RB-47H radar/ELINT/visual case, Gulf Coast to Oklahoma (17 Jul 1957)
Unproven Handling What these labels mean →A USAF RB-47H electronic-reconnaissance aircraft (six officers, ELINT/ECM gear) on a training flight was paced by an unidentified source for well over 700 miles and ~1.5 hours, from Mississippi through Louisiana and Texas into Oklahoma. It was detected at various times by the crew visually (an intensely luminous light), by ground radar (ADC Duncanville), and on the aircraft's passive ELINT receivers (a ~2800–3000 MHz radar-like signal that appeared airborne and moved with the aircraft). Several times it appeared and vanished **simultaneously on all three channels**, with maneuvers beyond the crew's experience. The Condon Report (1969, Case 5) conceded it unexplained; James McDonald (1971, *Astronautics & Aeronautics*) called it a benchmark multi-sensor case. Klass argued for an airliner plus ground radar signals. The user-supplied Wikipedia URL returns 404; the article appears removed or renamed.
Ties
| To | Role | Years | Verdict | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington DC UFO flap (1952) | pattern: radar-visual correlation dismissed by the official line | 1952/1957 | Concept | |
| Project Blue Book | Blue Book file | 1957–1969 | Documented · occurred | theblackvault.com |
| Immaculate Constellation (2024-2026) | the modern analog: MASINT/sensor-fused UAP collection (alleged) | 1957/2024 | Concept | |
| Suppression pattern | Blue Book's file was thin and slow to surface; the Condon case conceded unexplained | 1957–1971 | Documented · occurred Handling | |
| Project Blue Book | records incomplete (per James McDonald) | 1969 | Documented · said | theblackvault.com |
Tied from
| From | Role | Years | Verdict | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coyne helicopter encounter (1973) | a military aircrew multi-witness case with a skeptic meteor/aircraft counter | 1957/1973 | Concept | |
| JAL 1628 Alaska sighting (1986) | an aircrew + ground radar case disputed as radar artifact | 1957/1986 | Concept | |
| Shag Harbour (1967) | multi-channel reports (aircrew, ship radar, ground witnesses) | 1957/1967 | Concept |
Links
- Black Vault case file: the RB-47 UFO encounter
- Blue Book RB-47 file PDF (57 pp; record card p1)
- Black Vault: Project Blue Book RB-47 documents
- McDonald (1971), Astronautics & Aeronautics (PDF)
- Patrick Gross: RB-47 case
Notes
| Claim | Record | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| A 1.5-hour, 700+-mile pacing with visual, ground-radar and ELINT detections | Crew reports; Condon Case 5; McDonald | multi-sensor report |
| Simultaneous appearance and disappearance on all three channels | McDonald's reconstruction | simultaneity |
| Condon Report conceded it unexplained | Condon (1969), Case 5 | Condon unexplained |
| Airliner + ground radar explanation | Klass | Klass explanation |
| Blue Book initially logged an airliner (AA Flight 655) | Corrected: AA Flight 655 was a separate same-day near-miss (17 Jul 1957, ~100 mi E of El Paso). A Dept. of Commerce letter (8 Nov 1957) in the Blue Book file identified that 'UFO' as AA Flight 966. The file was misfiled; the Condon team couldn't find it (Randle, 2014). Blue Book's own record card for the RB-47 case (Project 10073 card, p1 of the Blue Book file, read 2026-10-30, sha256 6f4e638b) checks 'Was Aircraft' and comments 'Identified as American Airlines flight 655.' So the case was closed on the wrong airliner | AA655/966 near-miss resolution RB-47 card label 'Was Aircraft' / AA 655 misfiled solution |