Military1949

White Sands balloon crew theodolite sighting

When: 24 Apr 1949
Where: White Sands Proving Ground, NM
Sources: 1 public source

A Navy Skyhook balloon launch in 1949, the program the White Sands crew worked on Office of Naval Research, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Navy-led crew readying a Skyhook balloon at White Sands Proving Ground said they followed a whitish, elliptical object through a theodolite for about a minute and later worked out an extreme altitude and speed. Astronomer Donald Menzel argued they saw a refracted image of their own balloon.

Sources

FirsthandThe Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Edward J. Ruppelt, 1956) (opens in a new tab)Project Gutenberg / 1956

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Where it fits

Earlier in MilitaryLights over the Camp Hood atomic weapons storage areaMar 1949 Later in MilitaryNavy Cmdr. Robert McLaughlin's White Sands saucer article in TrueMar 1950

See it on the timeline More in Military