# July 24, 1948 — Montgomery, AL — The DC-3 Chiles-Whitted Case - Meteor/Fireball
**URL:** https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/t/july-24-1948-montgomery-al-the-dc-3-chiles-whitted-case-meteor-fireball/271
**Category:** Blue Book Unknowns
**Created:** [July 23, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/t/july-24-1948-montgomery-al-the-dc-3-chiles-whitted-case-meteor-fireball/271 "2025-07-23T22:59:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
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### Author:  [@jeffknox](https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/u/jeffknox)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/t/july-24-1948-montgomery-al-the-dc-3-chiles-whitted-case-meteor-fireball/271/1 "2025-07-23T22:59:30Z")
July 24, 1948 — Montgomery, AL
2:45 a.m. Capt. Clarence S. Chiles and copilot John B. Whitted are flying an Eastern Airlines DC-3 at 5,000 feet, 20 miles southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, when they see an object about 100 feet long moving rapidly toward them on their right. Torpedo-shaped and wingless, the object has flames jetting 50 feet from its rear. There are two rows of square windows through which a bright light is glowing. They only see it for 5–10 seconds. It is half a mile away and moving at about 700 mph. After it passes the plane it appears to swoop into a cloud bank at 6,000 feet. One passenger, Clarence L. McKelvie of Columbus, Ohio, also sees it. Many ufologists now consider the object to be a fireball meteor. Martin Shough writes: “There is nothing in this case that convincingly rules out a fragmenting fireball, and the ‘airship effect’ which causes the eye to see a line of glowing fragments as lighted windows in an elongated machine has been a widely known feature of such sightings at least since Hartmann made a pretty good study of it in the Condon Report. Other observers in neighboring states saw on their far western horizon an ‘unusually bright meteor’ that could have been the same fireball on a near-horizontal trajectory heading SW over the Alabama-Georgia border area. Chiles-Whitted saw it only for a few seconds going by above and to their right heading SW on a near reciprocal heading to them but miles higher and much faster then they thought. As it approached them, the angular rate of the object would rise geometrically in a hockey-stick curve which, interpreted in terms of an illusory near-miss with another ‘aircraft,’ could suggest the appearance of a climb and an avoiding veer.” [Eberhart] NOT A REAL UNKNOWN. This was without a doubt a fireball that was misidentified. So it’s not a real UFO case, despite being one of the most famous UFO cases.
Record Card:
Incident Checklist:
Statement [Chiles]:
Statement [Whitted]:
Sources:
Weird Science-Fantasy (EC, 1954 series) #26 (December 1954): 2-3;
“Strange New Wingless Plane Seen,” Knoxville (Tenn.) Journal, July 25, 1948, p. 1;
“Atlanta Pilots Report Wingless Sky Monster,” Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution, July 25, 1948, pp. 1, 8;
“‘Sky Devil-Ship’ Scares Pilots: Air Chief Wishes He Had One,” Atlanta (Ga.) Journal, July 25, 1948, p. 1;
“Weird Plane Heads Toward Orleans, Say Air Line Pilots,” New Orleans (La.) Times-Picayune, July 25, 1948, p. 21;
“Pilots Spotted ‘Fantastic’ Aircraft,” Fremont (Ohio) News-Messanger, July 27, 1948, p. 2;
“Mysterious ‘Ball of Fire’ Trailing Tail of Flame Sighted over Atlanta,” Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution, July 27, 1948, pp. 1, 4;
Sidney Shalett, “What You Can Believe About Flying Saucers,” The Saturday Evening Post, May 7, 1949, p. 186;
Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 90–91;
Edward Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956, pp. 40-41;
Donald Menzel, The World of Flying Saucers: A Major Myth of the Space Age, 1963, pp. 109-113;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, pp. 44,48;
Dale Huffman, “UFOs Just Debris, Blue Book Staff Confirms,” Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, July 16, 1968, p. 21;
Philip Klass, UFOs Explained, 1974, pp. 8-10;
Loren E. Gross, The UFO Riddle: 1948, January-July, The Author, 1980, pp. 34-48; [Same pages in 1948 History, slightly diff. material]
Timothy Good, Above Top Secret, pp. 264, 479;
Curtis Peebles, Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth, 1994, pp. 22-23;
Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 46–47;
Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs: a History: 1948, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 53-60;
Michael D. Swords and Robert Powell, UFOs and Government, pp. 58,60;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, pp. 77-79;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pp. 234–236, 391;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 274–276, 437;
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknowns Catalogue, Case 103, p. 36;
Greg Eghigian, After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon. Oxford University, 2024, pp. 49–50, 58;
Graff, Garrett M. UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There. Avid Reader Press, 2023, p. 45;
> **[UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out...](https://www.amazon.com/UFO-Inside-Governments-Search-Here_and/dp/1982196777)**
>
> UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There \[Graff, Garrett M.\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There
Wikipedia, “Chiles-Whitted UFO Encounter”;
> **[Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiles-Whitted_UFO_encounter)**
>
> The Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter occurred at approximately 2:45 AM on July 24, 1948, in the skies near Montgomery, Alabama, United States. Two commercial pilots, Clarence S. Chiles and John B. Whitted, claimed to have observed a "glowing object" pass by their plane before it appeared to pull up into a cloud and travel out of sight.
> According to United States Air Force (USAF) officer and Project Blue Book supervisor Edward J. Ruppelt, the Chiles-Whitted sighting was one of three "classic" UFO in...
NICAP, “Chiles-Whitted Case”;
> **[UFO Report](http://www.nicap.org/480724chiles_dir.htm)**
James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 42–43;
> **[SHG - UFO Symposium 1968: McDonald Statement](https://www.project1947.com/shg/symposium/mcdonald.html#pilots)**
Joel Carpenter, “Watershed: The Chiles-Whitted ‘Rocketship’ Sighting,” 2002;
> **[PROJECT 1947: A Ghost Rocket Chronology - The Chiles-Whitted Sighting](https://www.project1947.com/gr/chileswhitted.htm)**
>
> project 1947, the chiles whitted sighting
Martin Shough, “Analysis of the Chiles-Whitted Sightings, July 24, 1948,” February 2011;
> **[480724montgomery\_shough.pdf](https://www.nicap.org/reports/480724montgomery_shough.pdf)**
>
> 373.16 KB
Kevin D. Randle, “Chiles/Whitted and Skepticism,” A Different Perspective, January 21, 2016;
> **[Chiles/Whitted and Skepticism](http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2016/01/chileswhitted-and-skepticism.html)**
UFO Casebook, “The Chiles/Whitted Sighting”;
> **[The Chiles/Whitted Sighting](https://ufocasebook.com/Chiles.html)**
>
> Chiles-Whitted UFO sighting from plane
UFO’s (It Has Begun) Past, Present, and Future Documentary. Cued up to the Chiles-Whitted section with Clarence McKelvie’s testimony:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CJdUA8LQg0&t=1055)
John Greenewald, “Project Blue Book: The Chiles-Whitted UFO Encounter, July 24, 1948, Montgomery, Alabama,” The Black Vault, May 15, 2023;
> **[Project Blue Book: The Chiles-Whitted UFO Encounter, July 24, 1948,...](https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/project-blue-book-the-chiles-whitted-ufo-encounter-july-24-1948-montgomery-alabama/)**
>
> On July 24, 1948, an event occurred that would not only change the lives of two experienced airline pilots but also play a critical role in shaping the unfolding UFO phenomena in the United States. The Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter, near Montgomery,...
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### Author:  [@jeffknox](https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/u/jeffknox)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2026, 9:50pm UTC](https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/t/july-24-1948-montgomery-al-the-dc-3-chiles-whitted-case-meteor-fireball/271/2 "2026-07-23T21:50:04Z")
“Strange New Wingless Plane Seen,” Knoxville (Tenn.) Journal, July 25, 1948, pp. 1,4;
[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-knoxville-journal-theknoxvillejour/199749673/](https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-knoxville-journal-theknoxvillejour/199749673/)
[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-knoxville-journal-theknoxvillejour/199749700/](https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-knoxville-journal-theknoxvillejour/199749700/)
“Weird Plane Heads Toward Orleans, Say Air Line Pilots,” New Orleans (La.) Times-Picayune, July 25, 1948, p. 21;
[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-picayune-neworleanstimes-pic/199749764/](https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-picayune-neworleanstimes-pic/199749764/)
“Mr. Clarence McKelvie Corroborates Reports of Wingless Space Air Ship,” [West Chester University] Quad Angles 16, no. 21 (July 30, 1948): 1;
> **[CONTENTdm](https://digital.klnpa.org/digital/collection/wcnp01/id/11644)**
Curtis Fuller, “The Flying Saucers—Fact or Fiction?” Flying magazine, July 1950, pp. 17, 59-60;
> **[1950%2007%2000\_Flying%20Magazine\_Curtis%20Fuller.pdf](https://files.afu.se/Downloads/Magazines/0%20-%20Articles/United%20States/Flying%20Magazine/1950%2007%2000_Flying%20Magazine_Curtis%20Fuller.pdf)**
>
> 1581.15 KB
[PURSUE release, pp. 114–120];
[https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release\_1/38\_143685\_box7\_incident\_summaries\_101-172.pdf](https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release_1/38_143685_box7_incident_summaries_101-172.pdf)