Fort Myers, Florida, December 6, 1950: a 75-foot silver disc with four jets hovered for seven minutes.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
1950: Fort Myers, Florida
A 75-Foot Silver Disc With Four Jets Over the North Side
About five o’clock on the afternoon of December 6, 1950, Harry Lamp, who had bought airplanes for the government during World War II, and four boys, one of them his son, watched a silver disc hang over the north side of Fort Myers, Florida. Through 10-power binoculars he judged it 75 feet across and 14 feet thick at the middle, with a bubble on top, a revolving center ring edged in orange, a red rim and four jets, two white and two orange.
It hovered about seven minutes at roughly 3,000 feet before flying off to the northwest faster than any airplane he knew. A Tampa newspaper carried the story the next day, the Army’s Third Army G-2 sent the clipping to Air Force intelligence on December 11, and Project Blue Book filed a card that reads Unidentified. This Fort Myers, Florida UFO sighting has a detailed description and a named, relevant witness.
Date: December 6, 1950
Sighting Time: About 5:00 p.m.
Day/Night: Day
Location: North side of Fort Myers, Florida
Urban or Rural: Urban
No. of Entity’s: Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: No occupants could be seen in what appeared to be a bubble on top
Hynek Classification: Daylight Disc (DD)
Duration: About 7 minutes
No. of Object(s): One
Description of the Object(s): A silver disc with a bubble on top, a revolving center section extending to within four feet of the edge, an orange boundary around the moving part, a red rim and four jets along the edge, two white and two orange
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Disc; 75 feet across, 14 feet thick at the middle tapering to 3 feet at the edge; silver with orange, red and white
Distance to Object(s): Not given; seen through 10-power binoculars
Height & Speed: About 3,000 feet; hovered, then departed northwest at a speed greater than known aircraft
Number of Witnesses: Five: one adult and four boys
Special Features/Characteristics: Revolving center section; four jets on the rim; no occupants visible; reported as having welded seams
Case Status: Unidentified on the Blue Book card; the file contains only the newspaper account.
Source: Tampa newspaper, “‘Saucer’ Reported Over Ft. Myers,” December 7, 1950; Hq Third Army (G-2) letter of December 11, 1950; Hq Fourteenth Air Force first indorsement of December 14, 1950; Project Blue Book record card; Berliner
Summary/Description: A former aircraft purchasing agent and four boys watched a 75-foot silver disc with four jets hover over Fort Myers for seven minutes on December 6, 1950.
Related Cases: Same day: the radar alert, Westover/West Springfield and Del Rio, in the December 1950 archive.
Detailed Report
The only primary account is a newspaper clipping. The Tampa paper’s Fort Myers dispatch of December 7 said a 75-foot silver flying saucer with welded seams and four jets hovered over the north side “yesterday for seven minutes” according to Harry Lamp, a U.S. airplane purchasing agent during World War II. Lamp said he and four boys, one his son, spotted the craft about 5 p.m. at 3,000 feet and that he inspected it through 10-power binoculars.
He described it as 14 feet thick at the middle and three feet thick at the edges, with a revolving center extending to within four feet of the edge. The boundary of the moving part was orange and the rim red. On the edge were four jets, two white and two orange. He could detect no occupants in what appeared to be a bubble on top. The disc hovered for a time and then disappeared to the northwest at a speed “faster than any airplane.”
Hq Third Army’s G-2 office at Fort McPherson, Georgia, sent the clipping to the 14th Air Force on December 11, 1950, under the heading “Unconventional Aircraft,” and the 14th Air Force forwarded it to Air Materiel Command on December 14 under the September 8, 1950 USAF letter on reporting unconventional aircraft. Project Blue Book’s card gives the time as 1700, the size as 75 feet (14 feet thick tapering to 3), the color as silver, orange, red and white, the speed as greater than known aircraft, the altitude as 3,000 feet and the observation time as 7 minutes, with a course of northwest and the maneuver “hovered then NW flight.” The handwritten evaluation reads Unidentified, below a struck-out earlier note.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
A Detailed Description Without an Investigation
- Classification issues: A daylight disc seen through binoculars by five people, with detailed features but no investigation, no sketch and no instrument data. It is classified from the newspaper account alone.
- Source chain assessment: The account is a single newspaper article quoting one adult; the Army forwarded it as a clipping, so there is no interview in the file. The boys’ statements are not recorded.
- Correction to earlier listings: Some listings gave the object as 3 to 4 feet thick. The card and the clipping say 14 feet thick at the middle, tapering to 3 feet at the edge.
- The detail problem: Seams, jets of different colors and a bubble are very specific for an object at 3,000 feet; at that range through 10-power binoculars those details would be at the limit of resolution. The account is preserved as the witness gave it.
- The witness: Harry Lamp’s background as a wartime aircraft purchasing agent gave him some basis to judge aircraft size and design, which is why the Army forwarded the clipping, though it also gives no confirmation of the account.
- Why it is in the archive: The Blue Book card marks it Unidentified, and it is one of the most detailed daylight disc descriptions of December 1950.
The Fort Myers disc is a single-source, newspaper-only account with an unusually detailed description and an Unidentified card. It is preserved with its limits stated: no investigation was made and no second witness statement survives.
“A 75-foot silver flying saucer with welded seams and four jets hovered over the north side here yesterday for seven minutes.”
— Tampa newspaper, “‘Saucer’ Reported Over Ft. Myers,” December 7, 1950
