THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT

1950: Phoenix, Arizona Ovoid UFO, Seven Witnesses at Sunset

At about six on the evening of March 10, 1950, with the sun going down over the Arizona desert, seven people in a moving car near Phoenix looked up at the sky to the south-southeast and saw something very high and very large. It was an elongated, aluminum-colored oval, about 200 feet long and 30 feet wide in NICAP’s account and up to 300 feet in another, tapering toward its tail, at an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 feet. It stayed in view for about ten minutes. When it left, according to Loren Gross’s account, it went straight up in four or five seconds, trailing a red streak of fire about 100 feet long with no condensation trail behind it.

The Phoenix, Arizona ovoid sighting is a one-vehicle, one-evening report that survives in Project Blue Book’s microfilm and in two UFO histories, and it is easy to overstate. The seven people were one carload, not seven independent observers. Their altitude and size figures are estimates with no stated basis, and the file I could consult gives no Blue Book conclusion. What remains is a specific, consistent description from a single vantage point at about the hour when objects 40,000 feet up are still lit by the sun and the ground is not.

Date: March 10, 1950

Sighting Time: About 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. MST (around sunset)

Day/Night: Dusk

Location: Phoenix area, Arizona, USA; the witnesses were in a moving car and the object was to the south-southeast

Urban or Rural: Suburban (seen from a car)

No. of Entity’s: Not Applicable

Entity Type: Not Applicable

Entity Description: Not Applicable

Hynek Classification: DD (Daylight Disc; sunset sighting)

Duration: About 10 minutes in view; the departure took 4 to 5 seconds (per Gross)

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): An elongated, oval or ovoid, aluminum-colored object tapering toward the rear; it hung in the sky for several minutes and then departed straight upward trailing a red fire streak about 100 feet long with no condensation trail (the departure details are as Gross relates them)

Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Ovoid, tapering to narrow proportions at the rear; about 200 feet long by 30 feet wide (NICAP’s summary) and 200 to 300 feet (Gross); aluminum or metallic in color

Distance to Object(s): Not reported; at the estimated altitude and a south-southeast bearing it was several miles away

Height & Speed: An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 feet (the basis of the estimate is not stated); stationary or nearly so for several minutes, then straight up and out of sight in 4 to 5 seconds (Gross); bearing about 160 degrees

Number of Witnesses: 7 (one carload, seen from a moving car)

Special Features/Characteristics: Seven witnesses in one vehicle; very high altitude estimate; elongated shape; red fire streak without a condensation trail; sighting near sunset; Blue Book microfilm record (Roll 91)

Case Status: Unexplained. NICAP lists the case from Blue Book microfilm; I could not confirm a Blue Book conclusion.

Source: NICAP 1950 UFO Chronology (Brad Sparks; Project Blue Book microfilm Roll 91, pp. 338-340 and 467-468); Loren E. Gross, UFOs: A History, 1950: January-March, Author, Fremont, 1983 (index entries for Phoenix, p. 44)

Summary/Description: At about 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. on March 10, 1950, seven people in a moving car near Phoenix, Arizona watched an elongated aluminum-colored oval about 200 to 300 feet long and 30 feet wide, at an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 feet, for about ten minutes. According to Gross it then left straight up in 4 to 5 seconds trailing a 100-foot red fire streak and no condensation trail.

Detailed Report

The Sighting

According to NICAP’s chronology, which draws on Project Blue Book microfilm, seven witnesses riding in a moving car near Phoenix, Arizona at about 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. on March 10, 1950, saw an object about 200 feet by 30 feet at an azimuth of about 160 degrees, to the south-southeast, at an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 feet. They watched it for about ten minutes. The object was described as oval, aluminum-colored and tapering to narrow proportions toward the rear.

The Departure

In Loren Gross’s account, the object hung nearly motionless for several minutes and then went straight up, trailing a streak of red fire about 100 feet long with no condensation trail, and was out of sight in four to five seconds. Estimates of the object’s size in that account ranged from 200 to 300 feet.

What the Numbers Mean

A 200-foot object at 40,000 feet would span about 0.3 degrees of sky, roughly three-fifths the apparent width of the Moon, and a 300-foot object about 0.4 degrees. The reports give no angular size, no elevation angle and no method for the altitude estimate, so the figures describe a very distant, very high object and not a measured one. An observer in a moving car, watching for ten minutes, could not have fixed the altitude by triangulation.

The Hour

The time, about sunset, matters. At that hour the ground is in twilight while objects at 40,000 feet and above are still in direct sunlight, which is when high balloons, contrails and rocket or meteor trails stand out most vividly. The reports do not say what the witnesses thought they saw, only that it did not look like any aircraft they knew. Five weeks earlier, at dusk on February 1, a smoke-trailing object had crossed the sky over Davis-Monthan AFB and Tucson, and White Sands said it had been testing nothing that day.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

A Carload, a Sunset and an Estimate of 40,000 Feet

One Carload, Not Seven Independent Witnesses: The seven people shared a vehicle and a vantage point, so their agreement shows the description was consistent within the group, not that seven separate observers confirmed it.
Size and Altitude Are Estimates: Both figures come from observers without instruments. The 200-by-30 and 200-to-300 foot sizes and the 40,000 to 50,000 foot altitude are mutually dependent: if the altitude is wrong, the size is wrong.
A Fire Streak With No Contrail: Gross relays a red flame-like trail without a condensation trail. That combination is notable for an object at that altitude, but the sources do not say how it was described by the witnesses or whether the red color could be sunset light on a vapor or debris trail.
The Documentation: The Blue Book microfilm pages (Roll 91, pp. 338-340, 467-468) are cited by NICAP, but I could not see them or any Blue Book conclusion, and the Gross volume’s text for the case was not available to me.
An Arizona Pattern: The February 1 Tucson object also appeared at dusk with a trail, which makes the sunset hour worth noting without connecting the two cases.
What Is Not Reported: No weather, no airplane or balloon check, no names of the witnesses, no photographs, and no description of how the object disappeared beyond the departure Gross reports.

The Phoenix ovoid is a short, specific sunset report by one carload of people, preserved in Blue Book microfilm and Gross’s history. It is filed here as Unexplained, because nothing I found explains it, with the plain caution that its size and altitude are unmeasured estimates and that its witnesses were not independent of one another.