by Charles Lear
In the first year of the Air Force’s flying saucer investigation, then operating as Project Sign, a sighting was reported that was one of a few that convinced some members of the Air Force that flying saucers were interplanetary craft piloted by extraterrestrials. The witnesses were two commercial pilots flying for Eastern Airlines and one passenger. The pilots, after thinking at first that they were seeing a new Army jet, quickly thought otherwise.
At around 2:45 a.m. on July 24, 1948, Clarence Chiles and his co-pilot John Whitted were flying at approximately 5000 ft over Montgomery, Alabama, when Chiles spotted a red glow up ahead. He alerted Whitted that a new Army jet was approaching and both men watched as the object approached.
According to the men in their report, the object moved past the right side of the plane, and then ascended with a burst of flame from its rear. They observed the object for ten to fifteen seconds and said that it looked like a wingless craft with two rows of windows running down its side. There was light coming out of the windows that they said was as bright as a magnesium flare. They said it was 100 feet long, shaped like a torpedo or a cigar, was 25-30 feet in diameter, and had flame coming out of the rear. A single passenger, C. L. McKelvie, reported seeing a bright light streak by.
Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of Project Blue Book from 1952 to 1953, wrote about the incident in his 1956 book, “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.” Ruppelt is credited with introducing the designation, “Unidentified Flying Object” or “UFO” (pronounced “yoofo”) into usage as a replacement for the term “flying saucer,” in an effort to avoid the latter term’s association with aliens.
According to Ruppelt, a crew chief at Robins Air Force Base in Macon Georgia reported seeing a streak of bright light at about the same time as the people in the plane were making their observation. He also tells the reader that another pilot report came into the Air Force office at Air Technical Intelligence Command (Project Sign’s base of operation) a few days later. This pilot reported seeing a “bright shooting star” while he was flying near the Virginia–North Carolina state line. Read more
The April 24, 1964 sighting by Socorro, NM, Police Sergeant Lonnie Zamora of a landed UFO with two beings standing next to it has been written about extensively and remains a fascinating mystery to this day. What’s noteworthy about this case is the large number of people who investigated it. Representatives from the Socorro Police, the New Mexico State Police, the F.B.I., and the Army were first on the scene. They were followed by the Lorenzens from the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, members of the Air Force and J. Allen Hynek as part of Project Blue Book, and Ray Stanford for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. Besides the testimony of Zamora, there was trace evidence to examine, there were witnesses to interview who’d reported a similar craft, and there were reputed witnesses to the very craft Zamora reported who were searched for but never found. Despite the thoroughness of the inquiries and analyses by so many experienced investigators, no one was able to come up with an agreeable earthly explanation.
As he drove, he saw a funnel shaped, narrower at the top, blue and “sort of orange” flame slowly descend behind the hill. He turned onto a dirt road, made it up a hill after three tries, and after looking around for 15-20 seconds, saw what he thought was a car standing on end in a gully. As he got closer he noted two figures in what looked like white coveralls standing next to the “car.” As he drove quickly towards them to help, one of the figures turned towards him and seemed startled.
Tales of UFOs ejecting hot metal go back to the days when flying saucers were just becoming an American national obsession. In fact, the first flying saucer witness, Kenneth Arnold, encountered such a tale when he looked into the 
Reports of UFO sightings and alien encounters come from all over the world, from 
An April Fools’ joke that ended up embedded in the UFO mythos as evidence for the existence of aliens involved a photo depicting what has become known as the “Silverman.” Isaac Koi (real name withheld to protect his profession as a barrister) discusses this photo at length on his 
The 1959 sightings of Father William Gill in New Guinea, then an Australian territory, were well known and much discussed in the 1960s and 1970s. Given the multiple witnesses over two nights, observation of occupants and the credibility of the reporting witness, an Anglican missionary, it made for a sensational encounter. Even more incredible, the craft and occupants sighted seemed to respond to the witnesses throughout the encounter. The story was featured in Dr. J. Allen Hynek’s The UFO Experience: A Scientific Enquiry and The Hynek UFO Report, the double album UFO Encounters (which features Father Gill telling his story and Hynek’s commentary) and in the 4th issue of Gold Key’s UFO Flying Saucers comic book.
“You could describe it, I suppose, as a circular ship with a kind of deck and bridge on the top,” Father William Gill stated on the UFO Encounters LP. Further saying that it was “dull yellow, a bright orangey color. It wasn’t as though the thing was itself lit up all around. It was more as though some other light was lighting it up…. All around the whole object was a sparkling effect.” It was silent and as large, he estimated as a five inch object held at arm’s length. Up to four humanoids were seen on the top deck of the craft, as if they were working on something and an “electric blue spotlight” seemed to shoot into the air. Clouds moved in and obscured the object for some time but they eventually cleared allowing the craft to be seen again. Smaller objects, perhaps as many as three, were seen moving in and out of the clouds as well. Shortly before 11:00 PM heavy clouds moved in, obscuring the objects and rain began to fall.
A common element of UFO reports is that cars or other vehicles cease functioning during the sighting and often restart on their own after the UFO’s departure. Many researchers have speculated that this is an effect of electromagnetism, possibly related to an advanced system of propulsion. This seems to be a reasonable hypothesis and one that could be tested. All one would need would be a car and a source of electromagnetism. So, the question is, have there been any experiments done in laboratories, and have the results been published in a peer reviewed format?