Chiles-Whitted UFO Encounter
Encyclopedia
The Chiles-Whitted UFO Encounter occurred on July 24, 1948 when two American commercial pilots reported that their Douglas DC-3
had nearly collided with a strange torpedo
shaped object flying near them.
It was an important UFO sighting for several reasons: it was perhaps the first that occurred at close distance (allegedly within a few hundred feet); and it was reported by two very experienced pilots, Clarence Chiles and John Whitted. Both pilots had been decorated for their service as airmen during World War II
, and both were regarded as valuable, respectable employees of Eastern Airlines. Chiles, in particular, was highly esteemed by his peers and by his employer.
It was a pivotal case for the personnel of the U.S. Air Force's Project Sign
, and was a main reason they championed the extraterrestrial hypothesis
as the best explanation for UFOs.
, head of Project Blue Book
in the early 1950s, wrote:
from Mobile, Alabama
to Montgomery
, at about 5000 feet in altitude.
At about 2:45 a.m., Chiles spotted a hazy red cloud, somewhat similar to aircraft exhaust. It was slightly above them, and to the front-right of the DC-3 by about half a mile. Chiles saw an aircraft, and, thinking it the source of the exhaust, pointed it out to Whitted and said, "Look, here comes a new Army jet job." (Story, 71) However, they quickly realized that the object was unlike a jet plane, and was moving towards them at very high speed. Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt would write that within a matter of seconds,
They had seen the object for about 10 to 15 seconds. Both men described the object as cigar- or torpedo-shaped, about 100 feet in length, and about three times the diameter of a B-29 bomber. The "fuselage" was entirely smooth, with no wings, projections or fins. A bright red-orange exhaust was emanating from the object's rear, and was more orange at the outer edges of the exhaust, but grew redder when it rose in altitude. The exhaust extended approximately 30 to 50 feet behind the object. They heard no sound from the object as it sped past the DC-3.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the witnesses asserted that the object had what appeared to be two rows of rectangular "windows." A few weeks after the sighting, Chiles was to write that "there were two rows of windows, which indicated an upper and lower deck, from inside these windows a very bright light was glowing. Underneath the ship there was a blue glow of light." (Clark, 182) The light from the object was so bright that both men were blinded by its intensity for a few seconds.
There were only a few differences in the observations of the two men: Chiles thought he observed a conical shape at the object's nose that was somewhat similar to a radar
pole, and he described a glassy window at the object's front that was somewhat similar to a cockpit
window. Whitted thought the object was slightly further away than Chiles described, and he did not see the cockpit-like "windshield" or the "radar pole" at the object's nose. Chiles recalled the "exhaust" as being less intense, and not flaring out as much as Whitted observed.
Given the early hour of the flight, most of the passengers were asleep. One of them, Clarence L. McKelvie, would later offer corroborative eyewitness testimony. He asserted that he saw an extraordinarily bright light from his window seat in the aircraft, describing it as unlike lightning. He later told Project Sign investigators that the light seemed to have moved parallel to the plane, but at a higher altitude.
Within seconds of the close encounter, Chiles asked Eastern Airlines flight controllers, via two-way-radio, if any known experimental aircraft were being flown in the region. There was none.
a little before 4.00 a.m. The pilots went to a hotel, only to learn that their sighting had already generated some interest. Within a few hours, they were interviewed at radio station WCON
, and also by newspaper reporter William Key. The UFO report earned national press attention.
People had quickly suggested that the object had been a meteor
, but the pilots both flatly rejected this: they had both seen many meteors in their careers, and this object was certainly not a meteor. On the contrary, they insisted that the flying fuselage they had observed was "a man-made thing." (Clark, 182)
Within days, Sign investigators interviewed eyewitnesses Chiles, Whitted and McKelvie.
One of the witnesses was Walter Massey, a ground-crew chief at Robins Air Force Base
in Georgia, about 150 miles from Montgomery; he claimed to have seen a very similar object about an hour before Chiles and Whitted's encounter. Like the pilots, he said it was a cylindrical object that seemed to be two or three times larger than a B-29 "with a long stream of fire coming out the tail end … I noticed a faint glow on the belly of the wingless object." (Clark, 182) Massey was certain the object was not a meteor.
Ruppelt also writes of another Air Force witness:
first suggested that the men had seen a weather balloon
, but this explanation was quickly withdrawn. Within days, an Air Force spokesman admitted the sighting was credible, further stating: "this country has no plane resembling a double-decked, jet-propelled, wingless transport shooting a 40-foot flame out of its back end." (Clark, 182)
Astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek
, a consultant to Sign, argued that if the pilots had reported accurately what they'd seen, that "no astronomical explanation" was even remotely plausible. However, he did offer an admittedly "far-fetched" explanation, suggesting that the pilots had seen an "extraordinary meteor." (Clark, 183)
The men of Project Sign, however, had their own ideas. Ruppelt wrote
Sign's personnel were very intrigued by the Chiles-Whitted report. They knew that rockets could fly, but there was no known technology that could account for a rocket being as maneuverable as the pilots had asserted. They pored through obscure technical journals (including the work of German engineer Ludwig Prandtl) and eventually concluded that a "flying fuselage" was feasible if the object had a power source that used nuclear energy
.
Based on this, and other UFO cases, Sign's personnel began to favor the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Though there was no direct physical evidence, they thought that there was simply no Earthly technology that could account for some UFO sightings.
They allegedly wrote the legendary Estimate of the Situation
to argue their case. The document was gradually forwarded to the highest authorities in the Air Force, who rejected it, primarily because of a lack of physical proof. The Estimate was ordered destroyed, and no copies are known to survive.
However, Sign's personnel refused to abandon the interplanetary hypothesis, even when explicitly ordered to do so. Due to conflicts with "anti-saucer" elements in the U.S. military, Sign was dismantled and replaced with Project Grudge
, which conducted little to no research, and which tended towards debunking of any UFO reports.
Hynek's meteor explanation became the official Air Force explanation for the Chiles-Whitted incident, though his qualification was not mentioned in later discussion of the sighting.
Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
had nearly collided with a strange torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
shaped object flying near them.
It was an important UFO sighting for several reasons: it was perhaps the first that occurred at close distance (allegedly within a few hundred feet); and it was reported by two very experienced pilots, Clarence Chiles and John Whitted. Both pilots had been decorated for their service as airmen during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and both were regarded as valuable, respectable employees of Eastern Airlines. Chiles, in particular, was highly esteemed by his peers and by his employer.
It was a pivotal case for the personnel of the U.S. Air Force's Project Sign
Project Sign
Project Sign was an official U.S. government study of unidentified flying objects undertaken by the United States Air Force and active for most of 1948....
, and was a main reason they championed the extraterrestrial hypothesis
Extraterrestrial hypothesis
The extraterrestrial hypothesis is the hypothesis that some unidentified flying objects are best explained as being extraterrestrial life or non-human aliens from other planets occupying physical spacecraft visiting Earth.-Etymology:...
as the best explanation for UFOs.
Prelude
As the Air Force's official UFO investigation group, Project Sign collected UFO sightings from all over the world. Captain Edward J. RuppeltEdward J. Ruppelt
Edward J. Ruppelt was a United States Air Force officer probably best-known for his involvement in Project Blue Book, a formal governmental study of unidentified flying objects...
, head of Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects conducted by the United States Air Force. Started in 1952, it was the second revival of such a study...
in the early 1950s, wrote:
- On July 21 [1948] a curious report was received from the NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. The day before, several persons reported seeing a UFO through high broken clouds over The HagueThe HagueThe Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. The object was rocketRocketA rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
shaped, with two rows of windows along the side. It was a poor report, very sketchy and incomplete, and it probably would have been forgotten except that four nights later a similar UFO almost collided with an Eastern Airlines DC-3.
The Chiles-Whitted Encounter
In the early morning hours of July 24, 1948, Pilot Clarence Chiles and co-pilot John Whitted were flying an Eastern Airlines Douglas DC-3Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
from Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
to Montgomery
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, at about 5000 feet in altitude.
At about 2:45 a.m., Chiles spotted a hazy red cloud, somewhat similar to aircraft exhaust. It was slightly above them, and to the front-right of the DC-3 by about half a mile. Chiles saw an aircraft, and, thinking it the source of the exhaust, pointed it out to Whitted and said, "Look, here comes a new Army jet job." (Story, 71) However, they quickly realized that the object was unlike a jet plane, and was moving towards them at very high speed. Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt would write that within a matter of seconds,
- [t]he UFO was now almost on top of them. Chiles racked the DC-3 into a tight left turn. Just as the UFO flashed by about 700 feet to the right, the DC-3 hit turbulent air. Whitted looked back just as the UFO pulled up in a steep climb.
- Both the pilots had gotten a good look at the UFO and were able to give a good description to the Air Force intelligence people.
They had seen the object for about 10 to 15 seconds. Both men described the object as cigar- or torpedo-shaped, about 100 feet in length, and about three times the diameter of a B-29 bomber. The "fuselage" was entirely smooth, with no wings, projections or fins. A bright red-orange exhaust was emanating from the object's rear, and was more orange at the outer edges of the exhaust, but grew redder when it rose in altitude. The exhaust extended approximately 30 to 50 feet behind the object. They heard no sound from the object as it sped past the DC-3.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the witnesses asserted that the object had what appeared to be two rows of rectangular "windows." A few weeks after the sighting, Chiles was to write that "there were two rows of windows, which indicated an upper and lower deck, from inside these windows a very bright light was glowing. Underneath the ship there was a blue glow of light." (Clark, 182) The light from the object was so bright that both men were blinded by its intensity for a few seconds.
There were only a few differences in the observations of the two men: Chiles thought he observed a conical shape at the object's nose that was somewhat similar to a radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
pole, and he described a glassy window at the object's front that was somewhat similar to a cockpit
Cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft. Most modern cockpits are enclosed, except on some small aircraft, and cockpits on large airliners are also physically separated from the cabin...
window. Whitted thought the object was slightly further away than Chiles described, and he did not see the cockpit-like "windshield" or the "radar pole" at the object's nose. Chiles recalled the "exhaust" as being less intense, and not flaring out as much as Whitted observed.
Given the early hour of the flight, most of the passengers were asleep. One of them, Clarence L. McKelvie, would later offer corroborative eyewitness testimony. He asserted that he saw an extraordinarily bright light from his window seat in the aircraft, describing it as unlike lightning. He later told Project Sign investigators that the light seemed to have moved parallel to the plane, but at a higher altitude.
Within seconds of the close encounter, Chiles asked Eastern Airlines flight controllers, via two-way-radio, if any known experimental aircraft were being flown in the region. There was none.
Aftermath and publicity
The flight landed at BirminghamBirmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
a little before 4.00 a.m. The pilots went to a hotel, only to learn that their sighting had already generated some interest. Within a few hours, they were interviewed at radio station WCON
WCON (AM)
WCON is a radio station broadcasting a format. Licensed to Cornelia, Georgia, USA. The station is currently owned by Habersham Broadcasting Company....
, and also by newspaper reporter William Key. The UFO report earned national press attention.
People had quickly suggested that the object had been a meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
, but the pilots both flatly rejected this: they had both seen many meteors in their careers, and this object was certainly not a meteor. On the contrary, they insisted that the flying fuselage they had observed was "a man-made thing." (Clark, 182)
Within days, Sign investigators interviewed eyewitnesses Chiles, Whitted and McKelvie.
Other Witnesses
In addition to the report from The Hague, Sign investigators discovered several eyewitnesses, who seemed to have seen the same object Chiles and Whitted observedOne of the witnesses was Walter Massey, a ground-crew chief at Robins Air Force Base
Robins Air Force Base
Robins Air Force Base is a major United States Air Force base located in Houston County, Georgia, United States. The base is located just east of and adjacent to the city of Warner Robins, Georgia, SSE of Macon, Georgia, and about SSE of Atlanta, Georgia...
in Georgia, about 150 miles from Montgomery; he claimed to have seen a very similar object about an hour before Chiles and Whitted's encounter. Like the pilots, he said it was a cylindrical object that seemed to be two or three times larger than a B-29 "with a long stream of fire coming out the tail end … I noticed a faint glow on the belly of the wingless object." (Clark, 182) Massey was certain the object was not a meteor.
Ruppelt also writes of another Air Force witness:
- A few days later another report from the night of July 24 came in. A pilot, flying near the VirginiaVirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
/North CarolinaNorth CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
state line, reported that he had seen a "bright shooting star" in the direction of Montgomery, Alabama, at about the exact time the Eastern Airlines DC-3 was "buzzed."
Explanations
The PentagonThe Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
first suggested that the men had seen a weather balloon
Weather balloon
A weather or sounding balloon is a balloon which carries instruments aloft to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed by means of a small, expendable measuring device called a radiosonde...
, but this explanation was quickly withdrawn. Within days, an Air Force spokesman admitted the sighting was credible, further stating: "this country has no plane resembling a double-decked, jet-propelled, wingless transport shooting a 40-foot flame out of its back end." (Clark, 182)
Astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek
J. Allen Hynek
Dr. Josef Allen Hynek was a United States astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific adviser to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three consecutive names: Project Sign , Project Grudge , and Project Blue Book...
, a consultant to Sign, argued that if the pilots had reported accurately what they'd seen, that "no astronomical explanation" was even remotely plausible. However, he did offer an admittedly "far-fetched" explanation, suggesting that the pilots had seen an "extraordinary meteor." (Clark, 183)
The men of Project Sign, however, had their own ideas. Ruppelt wrote
- According to the old timers at ATIC, this report shook them worse than the Mantell IncidentMantell IncidentThe Mantell UFO incident was among the most publicized early UFO reports. The incident resulted in the crash and death of 25-year-old Kentucky Air National Guard pilot, Captain Thomas F. Mantell, on January 7, 1948, while in pursuit of a supposed UFO....
. This was the first time two reliable sources had been really close enough to anything resembling a UFO to get a good look and live to tell about it [Weeks earlier, Mantell had died in pursuit of a UFO].
Sign's personnel were very intrigued by the Chiles-Whitted report. They knew that rockets could fly, but there was no known technology that could account for a rocket being as maneuverable as the pilots had asserted. They pored through obscure technical journals (including the work of German engineer Ludwig Prandtl) and eventually concluded that a "flying fuselage" was feasible if the object had a power source that used nuclear energy
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
.
Based on this, and other UFO cases, Sign's personnel began to favor the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Though there was no direct physical evidence, they thought that there was simply no Earthly technology that could account for some UFO sightings.
They allegedly wrote the legendary Estimate of the Situation
Estimate of the Situation
The Estimate of the Situation was a document supposedly written in 1948 by the personnel of United States Air Force's Project Sign -including the project’s director, Captain Robert R. Sneider - which explained their reasons for concluding that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was the best...
to argue their case. The document was gradually forwarded to the highest authorities in the Air Force, who rejected it, primarily because of a lack of physical proof. The Estimate was ordered destroyed, and no copies are known to survive.
However, Sign's personnel refused to abandon the interplanetary hypothesis, even when explicitly ordered to do so. Due to conflicts with "anti-saucer" elements in the U.S. military, Sign was dismantled and replaced with Project Grudge
Project Grudge
Project Grudge was a short-lived project by the U.S. Air Force to investigate unidentified flying objects . Grudge succeeded Project Sign in February, 1949, and was then followed by Project Blue Book. The project formally ended in December 1949, but actually continued on in a very minimal capacity...
, which conducted little to no research, and which tended towards debunking of any UFO reports.
Hynek's meteor explanation became the official Air Force explanation for the Chiles-Whitted incident, though his qualification was not mentioned in later discussion of the sighting.
External links
- The Chiles-Whitted Case, Montgomery, Alabama, July 24, 1948 from the NICAP files.
- The Chiles-Whitted Encounter from UFO casebook