the Cold War in June 1947, reports of unidentified skyborne objects had triggered fears the reports might represent new Soviet technology.[1] At 3:48 p.m on May 29, 1951, three technical writers at North American Aviation's plant in Downey, California reported witnessing about 30 glowing objects execute a right-angle turn. The three, Victor Black, Werner Eichler and Ed J. Sullivan, estimated the objects were 30 feet wide and moving at 1,700 miles-per-hour.[2]
Aftermath and legacy
editSullivan went on to create the UFO group Civilian Saucer Intelligence and served as its president; Eichler became a member.[3] On April 7, 1952, the incident was covered in Life magazine, then the most widely-read magazine in the nation.[1]
In the October 1952 edition of The American Mercury, Victor Black reported that his sighting was made up as a joke and argued that his fellow witnesses were seeking to profit off the hoax by creating their UFO group. The other two men denied that it was a hoax.[4]The following year, the outlet did a follow-up on the story.[5]
Writing in 2010, UFO buff and author James Mosley recalled his interest in the case and his interviews of the witnesses.[4]
References
edit- ^ a b Ruppelt, Edward J. (February 18, 1956). "The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects: Project Blue Book - The Complete 1956 Report on UFOs by an Officer of the U.S. Air Force". Pantianos Classics – via Google Books.
- ^ Life
- ^ http://www.project1947.com/shg/csi/csiv1-1.html
- ^ a b https://books.google.com/books?id=KYKKiU9cvZEC&pg=PA84
- ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=wEkEAAAAYAAJ