August 30, 1950 — Holloman AFB, NM
10:45 a.m. During a Bell Aircraft MX-776 Shrike missile test (for the later Rascal air-to-ground strategic missile) a USAF M/Sgt and eight Bell Aircraft employees at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, see two glaringly bright circular or elliptical objects maintaining relative position to each other following the B-50 Superfortress launch aircraft from above on both the dry run and hot run prior to missile release. The objects give a “strong glare at all times” (not reflected sunlight), maneuver at high estimated speeds up to 10 times the B-50 (roughly 2,500 mph) for short distances, leave no vapor trails, hover, accelerate rapidly, and make abrupt “square” turns with apparent size changing to indicate ascent and descent. [Eberhart]
Sources:
Maj. R. G. Illing, “Aerial Phenomena,” September 13, 1950;
Project Twinkle Final Report;
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknowns Catalogue, Case 400, p. 98;
Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1950 August-December, The Author, 1982, pp. 11-12;
Michael Swords and Robert Powell, UFOs and Government, p. 116;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., p. 544;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., p. 602;
NICAP, “Two Objects Filmed during Shrike Missile Test”;