RB-47 Radar-Visual Encounter

During the early morning hours of July 17, 1957, an RB-47H on an ECM training mission from Forbes AFB was shadowed by an unidentified object across Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. The encounter began with detection on the aircraft's #2 ECM monitor of a strong signal from the rear. The pilot, Maj. Lewis Chase, and crew visually observed a bright blue-white light that paced the aircraft, moved rapidly from one side to the other, and at times appeared ahead. The object was also tracked on the aircraft's radar and by ground radar stations including Duncanville, Texas. It repeatedly appeared and disappeared simultaneously across visual, electronic, and radar systems, ruling out individual sensor malfunction. At one point near Dallas, the object closed to within 5,000 feet below the RB-47 at 34,500 feet altitude before accelerating away. The six-officer crew (Chase, McCoid, Hanley, Provenzano, McClure, Tuchscherer) provided consistent accounts. Project Blue Book and the Condon Committee reviewed the case but could not provide a conventional explanation; it remains one of the strongest radar-visual-electronic cases on record.