Posted On: June 26, 2022

Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the officer who investigated unidentified-flying-object for the U.S. Air Force throughout the 1950s, claims the Gorman Dogfight remains one of the esteemed “classics” among UFO sightings, and coming from him, that means something. What makes the Gorman Dogfight stand out in the now-declassified Project Blue Book is that it was recorded both on the ground and in the sky by numerous reputable sources.

The year was 1948, the place, Fargo, North Dakota. A veteran fighter pilot of World War II had a remarkable encounter with what appeared to be a glowing, mysterious white orb flying through the sky. He tried to get a closer look, but the object wasn’t terribly cooperative.

George F. Gorman was an experienced pilot who fought the Germans in the Second World War, after which he became the manager of a construction company, and served as a junior officer in the North Dakota National Guard. On October 1, 1948, Gorman was participating in a cross-country flight with other National Guard airmen; his aircraft was a P-51 Mustang. His flight arrived over Fargo at roughly 8:30 PM. While the other pilots decided to land at Hector Airport, Gorman decided to take advantage of the cloudless conditions and squeeze in some night-flying time, staying aloft. After circling his P-51 over a football stadium, he was preparing to land at around 9 P.M and was advised by the control tower that the only other plane in the immediate vicinity was a Piper Cub (which Gorman could see about 500 feet below him), aside from that, Gorman appeared to be alone in the perfectly clear skies.

Mere minutes after, the pilot witnessed another object west of him and believed that it to be the taillight of another passing craft, though the tower had no other plane caught on their radar. He searched for the outline of a wing or fuselage but was confused when couldn’t see anything. This contrasted with the Piper Cub, which had an outline that was clearly visible. The strange object appeared to be a blinking light. At 9:07 PM Gorman contacted the control tower at Hector Airport, asking if it had any air traffic in the area other than his P-51 and the Piper Cub. The operator said they did not, and contacted the Piper Cub pilot, who also claimed to have seen the mysterious lighted object.

Gorman told the tower that he was going to chase the object to determine its identity. He moved his Mustang to its full power (350 to 400 MPH) but soon realized that the object was going far too fast despite him going at maximum speed. Instead, he tried to cut it off by making sharp turns. When he finally got behind it at around 7,000 feet, it made an abrupt turn and headed straight for Gorman’s plane. Almost at the point of collision, he dove and said the light passed over his canopy at about 500 feet before cutting sharply once again and heading back in his direction. As a collision seemed imminent once again, the object shot straight up in the air in a steep climb, so steep that when he tried to intercept, his aircraft stalled at about 14,000 feet. That was the last time Gorman saw it. By this point in time, the object had moved over Hector Airport, where air traffic controller, L.D. Jensen viewed it through binoculars, but couldn’t see any form or shape, just an incomprehensive light.

The object was not seen again, but Gorman said he engaged in aerial maneuvers with this thing for almost half an hour before bringing his plane to land. Shaken by the encounter, Gormon reported that there was no sound, exhaust trail, or odor from the object. Even at a speed of 400 MPH while in pursuit, he simply couldn’t keep up with whatever it was. “I am convinced that there was definite thought behind its maneuvers,” Gorman said in a sworn statement to his commanding officer. “I am further convinced that the object was governed by the laws of inertia because its acceleration was rapid but not immediate; and although it was able to turn fairly tight at considerable speed, it still followed a natural curve.”

It’s important to keep in mind that Gorman wasn’t the only one to see this strange light that evening. It was also witnessed by air-traffic controllers Lloyd D. Jensen and H.E. Johnson, who were manning the Hector Airport tower at the time. According to Johnson, who reported seeing the Piper Cub and the UFO simultaneously, the object was “traveling at a high rate of speed” and was “fast enough to increase the spacing between itself and Gorman’s fighter.” He described the object as appearing to be “only a round light, perfectly formed, with no fuzzy edges or rays leaving its body.”

Within a few hours, military officers from Project Sign, the United States Air Force's study of UFO phenomena, arrived in Fargo to interview Gorman, the pilot of the Piper Cub, and the control tower personnel at Hector Airport. They also discovered heightened radioactivity on his aircraft, though this was later explained as a side effect of the high-altitude flying that took place. USAF investigators also ruled out the possibility of the light being "another aircraft, Canadian Vampire jet fighters, or a weather balloon." Their initial conclusion, writes UFO historian Curtis Peebles, was "that something remarkable had occurred" to Gorman in the skies above Fargo.

However, as the investigation went on, Project Sign started changing its tune and claimed there were simpler explanations for what actually happened. A plane flying high in the Earth's atmosphere is less shielded from radiation than one at ground level, thus the readings were considered invalid evidence for the possibility that the lighted object was atomic-powered. In addition, the Air Weather Service revealed that on October 1 it released a weather balloon from Fargo at 8:50 PM. By 9 PM the balloon would have been in the area where Gorman and the Piper Cub passengers first encountered the object. The investigators claimed the incredible movements of the light were due to Gorman's own maneuvers as he chased it, an illusion brought on by the sudden movements of his fighter.

By early 1949, the Gorman case was labeled by Project Sign and its successors, as being caused by a lighted weather balloon. Despite these explanations, the Gorman dogfight received national publicity and helped fan the flames of UFO reports in the late forties. While many UFO researchers disagreed with the Air Force’s conclusions, others agreed with the evidence presented by the government. Captain Ruppelt himself claims this an esteemed classic among UFO sightings, and more recently in 2019, the first episode of the History Channel television series, Project Blue Book, is loosely based on the Gorman dogfight.

While Project Sign’s official explanation seems plausible in some areas, it doesn’t address several important facts. This man was an experienced combat pilot and was therefore highly unlikely to mistake the distance and speed of a passively drifting target. It was also seen by multiple witnesses in multiple locations who all claimed it was a brilliant, unidentifiable light, not a weather balloon. This is probably either secret government aircraft or alien technology, but of course, we have no way of knowing. What do you think?

Posted On: June 26, 2022

Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the officer who investigated unidentified-flying-object for the U.S. Air Force throughout the 1950s, claims the Gorman Dogfight remains one of the esteemed “classics” among UFO sightings, and coming from him, that means something. What makes the Gorman Dogfight stand out in the now-declassified Project Blue Book is that it was recorded both on the ground and in the sky by numerous reputable sources.

The year was 1948, the place, Fargo, North Dakota. A veteran fighter pilot of World War II had a remarkable encounter with what appeared to be a glowing, mysterious white orb flying through the sky. He tried to get a closer look, but the object wasn’t terribly cooperative.

George F. Gorman was an experienced pilot who fought the Germans in the Second World War, after which he became the manager of a construction company, and served as a junior officer in the North Dakota National Guard. On October 1, 1948, Gorman was participating in a cross-country flight with other National Guard airmen; his aircraft was a P-51 Mustang. His flight arrived over Fargo at roughly 8:30 PM. While the other pilots decided to land at Hector Airport, Gorman decided to take advantage of the cloudless conditions and squeeze in some night-flying time, staying aloft. After circling his P-51 over a football stadium, he was preparing to land at around 9 P.M and was advised by the control tower that the only other plane in the immediate vicinity was a Piper Cub (which Gorman could see about 500 feet below him), aside from that, Gorman appeared to be alone in the perfectly clear skies.

Mere minutes after, the pilot witnessed another object west of him and believed that it to be the taillight of another passing craft, though the tower had no other plane caught on their radar. He searched for the outline of a wing or fuselage but was confused when couldn’t see anything. This contrasted with the Piper Cub, which had an outline that was clearly visible. The strange object appeared to be a blinking light. At 9:07 PM Gorman contacted the control tower at Hector Airport, asking if it had any air traffic in the area other than his P-51 and the Piper Cub. The operator said they did not, and contacted the Piper Cub pilot, who also claimed to have seen the mysterious lighted object.

Gorman told the tower that he was going to chase the object to determine its identity. He moved his Mustang to its full power (350 to 400 MPH) but soon realized that the object was going far too fast despite him going at maximum speed. Instead, he tried to cut it off by making sharp turns. When he finally got behind it at around 7,000 feet, it made an abrupt turn and headed straight for Gorman’s plane. Almost at the point of collision, he dove and said the light passed over his canopy at about 500 feet before cutting sharply once again and heading back in his direction. As a collision seemed imminent once again, the object shot straight up in the air in a steep climb, so steep that when he tried to intercept, his aircraft stalled at about 14,000 feet. That was the last time Gorman saw it. By this point in time, the object had moved over Hector Airport, where air traffic controller, L.D. Jensen viewed it through binoculars, but couldn’t see any form or shape, just an incomprehensive light.

The object was not seen again, but Gorman said he engaged in aerial maneuvers with this thing for almost half an hour before bringing his plane to land. Shaken by the encounter, Gormon reported that there was no sound, exhaust trail, or odor from the object. Even at a speed of 400 MPH while in pursuit, he simply couldn’t keep up with whatever it was. “I am convinced that there was definite thought behind its maneuvers,” Gorman said in a sworn statement to his commanding officer. “I am further convinced that the object was governed by the laws of inertia because its acceleration was rapid but not immediate; and although it was able to turn fairly tight at considerable speed, it still followed a natural curve.”

It’s important to keep in mind that Gorman wasn’t the only one to see this strange light that evening. It was also witnessed by air-traffic controllers Lloyd D. Jensen and H.E. Johnson, who were manning the Hector Airport tower at the time. According to Johnson, who reported seeing the Piper Cub and the UFO simultaneously, the object was “traveling at a high rate of speed” and was “fast enough to increase the spacing between itself and Gorman’s fighter.” He described the object as appearing to be “only a round light, perfectly formed, with no fuzzy edges or rays leaving its body.”

Within a few hours, military officers from Project Sign, the United States Air Force's study of UFO phenomena, arrived in Fargo to interview Gorman, the pilot of the Piper Cub, and the control tower personnel at Hector Airport. They also discovered heightened radioactivity on his aircraft, though this was later explained as a side effect of the high-altitude flying that took place. USAF investigators also ruled out the possibility of the light being "another aircraft, Canadian Vampire jet fighters, or a weather balloon." Their initial conclusion, writes UFO historian Curtis Peebles, was "that something remarkable had occurred" to Gorman in the skies above Fargo.

However, as the investigation went on, Project Sign started changing its tune and claimed there were simpler explanations for what actually happened. A plane flying high in the Earth's atmosphere is less shielded from radiation than one at ground level, thus the readings were considered invalid evidence for the possibility that the lighted object was atomic-powered. In addition, the Air Weather Service revealed that on October 1 it released a weather balloon from Fargo at 8:50 PM. By 9 PM the balloon would have been in the area where Gorman and the Piper Cub passengers first encountered the object. The investigators claimed the incredible movements of the light were due to Gorman's own maneuvers as he chased it, an illusion brought on by the sudden movements of his fighter.

By early 1949, the Gorman case was labeled by Project Sign and its successors, as being caused by a lighted weather balloon. Despite these explanations, the Gorman dogfight received national publicity and helped fan the flames of UFO reports in the late forties. While many UFO researchers disagreed with the Air Force’s conclusions, others agreed with the evidence presented by the government. Captain Ruppelt himself claims this an esteemed classic among UFO sightings, and more recently in 2019, the first episode of the History Channel television series, Project Blue Book, is loosely based on the Gorman dogfight.

While Project Sign’s official explanation seems plausible in some areas, it doesn’t address several important facts. This man was an experienced combat pilot and was therefore highly unlikely to mistake the distance and speed of a passively drifting target. It was also seen by multiple witnesses in multiple locations who all claimed it was a brilliant, unidentifiable light, not a weather balloon. This is probably either secret government aircraft or alien technology, but of course, we have no way of knowing. What do you think?