Enid AFB, OklahomaApril 1949

A pilot at Enid Air Force Base in Oklahoma saw something unusual cross the night sky on April 21, 1949. At 9:40 p.m., while standing on the airfield and talking to two other airmen, the pilot noticed a light moving from east to west at about 2,000 feet altitude. At first he thought it was just another aircraft, since planes were taking off and landing at the base that evening. But as he looked more carefully, he realized the object had a long tail trailing behind it, giving it the appearance of a comet.

The pilot's three quick impressions told him something was wrong. First, the object looked like a plane flying across the traffic pattern. Second, the tail made it look like a comet. Third, neither explanation made sense. The object was moving at an estimated 1,000 miles per hour, far faster than the jets he knew, which flew at 500 to 600 miles per hour. The tail stretched about 100 feet behind the main body. The whole sighting lasted only about two seconds before the object faded from view without exploding or hitting anything. Because a jet was taking off at that same moment, the pilot could not hear whether the object made any sound.

The pilot, an experienced aviator with 2,186 flying hours on record, described the object's main body as resembling a large opalescent light globe, like a glowing ball about the size of an object seen from fifteen feet away. He suggested that the apparent tail might have been created by the object's rapid motion through the dark night, rather than an actual physical tail. The weather was clear that night, with good visibility. The file notes that the initial report had mistakenly said the sighting lasted five seconds, but the correct length of observation was two seconds. The case was evaluated by the Air Force as a meteor. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 23 pages.