RB-47 electronic and radar encounter

A USAF RB-47 electronic-intelligence aircraft with a crew of six picked up an S-band microwave signal that moved around the aircraft, then the crew saw a large bright light; ground radar at Duncanville, Texas reported a target matching the light's position, and the signal, the light and the radar return appeared and disappeared together at times over about 90 minutes. The Condon Report listed it as unexplained, and physicist James McDonald published a study of it in 1971. The French COMETA report, carried in PURSUE with a 2001 cover letter, summarises it as one of five foreign radar-visual cases. Philip Klass and others proposed a misidentified airliner and a ground radar's signal; later researchers dispute that reconstruction.

None established; a misidentified airliner plus electronic pickup of a ground radar proposed (Klass) and disputed

• Document255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_ForRelease 1

  UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For? (the COMETA report), with April 2001 Carol Rosin cover letter and handwritten notes

  This is not a NASA-authored document: it is a 2001 cover letter and handwritten notes from Carol Rosin (self-described former spokesperson for Wernher von Braun) forwarding the 1999 French COMETA report 'UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?' to a NASA official, apparently seeking a meeting. COMETA was an independent association of former auditors of the French defense-studies institute IHEDN, not a French government body. The report reviews French pilot testimonies, five foreign radar/visual aeronautical cases (Lakenheath-Bentwaters, RB-47, Tehran 1976, a Russian missile-base case, Belgium), several French ground cases investigated by GEPAN/SEPRA (Trans-en-Provence, the 'Amaranth' case, a 1979 close encounter with reported humanoid figures), and recommends French and EU government action, stating the extraterrestrial hypothesis 'cannot be ruled out.'

  Open the original on war.gov

• Wikipedia: Condon Committeeen.wikipedia.org