About this blog – What you need to know about 1947
This all started after viewing a video on YouTube about the Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting. I researched that sighting and the connected 1947 UFO sightings. I already had significant knowledge of the military, World War 2, military airplanes, the CIA, X-Planes, and Project Orion. I had limited knowledge of the Manhattan Project and practically zero knowledge of US railroad infrastructure. This particular article is meant to give some context to the articles I’ll be writing as well as the level of technology in 1947, the interactions between the military, and several misconceptions about 1947. I hope this article also helps to create a picture in your mind that the 1947 United States is in a very complicated transition zone from reluctant WW2 powerhouse, to the first superpower country. All in the span of two years.
Kenneth Arnold sighting
The Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred at June 24, 1947 at 2:58 PM. He was flying near Mt. Rainier and carefully observed 9 disk-shaped objects. He thought they were a military object. He clocked their speed at 1700 mph, but arbitrarily decided it was 1200 mph. By all conventional mentions of this event, his sighting “started a wave of UFO sightings in 1947.”
Summer wave of 1947
Between June 1 and July 31, there were 850 different sightings of UFO’s, now called UAP’s. The vast majority of these sightings were chronicled by the newspapers of the day, meaning that when someone saw a UFO and the newspaper liked their story, they published an account of it. Most of these papers were local and because many of the sightings were near former or current Manhattan Project locations they were covered by small newspapers because most military Manhattan Project locations were in remote areas.
Having mentioned that, there was no shortage of articles about UFO sightings in the newspapers in that summer. Many sightings got UP and AP coverage across the US.
This blog uses the data collected from those 850 cases. I was able to find a 1947 dataset of the sightings, which detailed multiple different fields of data. I didn’t build the chronology of the cases or the data. That was already done. I did convert it to excel. I corrected (and continue to correct) spelling errors when found. I corrected street data when found to be wrong. I verified some information with the 1950 census data which became available this year.
Most importantly, I mapped the data.
While the data is available by scouring the internet, I will make it available here in the future.
What is unique about the summer of 1947 sightings is their frequency, honesty, and unmolested simplicity.
Kenneth Arnold, the person
As mentioned above, by all conventional standards, the Kenneth Arnold sighting started a wave of UFO sightings in 1947. That is not accurate. Kenneth Arnold was one of the most important witnesses within a set of UFO witnesses. While Arnold’s sighting is amazing, he didn’t bring the UFO’s, he doesn’t own the UFO’s, and he is not in charge of the UFO’s. Any significant sighting could have caused “the wave” to happen.
The reason why he is accredited with “starting the wave” is because of the chain reaction his sighting set off. The chain reaction occurred because Kenneth Arnold is an incredible observer. His career in 1947 deals with fire alarm installation. He flies across the Northwest for his job. He has over 9000 hours of flying. He has a durable plane made for flying in the Northwest.
His attention to detail, in my opinion, is on par with someone who must make sure that a fire alarm system is as reliable as it can be because people’s live could be in danger and lives could be lost if the system was faulty.
And because he has these skills, he fully used them during his UFO encounter and because of his details, we are still able to get a clear picture from what he saw.
Report on the UFO wave of 1947
However valuable the sighting chronology has been, the UFO wave report of 1967 by Ted Bloecher has proven to be far more valuable and inspirational.
In 1967, the Report on the UFO wave of 1947 was published. It is also available on the internet. I will make that report available here if I can.
The introduction of the book was by Dr. James E. McDonald, Senior Physicist, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, University of Arizona. His interviews, persistence and expertise were without equal.
The book details approximately 150 of the 850 cases. It groups the sightings as best that it can. It contains corrected information. In some cases the newspaper got simple details wrong like the spelling of a persons name, the sighting location, the amount of disks seen, the color of the disks, etc.
Most newspapers of the day loved running the story of a sighting, but also ran stories the ridiculed people who had seen the UFOs. In some cases ridicule came from anonymous sources. Some debunkers had ridiculous explanations. There were at least two sightings where the official explanation was given as both balloon and meteorite by different explainers.
If all 850 sightings were balloons or all 850 sightings were meteorites, then those facts create other large problems. If all sightings were balloons, then more than one balloon (Roswell’s Project Mogul balloon) should have been recovered. If all 850 sightings were meteorites then it was the greatest summer of all time for a continuous meteor shower. In truth, astronomers would still be studying the amazing and unprecedented meteors that changed direction, had silver shapes, sped up and slowed down, etc. The reality is astronomers have no record of such meteors. The reality is astronomers have no record of 1947 being any more meteorite heavy than any other given year.
The Manhattan Project
What you know about the Manhattan Project and what the Manhattan Project was are two different things.
The Manhattan Project was the secret United States effort to build a superbomb. I use that term specifically for simplicity.
The Manhattan Project was an all-out effort to create an atomic weapon. Most information that is taught about it (even on this blog) is superficial at best. .
The project, also referred to as the MED (Manhattan Engineer District), encompassed multiple states, both the Navy and the Army Air Force (what we now call the Air Force), five different Universities, and over 125 different companies.
In other words, what you might think of the Manhattan Project is a secret project like other secret projects, when the reality is the Manhattan Project was a secret mega project so big that it united colleges, companies and the military into one giant atomic supply chain.
Project Mogul
Project Mogul was a dismal failure of a secret project to launch a highly-sophisticated balloon into Russian airspace to detect atomic activity. It was, most likely, underfunded and undermanned. It used less than ideal materials, including toy tape. It is more appropriate to think of it as an unmanned hot-air balloon than what it was. It was a 700 foot, 3-radar altimeter balloon. It had four launches from Holloman Air Field (now called Holloman AFB) which is at the White Sands Proving Ground (which is also important). Two launches never got off the pad. One launch crashed near Holloman, and the other crashed near Roswell.
Below are three maps. The first is all sightings in the contiguous US. The second is Hawaii, and the third is Alaska.
National Security Act of 1947
The National Security Act of 1947 was a law enacting major restructuring of the United States government’s military and intelligence agencies following World War II. It was enacted on July 26, 1947. It officially took effect on September 18, 1947.
The Military in 1947
The Air Force has been fighting to be created as an equal force the same as the Army and Navy. The Air Force officially begins on September 18, 1947.
The Navy was fighting to remain a separate entity not under the control of a single Defense Department. The Navy is fighting to maintain control of the Marines.
During 1947, the United States adopts the structure that there will be one defense department and it will be in control of the three branches of the military, and they will be Army, Navy, and Air Force. The Marines will remain a part of the Navy as it still is today. See the National Security Act.
The United States government is looking to scale down all parts of the military, but scale up its atomic weapons because of the growing threat of Russia.
The US Navy has begun a project to create a nuclear submarine. It is only on paper at this time.
The Air Force is not only fighting for independence, but also for the right budget to perform the role it is being asked to do.
The Air Force is moving planes, personnel, switching bases, switching command structure, improving air fields, decommissioning air fields, decommissioning personnel, etc. All of this has been ongoing since 1946. June 1947 includes a fair amount of these items.
The CIA is founded on July 26, 1947. It was officially formed September 18, 1947 when the National Security Act is passed.
Millions of Americans want the US to strip away its military. Unfortunately, this is completely unrealistic for dozens of reasons, one of which is the USA is currently the only atomic country on the planet.
The President of the US, Harry S. Truman is losing popularity. A recession is about to hit the economy.
The United States also faces increasing hostility from Russia. Truman will confront this hostility.
US Atomic Weapons
The US has 9 atomic weapons. At this time no weapon is assembled. Weapons can’t be assembled until they are ready for use because of mechanical and electrical limitations.
Only 1 Air Force unit has the training and expertise to use the atomic weapons. That unit is the 509th. It is stationed at Roswell, New Mexico, 70 miles East of Alamogordo Air Force Base near White Sands Proving Ground.
Things that don’t exist in 1947
NORAD. It doesn’t exist yet.
DARPA.
Cell Phones.
Internet.
Deployed guided missiles.
ICBMs.
Planes that can fly faster than the speed of sound. A plane will fly faster than sound in 1947.
Rockets that can travel more than 200 miles.
Area 51. The Lockheed contracted CIA site does not exist.
UFO Research.
Operation Paperclip
Hundreds of rocket scientists, electronic experts and other German personnel gathered from Operation Paperclip are currently in the United States. The military currently has them at Fort Bliss near the White Sands Proving Ground and near El Paso, Texas.
These men will be instrumental in advancing our rocket engineering and our missile capability. Some will become famous within the aeronautical world. Paperclip is referred to in movies, tv shows, and other media.
The bombs dropped on Japan
On August 6, 1945, a uranium gun-type atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It has no plutonium in it. This particular style of weapon was never tested. This style of weapon has never been used again.
On August 9th, 1945, a plutonium-uranium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Although it was more powerful, there was less damage overall due to geography reasons. Plutonium bombs are far more devastating.
Trinity
On July 16, 1945, a plutonium-uranium bomb was tested in the new Mexico dessert outside of the Albuquerque area. It was a success.
The US has not developed any intercontinental ballistic missile. In fact, in June 1947, the US is testing captured V2 rockets in New Mexico, at the White Sands Proving Ground.
The most advanced jet of the United States is the P-80. Of the 80 we have 50 are located at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico.
The Russians do not have an atomic weapon yet. They have not detonated their first bomb. By June 1947, they have actively begun creating the infrastructure needed to create an atomic weapon. This weapon will be detonated in 1949. The setup to create this infrastructure was helped by Russian spies. During the creation of the USA’s first atomic weapon we have hired several scientists who had loyalties to Russia. They passed along our atomic findings to the Russian’s.
In 1947 the US is not sharing our atomic technology with the UK. Many UK scientists worked on the atomic bomb via the Manhattan Project, but after WW2 the US decided our country should have the atomic secrets, but as mentioned above, Russia had spies within the Manhattan Project.
The UK developed atomic weapons on their own, but not in 1947.
China does not have any jet, any atomic research or any comparable technology.
Russia, China and United States have not done any extensive disk (flying disk) research. The US Navy has done some research on one disk-shaped plane, a plane nicknamed “the Flying Pancake”. This was minimal research by the US Navy for a short-takeoff plane that resulted in one trial aircraft and one prototype that never lifted off the ground. The project was cancelled in 1945.
