It’s night of October 1st 1948
and 25 year old WW2 veteran George F Gorman
is at the controls of his P-51 Mustang.
It's a beautiful, clear, cloudless night.
Perfect conditions for night flying, and Gorman has decided to get in a few extra hours.
It’s 9pm and as he soars over a school football field,
down below he can make out the players running around.
At around 500 feet or 150 meters below him is another plane.
Gorman can clearly make out it’s a Piper cub.
Looking around, the skies are clear…
But then, out to the west, he notices… an object.
Gorman was an experienced pilot and knew how to identify aircraft.
But with this one, he struggled.
The object was lit and was flashing, but he couldn’t make out any fuselage or control surfaces.
Gorman decided to radio traffic control… Just to check what this strange traffic was.
Control responded that there were only 2 aircraft in the area. The Piper and Gorman’s P-51.
Gorman told control that there was something else in the sky and described the glowing aircraft.
Air traffic control then contacted the pilot of the Cub, Doctor A.D. Cannon.
Cannon responded affirmative, they too can see the strange object glowing out to the West.
Gorman radio’d the tower once more: he was going in pursuit.
Taking his mustang to full power the speed increased rapidly.
Now flying at 400 mph (a shade under 650 km/h)
Gorman tried with a classic dogfight manouver to get behind the UFO.
But it was no use. In straight line speed the UFO kept just out of distance.
It seemed to be lit from the inside.
The light would blink until the object sped up, when the blinking would stop but the object would burn very brightly.
But Gorman wasn’t done yet.
As the object turned, he maneuvered the plane to cut the corner, making just a bit more distance each time.
Then finally making a sharp right turn while at 5000 feet altitude, he approached the object head on.
With very fast closing speed, there was almost a collision but the UFO flew just above his canopy.
Gorman described the strange aircraft as being very small, maybe 6 to 8 inches in diameter (around 20cm).
At this point Gorman lost sight of the glowing ball.
Putting his plane into a turn he managed to get sight once more.
Now the object had done a u turn and was racing towards the P-51.
Once again closing at rapid speed Gorman was amazed to see the ball of light suddenly go into a hard vertical climb.
Gorman put the P51 into a climb pushing to get higher and higher.
At 14000 feet the mustang stalled.
The glowing ball still 2000ft above him.
Recovering from the stall he managed to push his plane even higher.
Doctor Cannon and his passenger landed their cub at Hector airport.
Running into the control tower, Dr Cannon and 2 air traffic controllers - LD Jensen and H E Johnson
watched the incredible dog fight through binoculars play out over the airfield.
Johnson said the UFO was round light, perfectly formed, with no fuzzy edges or rays leaving its body,
“traveling at a high rate of speed” and was “fast enough to increase the spacing between itself and Gorman’s fighter.”
The object now went into a steep dive.
Seeing the Orb below him Gorman pushed the mustangs nose down to intercept.
Gorman later said “I am convinced that there was definite thought behind its maneuvers".
"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.
When I attempted to turn with the object I blacked out temporarily due to excessive speed.
I am in fairly good physical condition and I do not believe that there are many
if any pilots who could withstand the turn and speed effected by the object, and remain conscious.
The object was not only able to out turn and out speed my aircraft...
but was able to attain a far steeper climb
and was able to maintain a constant rate of climb far in excess of my aircraft”.
The plane in a deep dive now started to gain on the UFO but just as he got close…
the glowing ball went into a vertical climb…
Gorman tried to chase but it was no use
and the strange aircraft slipped beyond the sight of Gorman and the other observers.
The USAF investigated and checking the P-51 with a Geiger counter,
they found that it was radioactive…
More so than other fighters and concluded that maybe it had been close to a nuclear powered aircraft...
Although they later said that it was a “weather balloon” and even the planet Jupiter…
Even though Jupiter was below the southwestern horizon and, at the time Gorman broke off pursuit,
he was chasing the target in a vertical ascent up to 14,500 feet.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Gorman told a local newspaper following the October 1, 1948 event.
“If anyone else had reported such a thing I would have thought they were crazy.”
Gorman was largely silent on the events of that day
eventually retiring at the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1969.
He never spoke publicly about the encounter again although apparently he did tell friends,
he was never convinced that he had been dueling with a lighted balloon for 27 minutes.
Gorman passed away in 1982.
We hope you like our new channel.
For more Yarn Hub Mistery please like and subscribe. Thank you!