George Gorman was flying back from a cross country flight in his F-51 fighter. It was a clear October night in Fargo, North Dakota. The year was 1948.
The small town in the plains of West America had a football game on. George had extra gas and took the opportunity to get some flight time in. He flew over the Football game and dipped his wing to wave to any onlookers.
That’s when he noticed a small flying light outside of town. The light was blinking and similar to an aircraft tail light.
“It must be an aircraft light,” he thought as it traced a relatively normal flight path. It was a clear night and there was only one other aircraft flying at the time.
George contacted the tower to ask what the other air contact was. The tower controller told him the only other flight traffic was the Piper Cub 500 feet below him.
George had been tracking the Piper for the last several minutes. It was 9pm and the clear sky was dark at this point. Seeing the taillights of another jet was very easy in these conditions.
The tower radar was clean and there was no answer on the radio, but the two controllers in the tower did also see the light. What was it?
Intercept
George turned and put his fighter on a collision course with the object. He was at 4,000 feet altitude above the ground and the blinking light was at 1,000 feet. He descended to make the intercept.
As George’s P-51 closed on the object, the object suddenly stopped blinking and turned and accelerated directly at Gorman’s plane. Gorman dove his plane to avoid collision as the object passed 500 feet overhead, very close in the air regime.
Gorman later said the object was a round ball 6-8 inches across, “if anyone else had reported such a thing I would have thought they were crazy.”
Two air traffic controllers also saw the object. H.E. Johnson reported seeing the Piper Cub and the UFO at the same time and that it was “fast enough to increase the spacing between itself and [Gorman’s] fighter and it was “only a round light, perfectly formed, with no fuzzy edges or rays leaving its body.”
The P-51 was outmatched in every way. George was flying as fast as his P-51 could go, 425 mph, yet the object casually pulled away. He said later in his statement that it was flying “650-700MPH”, supersonic at those altitudes.
Gorman followed and turned with the object for 27 minutes. The object turned quickly and pointed right at Gorman’s fighter passing within 500 feet several times.
“I am in fairly good physical condition,” Gorman wrote in his signed statement to his commander, “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.”
The object climbed straight up. Gorman attempted to match the climb of the object but started slowing and stalled at 14,500’. The object continued up as Gorman fell back to earth in his P-51.
“The object didn’t decelerate in the climb,” he wrote on his signed diagram of the engagement.
Gorman later said the object was a round ball 6-8 inches across, “if anyone else had reported such a thing I would have thought they were crazy.”
Two air traffic controllers also saw the object. H.E. Johnson reported seeing the Piper Cub and the UFO at the same time and that it was “fast enough to increase the spacing between itself and [Gorman’s] fighter and it was “only a round light, perfectly formed, with no fuzzy edges or rays leaving its body.”
The P-51 was outmatched in every way. George was flying as fast as his P-51 could go, 425 mph, yet the object casually pulled away. He said later in his statement that it was flying “650-700MPH”, supersonic at those altitudes.
Gorman followed and turned with the object for 27 minutes. The object turned quickly and pointed right at Gorman’s fighter passing within 500 feet several times.
“I am in fairly good physical condition,” Gorman wrote in his signed statement to his commander, “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.”
The object climbed straight up. Gorman attempted to match the climb of the object but started slowing and stalled at 14,500’. The object continued up as Gorman fell back to earth in his P-51.
“The object didn’t decelerate in the climb,” he wrote on his signed diagram of the engagement.
