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Between Tonopah and Austin, Nevada, USA, on July 4, 1947:

Case number:

ACUFO-1947-07-04-TONOPAHAUSTIN-1

Summary:

US ufologist Jan Aldrich indicated in 1999 that on July 4, 1947, in the afternoon, in Nevada, USA, between Tonopah and Austin, a 150 Voyager Private Plane pilot and passenger saw five circular object brilliantly reflecting sunlight as their aircraft was at 10,000.

The objects were below the plane, and the pilot could not catch the UFOs.

Aldrich indicates he found the sighting report in the newspaper Daily Free Press of Elko, Nevada, USA, for July 7, 1947.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. jah1:] JAN ALDRICH:

"N" means this is a new case not in November 1997 ACUFOE Catalogue.

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH:

[Ref. dwn1:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

French ufologist Dominique Weinstein compiled a catalog of the cases of UFOs observed from aircraft. This case appeared in the February 2001 (6th edition) of his catalog as:

The sources "03/37 440" are referenced at the end of the catalog as:

[Ref. gvo1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

Aircraft information:

The Stinson 150 "Voyager" (photo above) was an American light utility aircraft with three seats, designed in 1939 and produced by the Stinson Aircraft Company in Dayton, Ohio.

Its maximum speed was 169 km/h.

Discussion:

Below: photo by Eileen Ulrich and Charles B. Moore of the launch of Project Mogul "Flight 9" balloon cluster in the evening of July 3, 1947, an unlogged "service flight" according to the US Air Force "The Roswell Report", 1995. In his 1997 book "UFO Crash at Roswell: The Genesis of a Modern Myth, former Mogul project engineer Charles B. Moore revealed that Flight 9 used neoprene (synthetic rubber, white color) balloons.

The Mogul balloons were launched from Alamogordo Army Air Field (later Holloman Air Force Base) in southern New Mexico.

In "Stratocat", Project Mogul has these durations for their balloon drifts in the beginning of July 1947: July 2: 8 hours; July 3: 3:15 hours (this was Flight 8, remember Flight 9 was not logged); July 5: 9 hours.

The July 3, 1947 flight number 9 is noted with "no data" as to the drift duration and landing site. This is consistent with the above launch photo on which we see that the balloon cluster had no Rawin radar targets attached to it so that it could not have been followed by radar like other launches. Hence the "no data".

There were apparently no Project Helios balloon launches in July 1947.

Balloon drifts in this period and this area would be between 900 km per day and 2.500 km per day. The distance between Alamogordo and the Tonopah - Austin, Nevada area is about 1200 kilometers. This means that Mogul Flight Number 9 launched on July 3, 1947 in the evening may very well have been at the sighting location on July 4, 1947 in the afternoon, when distance is considered.

Mogul Flight 9 was a balloon "cluster", not a balloon "train". It means it was a group of balloons, close together, as on the photo above, not a string of balloons. If the witnesses had seen a "string" of object, they would likely have said it. They did not.

But Project Mogul balloon trains or clusters launched on July 3 and 4, 1947, would almost certainly have been carried east to northeast by the prevailing upper-level westerlies that dominate summer winds over the southern United States.

This would bring them well away from Arizona then Nevada, away from the area where this sighting occurred:

However, in 1947, Project Mogul and Project Helios were not the only programs using clusters of balloons in the US. Several organizations launched multiple-balloon assemblies.

The U.S. Weather Bureau, the military, and research institutions occasionally used two or more balloons attached together to increase lift, to carry heavier instrument packages, or to reach higher altitudes.

So a balloon cluster is a possible explanation. But not a proven explanation.

Evaluation:

Possible balloon cluster.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

• [rfp1] ? Article in the newspaper Daily Free Press, Elko County, Nevada, USA, July 7, 1947.
• [jah1] * "ACUFOE in 1947", catalogue by Jan Aldrich, on his Project 1947 website, USA, October 1999, at https://www.project1947.com/47cats/acupdt.htm
• [lhh1] * "*U* Computer Database", ufology database by Larry Hatch, USA, circa 2002.
• [dwn1] * "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - Eighty years of pilot sightings - Catalog of Military, Airliner, Private Pilots' Sightings from 1916 to 2000", catalog compiled by Dominique F. Weinstein, NARCAP International Technical Advisor, France, 6th edition, February 2001.
• [gvo1] * "Chronologie OVNI", electronic catalogue compiled by Godelieve Van Overmeire, Belgium, circa 2002.

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