Chronicle year
1948
1948-12-10 / United States
The Air Intelligence Division of the U.S. Air Force and the Office of Naval Intelligence jointly produced Study No. 203, "Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the United States," dated December 10, 1948. The study examined approximately 210 reported incidents involving flying objects described as disk-shaped, rough cigar-shaped, or balls of fire, observed by U.S. Weather Bureau personnel, USAF rated officers, and experienced civilian pilots.
1948-12-05 / Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
On February 16, 1949, the United States Atomic Energy Commission convened a classified conference on aerial phenomena at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico, attended by scientists including Dr. Edward Teller and Dr. Frederick Reines, along with Army, FBI, and AFSWP representatives. The conference examined recurring "green fireball" sightings reported since December 1948 by airline pilots, AESS inspectors, and others over New Mexico and western Texas.
1948-09-05 / West coast of Holland, 5155N/0355E
On 4 November 1948, USAFE transmitted intelligence cable TT #1524 to General Cabell and the USAF Directorate of Intelligence. Three crews of the 307th Bomb Group had sighted an aircraft on 5 September 1948 off the west coast of Holland at 30,000 feet, assessed as a single jet-propelled aircraft employing probable rocket assists, rated B-2. The cable also reported a flying saucer hovering over Neubiberg Air Base for about thirty minutes, and relayed the Swedish Air Intelligence Service's conclusion that such phenomena "cannot be credited to any presently known culture on earth."
1948-02-18 / Norcatur, Kansas
On 18 February 1948 at 5:01 P.M., an aerial explosion occurred over Norcatur, Kansas, logged as Incident 101 by the Department of War. Farmer Leland Sammons reported a funnel-shaped object roughly four feet long, with a pipe at the rear and fire belching from it, hovering near his farmhouse before departing northwest and exploding in a cloud of smoke. Beginning 24 April 1948, meteorite fragments were recovered, including a 109-pound achondrite piece found two feet underground in a clover field. Civilian Norman Garrett Markham wrote to the Office of the Chief of Staff speculating the object may have been a rocket or space-craft.
1948-01-01 / Los Alamos, New Mexico