This incident is Case 63 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 45 of the books covered by that article.
This was Project Blue Book Case Number 4810.
This incident featured as the top incident in a documentary produced by Paul Kimball entitled “Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Cases”, purportedly based on the results of a survey conducted by Paul Kimball in 2005/2006 of “a select group of the world’s leading UFO researchers”.
As part of a survey by the Fortean Times in 2007 of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most, ufologist Jerome Clark indicated he considered this incident to be “the most evidential”.
This incident has also featured in lists by various UFO researchers of the top UFO cases, including the following:
- a list of cases produced by Stanton Friedman for the Fortean Times in 2007 as part of a survey of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most.
- a list by Don Berliner of “the top 10 cases of World Ufology” in an interview made available on the UFO UpDates discussion List on 14 January 2007.
Web Resources
For links to various relevant documents and articles online see: http://www.nicap.org/rb47dir.htm
http://ufologie.net/htm/rb47.htm
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case665.htm
There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...
The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.
Book References
The table below includes references to relevant discussions in UFO/SETI books noted by Isaac Koi during a review of approximately 963 UFO/SETI books during the period 2003-2006 (with a few later additions). The table can be sorted by author, date and length of discussion by clicking on the relevant word in the top line of the table.
Many of the tables of references on this website are considerably longer than the references to books found on most other UFO websites. Indeed, some are probably the longest that have been collated in relation to some events and personalities. Together with the "UFO Searchillion" search box, I hope that these tables are found to be a useful contribution to UFOlogy.
For discussion of the RB-47 radar/visual incident see the following:
|
Year |
Discussion by:
|
No. of Pages |
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Ball, Brian in his “A Young Person’s Guide to UFOs” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 29-32 (in Chapter 3) of the Dragon paperback edition. |
4 |
|
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Berlitz, Charles and Moore, Bill in their “The Roswell Incident“ (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 113 (in Chapter 6) of the Granada hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Granada paperback edition). |
1 |
|
|
Blundell, Nigel and Boar, Roger in “The World’s Greatest Alien Abduction Mysteries” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 428 (in the chapter entitled “Encounters of the Aerial Kind”) of the Chancellor Press softcover edition. |
1 |
|
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Blundell, Nigel and Boar, Roger in their “The World’s Greatest UFO Mysteries” (1986) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 168 (in the chapter entitled “Encounters of the Aerial Kind”) of the Octopus hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Hamlyn softcover edition). |
1 |
|
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Bowen, Charles in the weekly partwork “The Unexplained” (1983?), Volume 2, pages 338-339. |
2 |
|
|
Brookesmith, Peter in his “UFO: The Government Files” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 67 (in Chapter 3) of the Parragon hardback edition. |
1 |
|
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Brunstein, Karl in his “Beyond the Four Dimensions” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 138-139 (in Chapter 7) of the |
2 |
|
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Campbell, Steuart in his “The UFO Mystery Solved” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 91-94 (in Chapter 4) of the Explicit Books softcover edition. |
4 |
|
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Clark, Jerome in his “Strange Skies: Pilot Encounters with UFOs” (2003) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 191-194 (in Chapter 8) of the Citadel softcover edition. |
4 |
|
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Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 505-508 (in an entry entitled “RB-47 Radar/Visual Case”) of the Visible Ink Press softcover edition. |
4 |
|
|
Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 2 – Emergence of a Phenomenon” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 285-286 (in an entry entitled “RB-47 Radar/Visual Case”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. |
2 |
|
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Clark, Jerome in his “UFO Encounters” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 27 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “UFOs: The Official Story”) of the Publications International hardback edition. |
1 |
|
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COMETA report (1999) at Chapter 2.2, pages 13-15 of the translation of the report appearing at: http://www.etcontact.net/newsite/files/COMETA_part1.pdf |
3 |
|
|
Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)) as Condon Case 5 at pages 80-82 (in Section 3, Chapter 1 “Field Studies”, by Roy Craig), 203-207 (in Section 3, Chapter 5 “Optical and Radar Analyses of Field Cases”, by Gordon D Thayer), 397-404 (in Section 4, “Case Studies”), 1355-1378 (in Appendix Q by Loren W Crow) of the uncorrected version submitted to the Air Force (with the same page numbering in the 3 volume paperbound edition distributed by the National Technical Information Service, US Department of Commerce) at pages 56-58, 136-139, 260-266, 877-893 of the Vision hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Bantam paperback edition). The first of these editions has the same page numbering as the edition available free online at the following links: http://www.project1947.com/shg/condon/contents.html |
40
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Craig, Roy in his “UFOs – An Insider’s View” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 134-150 (in Chapter 9) of the UNT softback edition. |
17 |
|
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Davenport, Marc in his “Visitors from Time” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 128 (in Chapter 9) of the 1994 revised Greenleaf softcover edition. |
1 |
|
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Dolan, Richard M in his “UFOs and the National Security State: Volume 1: 1941-1973” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 280 (in Chapter 6) of the Keyhole softcover edition, at page 199 of the 2002 revised Hampton Road softcover edition. |
1 |
|
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Downing, Barry in “The Bible and Flying Saucers” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 164 (in Appendix 2) of the Sphere paperback edition. |
1 |
|
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Druffel, Ann in her “Firestorm : Dr James E McDonald's Fight for UFO Science” (2003) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 341 (in Chapter 13), 481-483 (in Chapter 17) of the Wild Flower Press softcover edition. |
4 |
|
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Edelson, Edward in his “Who Goes There?” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 82-83 (in Chapter 7) of the NEL paperback edition (with the same page numbering in the NEL paperback edition combining this book and Chris Boyce’s “Extraterrestrial Encounter). |
2 |
|
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Evans, Hilary in his “The Evidence for UFOs” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 100-101 (in Chapter 5, Case 59) of the Aquarian softcover edition. |
2 |
|
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Fitzgerald, Randall in his “The Cosmic Test Tube” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 136 (in Section 2) of the Moonlake Media softcover edition. |
1 |
|
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Fuller, John in his “Aliens in the Skies” (1969) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 34 (in the Introduction) of the Putnam hardback edition. |
1 |
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Hall, Michael David in his “UFOs : A Century of Sightings” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 244-246 (in Chapter 6) of the Galde Press softcover edition. |
3 |
|
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Hall, Robert in “UFO's: A Scientific Debate” (1972) (edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 219 (in Chapter 9) of the Barnes and Noble hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Norton paperback edition. |
1 |
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Hynek, J Allen in his “The UFO Experience” (1972) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 80-81, 84 (in Chapter 7) of the Henry Regnery hardback edition (with same page numbering in the Abelard-Schuman hardback edition) at pages 92 and 96 of the various Ballantine paperback editions, at pages 109 and 112-113 and of the Corgi paperback edition. Included in a table indicating an assessment of Strangeness Rating/Probability Rating of 4/9 as RV- |
3 |
|
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Klass, Philip J in “The UFO Invasion” (1997) (edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr and Joe Nickell) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 41 of the Prometheus hardback edition (part of Chapter 2 at pages 29-43, “The Condon UFO Study”). The relevant chapter is a reprint of an article in the Skeptical Inquirer 10, number 4 (Summer 1986). |
1 |
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Klass, Philip J in his “UFOs Explained” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 186-215 (Chapter 19, “The famous RB-47 Case (Part 1)” and Chapter 20, “The famous RB-47 Case (Part 2)” generally) of the Random House hardback edition / pages 220-254 of Random House paperback edition. |
30 |
|
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McDonald, James E in “UFO's: A Scientific Debate” (1972) (edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 56-70 (in Chapter 5) of the Barnes and Noble hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Norton paperback edition. |
15 |
|
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McDonald, James in “Thesis Antithesis” (1975) (edited by A D Emerson) at pages 57-61 (in Part |
5 |
|
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Menzel, Donald and Taves, Ernest in their “The UFO Enigma“ (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 93-96 (in Chapter 8, “The [Condon Report’s] ‘Unexplained Cases”) of the Doubleday hardback edition. |
4 |
|
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Randles, Jenny in “The Age of the UFO” (1984) (edited by Peter Brookesmith) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 103 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Beyond Our Scope?”) of the Black Cat hardback edition. The relevant chapter is an article reprinted from the weekly partwork “The Unexplained”. |
1 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “UFO Reality” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 165-170 (in Chapter 12) of the Hale hardback edition. |
6 |
|
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Rehn, K Gosta in his “UFOs Here and Now” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 8-10 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “The Condon-Colorado Report”) of the Abelard-Schuman hardback edition. |
3 |
|
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Ross, Daniel in his “UFOs and the Complete Evidence from Space: The Truth About Venus, Mars and the Moon” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 225-227 (in Chapter 11) of the Pintado softcover edition. |
3 |
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Sachs, Margaret in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 302-303 (in an entry entitled “South Central United States”) of the Corgi softback edition. |
2 |
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Smith, Marcia S in her “The UFO Enigma: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, UG 633, 76-52 SP” (1976) at pages 105-106 (in Appendix A) of the Congressional Research Service stapled edition. |
2 |
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Sparks, Brad in Jerome Clark’s “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition : Volume 2:L-Z” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 761-790 (in an entry entitled “RB-47 Radar/Visual Case”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. |
30 |
|
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Sparks, Brad in version 1.7 of his “Comprehensive Catalog of 1,500 Project BLUE BOOK UFO Unknowns” (2003) as Case Number 1025 on page 138 of the PDF edition (with the same page numbering in the Microsoft Word edition). Both editions are available online, respectively at the following links: |
1 |
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Stone, Clifford E in his “UFOs are Real“ (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 5-6 (in Chapter 1) and in Document 1-6a to 1-6e on the unnumbered pages after page 10 (in Chapter 1) of the SPI softcover edition. |
2 |
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Sturrock, Peter in his “The UFO Enigma“ (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 30-32 (in Chapter 3, section entitled “Radar-Visual Cases”) of the Warner Aspect hardback edition. The relevant chapter is based on Peter Sturrock’s article “An Analysis of the Condon Report on the Colorado UFO Project” Journal of Scientific Exploration 1, pages 75-100, which is available online at: http://tinyurl.com/y99j299 |
3 |
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Thayer, Gordon David in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) edited by Ronald Story (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 297-298 (in an entry entitled “RB-47 radar/visual sighting”) of the NEL hardback edition. |
2 |
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Thompson, Richard in his “Alien Identities: Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Pheonemena” (1993) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 37 (in Chapter 1) of the GHP revised softcover edition. |
1 |
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Time-Life (Editors of) in “The UFO phenomenon: Mysteries of the Unknown” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 66, 68 (in Chapter 3) of the Time-Life Book hardback edition. |
2 |
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Wood, Robert M in Paul R Hill’s “Unconventional Flying Objects : A Scientific Analysis” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 8 (in the Foreword) of the Hampton Roads softcover edition. |
1 |
Other Material
There has been some confusion over the date of this sighting (as discussed by, among others, Campbell, Steuart in his “The UFO Mystery Solved” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 93 (in Chapter 4) of the Explicit Books softcover edition).
Listed as Project Blue Book Case Number 4810 on the redacted US National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”) microfilm records of Project Blue Book, released to the National Archives in 1975 – see National Archives Microfilm Publication T1206 roll number 1. An image of the relevant index page has been given the unique Page ID (“PID”) of NARA-PBB1-167 (page 167 of 1014) at the link below.
Listed (without a Project Blue Book Case Number) on the unredacted Maxwell Air Force Base (“Maxwell”) microfilm records of Project Blue Book – see Maxwell microfilm roll number 30,363. An image of the relevant index page has been given the unique Page ID (“PID”) of MAXW-PBB2-402 (page 402 of 1352) at the link below.
http://www.bluebookarchive.orgPlease use the comments section below to share references to any particularly interesting relevant articles.