User:Feoffer/sandbox North American Aviation UFO incident

Downey, California in Los Angeles county

Incident

Since the start of the Cold War in June 1947, reports of unidentified skyborne objects had triggered fears the reports might represent new Soviet technology. At 3:48 p.m on May 29, 1951, three technical writers at North American Aviation's plant in Downey, California reported witnessing about 30 glowing objects execute a right-angle turn. The three, Victor Black, Werner Eichler and Ed J. Sullivan, estimated the objects were 30 feet wide and moving at 1,700 miles-per-hour.

Aftermath and legacy

Sullivan went on to create the UFO group Civilian Saucer Intelligence and served as its president; Eichler became a member. On April 7, 1952, the incident was covered in Life magazine, then the most widely-read magazine in the nation.

In the October 1952 edition of The American Mercury, Victor Black reported that his sighting was made up as a joke and argued that his fellow witnesses were seeking to profit off the hoax by creating their UFO group. The other two men denied that it was a hoax.The following year, the outlet did a follow-up on the story.

Writing in 2010, UFO buff and author James Mosley recalled his interest in the case and his interviews of the witnesses.