Place
United States
32.38 N, 106.48 WView on OpenStreetMap (opens in a new tab)
2 events here, 1949 to 1950, in date order.
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.
Cmdr. Robert McLaughlin, who had led the Navy's guided-missile unit at White Sands, wrote in True that tracked objects there were flying saucers, possibly from another planet. The Navy's guided-missile chief and the Defense Department said no service had such craft.
