Gorman Dogfight
| UFO Event: Gorman Dogfight | |
|---|---|
| Country: | United States |
| Place: | Fargo , North Dakota |
| Date: | October 1, 1948 |
| Object: | unknown |
| Hynek classification : | RV, CE-1 |
The Gorman UFO Dogfight was a widely publicized UFO incident. It occurred in the sky over Fargo , North Dakota on October 1, 1948 . The main participant was George F. Gorman , a pilot with the North Dakota Air National Guard, who, according to his portrayal, was engaged in a dogfight ( English for aerial combat) with a UFO. In 1956, USAF Captain Edward J. Ruppelt wrote in his bestseller and influential book The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects that the Gorman Dogfight was one of the three "classic" UFO incidents in the late 1940s that he believed to be the authenticity of UFOs occupied.
background
Although he was only 25 years old when the incident occurred, George Gorman was already a veteran of WWII fighter pilots . After the war, he became the manager of a construction company and also served as a lieutenant in the North Dakota National Guard. On October 1, 1948, he was to take part in an overland flight with other pilots of the National Guard ; his plane was an F-51 Mustang . He and the other pilots reached Fargo airspace at around 8:30 p.m. Although the other pilots decided to land at the airport, Gorman decided to stay in the air due to the clear, cloudless conditions. At about 9:00 p.m., it was flying over a football stadium that was playing a high school football game. As he did so, he noticed a small Piper Cub flying about 500 meters below him; otherwise the sky seemed clear.
Shortly after, Gorman saw another object to the west. However, he was unable to make out the outline of a wing or fuselage while clearly seeing the Piper Cub. The object appeared to be a blinking light. At 9:07 p.m. Gorman contacted the control tower at Fargo Airport and asked if there were any other aircraft besides the Piper Cub and its F-51 in the appropriate airspace. The turret replied that it was not and contacted the Piper Cub's pilot, Dr. AD Cannon. He and his passenger replied that they had also seen a burning object in the west.
Air fight with a UFO
Gorman told the Tower that he would try to track the object to determine its identity. He accelerated his Mustang to full power (350 to 400 mph ), but soon realized that the object was too fast to reach in a straight line. Instead, he tried to cut the object's trajectory through a curve. He made a right turn and approached the object head-on at 5,000 feet so that the object was about 500 feet above his aircraft. Gorman described the object as a simple "ball of light" about six to eight inches (about 15-20 cm) in diameter. He later also noticed that the object stopped blinking when it increased its speed and instead became brighter.
After his near collision, Gorman lost visual contact with the object. When he saw it again, it seemed to make a 180-degree turn, came up to him again, and began to climb vertically. Gorman followed the object through a similar maneuver. His F-51 stalled at an altitude of 14,000 feet while the object was still 2,000 feet above him. Two more attempts to shorten the distance failed. The object now appeared to be headed for him again, but broke off before it came close to the aircraft. At this point it was already moving over Fargo Airport, where it was being observed from the control tower by the air traffic controller, LD Jensen, through binoculars. He too could see no shape or form around the light. Meanwhile, the pilot of the Piper Cub and his passenger had landed and were going to the tower to have a better view of the object.
Gorman continued following the object until it was about 25 miles from Fargo. At 14,000 feet, he saw the light 3,000 feet below. However, the object made a vertical rise again. Gorman tried to follow it up, but after a while couldn't see it. At this point he broke off the hunt at 9:29 pm and flew back to Fargo.
Gorman's report
On October 23, 1948, Gorman made an affidavit of the incident to investigators. His statement was reprinted in numerous books and documentaries about UFOs over the next few years. The explanation is as follows:
I am convinced that there was definite thought behind its maneuvers. I am further convinced that the object was governed by the laws of inertia because its acceleration was rapid but not immediate and although it was able to turn fairly tight at considerable speed, it still followed a natural curve. When I attempted to turn with the object I blacked out temporarily due to excessive speed. I am in fairly good physical condition and I do not believe that there are many if any pilots who could withstand the turn and speed effected by the object, and remain conscious. The object was not only able to out turn and out speed my aircraft ... but was able to attain a far steeper climb and was able to maintain a constant rate of climb far in excess of my aircraft.
In German, for example: I am convinced that there was a certain thought behind his maneuvers. I also believe that the law of inertia ruled the object because its acceleration was rapid but not instantaneous, and although it could turn fairly sharply at a considerable rate, it still followed a natural curve. When I tried to turn the object around, the high speed knocked me briefly. I'm in pretty good physical shape and I don't think there are many pilots (if any) who could survive the spins and speeds the object was making and staying conscious. Not only was the object able to turn better and develop a higher speed than my plane ... but could climb much steeper and reach a constant rate of climb, far faster than my plane.
Investigations by the US Air Force
Within hours, Project Sign officers came to Gorman and the other witnesses to question them about the incident. Project Sign was founded by the US Air Force in late 1947 to investigate UFO reports. The officers questioned Gorman, Dr. Cannon and his passenger as well as the staff of the control tower in Fargo. They also checked Gorman's P-51 Mustang with a Geiger counter . The measurement showed that his Mustang was measurably more radioactive than other aviators who had not flown for several days, which was taken as evidence that Gorman had flown near a "nuclear powered" object. The Air Force investigators ruled out the possibility that the illuminated object could have been "another airplane, a Canadian vampire jet fighter or a weather balloon." The first conclusion, as UFO historian Curtis Peebles writes, was that "something remarkable had happened" that Gorman had seen in the sky over Fargo.
However, further investigations by Project Sign staff soon revealed deficiencies in the evidence. An airplane that flies into the earth's atmosphere is less shielded from radiation from space than one on the ground. This made the Geiger counter readings invalid as evidence that the object had been driven atomically. In addition, the survey by the air meteorological service revealed that a burning weather balloon had started in Fargo at around 8:50 p.m. on October 1st. At 9:00 p.m. the balloon would have been in the area where Gorman and the crew of the Piper Cub had first seen the illuminated object.
Investigators also believed that the object's incredible movements were caused by Gorman's maneuvers he performed while chasing the light. The object's maneuvers were an illusion created by Gorman's movements. They also pointed out that none of the witnesses present in the tower had seen anything of the maneuvers described by Gorman. In addition, investigators concluded that after Gorman lost sight of the object the first time, he became convinced that the planet Jupiter was the UFO. They believed he eventually hunted the planet while flying south of Fargo before giving up and landing again. When the case closed in early 1949, investigators at Project Sign and its successor projects, Project Grudge and Project Blue Book , concluded that the UFO was a burning weather balloon.
aftermath
The Gorman Dogfight received wide, national public attention and served as fuel for the wave of UFO reports in the late 1940s. Although some UFO researchers, like Dr. James E. McDonald , a physicist at the University of Arizona and retired U.S. Marine Corps Major Donald Keyhoe , disagreed with the conclusions of Air Force investigators and continued to view the case as unsolved, other UFO researchers shared the conclusions on the case. UFO historian Jerome Clark wrote that “unlike some would-be Air Force solutions, this one seems plausible” and, in his opinion, “after the Mantell incident, the Gorman sighting was the most overrated early UFO sighting History of the phenomenon could have been. "
literature
- Jerome Clark: The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning , Detroit (Omnigraphics. Pp.) 1998. ISBN 0-7808-0097-4 .
- Curtis Peebles: Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth , New York (Berkley Books, pp.) 1995. ISBN 0-425-15117-4 .
- Edward J. Ruppelt: The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects , Garden City, NY (Doubleday & Company) 1956.