Gorman Dogfight

When a North Dakota Air National Guard pilot had an aerial cat-and-dog fight with a UFO

Name	Gorman Dogfight
Occurred on	October 1, 1948
Seen by	George F. Gorman
Investigated by	Project Sign

Stories of flying saucers are mostly met with skepticism. People discredit these encounters by reducing them to misidentifications or hallucinations, but on October 1, 1948, a story came out that couldn’t be easily shrugged off.

There is no conceivable astronomical explanation for this much-examined and much-discussed incident. Analyses by a psychologist and a neurological expert would be of importance here.

After its initial investigation, Project Sign concluded that “something remarkable” occurred that night. The Gorman Dogfight was among the three major UFO events that year, alongside the Mantell UFO incident and the Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter, that, to Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, proved to the Air Force Intelligence that UFOs existed.

However, Project Blue Book would later retract this conclusion, and the case was shelved as a weather-balloon incident. To this day, people still debate about the probabilities. After the balloon theory was debunked, many still wonder what was seen during the Gorman Dogfight.

What Is the Gorman Dogfight?

There is stigma surrounding aviation professionals who claim to experience something unusual while on duty. However, Air National Guard pilot Lieutenant George F. Gorman seemed to have disregarded this after reporting his mysterious encounter directly to Air Force Intelligence.

I’ve never seen anything like it. If anyone else had reported such a thing, I would have thought they were crazy.

The encounter in question was an alleged 27-minute chase between Gorman’s plane, a P-51 Mustang, and a curious white orb at high altitude.

Lieutenant George Gorman was 25 years old at that time. Despite his youth, he was already a skilled WWII veteran pilot, and was generally characterized as level-headed. There’s no questioning Gorman’s credibility—it was mostly about what he truly chased after that night.

What Happened on October 1, 1948?

The National Guard pilots were just coming back from a cross-country flight and were about to land at Fargo’s Hector Airport, but Gorman stayed out to get more flight time.

At 9 PM, after circling a football stadium, he radioed Fargo that he was ready to land. The Hector International Airport (HIA) tower advised him to keep watch for a Piper Cub in the vicinity, which he saw 500 ft below him. However, aside from this plane, something else caught his eye: a dimly lit object slowly circling over the city.

It was about six to eight inches in diameter, clear white, and completely without fuzz at the edges. It was blinking on and off.

Gorman radioed the tower again for intel on whether any other craft was in the area, but the HIA couldn’t detect anything on their radar. Whatever it was, it was only visible to the human eye. The tower command also observed the object; it just couldn’t be detected by their device.

Gorman decided to investigate the craft, flying closer to it to identify what it was, but as he approached it, the object’s light suddenly intensified. It fled, its speed increasing—from its initial 250 mph to 600 mph—and the chase began.

• Gorman pursued it but failed to catch up despite reaching 400 mph, P-51’s max speed.
• When it distanced itself, the object swiftly made a 180° turn and flew straight at him.
• Before it could hit him, Gorman dived, and the object passed over him at 500 ft.
• It turned sharply once more and headed back to him, but before it could hit Gorman, it shot straight up before disappearing.
• Gorman tried to intercept, but his plane stalled at about 14,000 ft.

The entire encounter lasted for 27 minutes before Gorman pulled back from the pursuit and landed his plane at Fargo.

Were There Other Witnesses That Saw the Mysterious Light?

George Gorman’s P-51 wasn’t the only plane in the vicinity when the mysterious orb appeared. In fact, Dr. A. E. Cannon, the Piper Cub’s pilot, with his passenger, Einar Neilson, reportedly saw the light first at 4 PM. It was allegedly moving west above their plane at about 250–270 mph.

Aside from Dr. Cannon’s initial sighting, he also saw it again after the Piper Cub landed, alongside two air traffic controllers manning the Hector Airport tower.

• Lloyd D. Jensen
• H. E. Johnson

Dr. A. E. Cannon’s Statement

While circling the football field at NDAC at 1,600 feet, Fargo tower advised us that there was an F-51 in the air, and a few moments later asked us who the third plane might be.

He and Nielson, his passenger, noticed the light above them heading west. At first, they initially thought it was the P-51, but they later recognized another plane as Gorman’s. When they landed, they rushed to the tower and listened to Gorman’s calls. Dr. Cannon claimed the object moved very quickly, that he couldn’t follow its movement even with a pair of binoculars.

Lloyd D. Jensen’s Statement

I didn’t see much of it, but I wouldn’t call it a “flying saucer” from the descriptions I’ve read of flying saucers. At first, we thought it was the tail-light of an aircraft, until, in a single quick burst of speed, it walked away from the Mustang.

Jensen was one of the air traffic controllers that night. When Gorman called about the mysterious object aside from the Piper Cub in the vicinity, he peeked out the tower’s south window. He saw the mysterious light approximately 1,000 ft from the tower. Taking a pair of binoculars, he observed it passing over the field but was unable to distinguish its form.

H. E. Johnson’s Statement

The object seemed to be at about 2,000 ft and appeared to be traveling at quite an excessive speed compared to a Piper Cub that was east of the field. No definitive outline could be identified.

Johnson accompanied Jensen on the shift that night. Much like the latter, when Gorman called to ask intel about a mysterious object in the vicinity, Johnson also went to peek out of the tower’s south window and saw the object with the Piper Cub. He recalled observing the unknown craft to be slightly higher than the Piper Cub and heading north.

Their Statements’ Consistency

All three witnesses described the mysterious orb similarly to how Gorman described it. The object appeared as a perfectly round light, with no fuzzy edges or rays emanating from its body. The witnesses also heard no sound from the encounter and saw no exhaust streaks in the sky during the chase.

How Was the Gorman Dogfight Investigated?

The U.S. Air Force’s Project Sign, established to collect and evaluate information about UFO sightings, took charge of the Gorman Dogfight investigations.

Project Sign’s Investigations

It first mobilized a team on October 3, 1948, a day after the incident made headlines in a local newspaper. The U.S. Air Force Command sent two representatives to interrogate the witnesses.

• Laurence H. Truettner, Aeronautical Engineer
• Paul Kubala, Major USAF, AFI Investigator

This cross-examination revealed that the newspaper reports were correct—all witnesses did observe one object and described it as a “small round ball of clear white light with no physical form or shape.” These representatives also confirmed that the witnesses had already discredited the possibilities of this mysterious object being:

• Another military aircraft
• A meteorological balloon
• The Canadian “Vampire” jets

On October 23, 1948, Project Sign’s team went back to Fargo. Capt. Robert R. Sneider conducted a Geiger counter check on the F-51 Mustang. It revealed unusually heightened radioactivity, but this was later explained as a natural side effect of high-altitude flight.

While on the field, Capt. Sneider also managed to speak briefly with Gorman. He was impressed with the pilot’s “sincerity, reliability, and trustworthiness.” In this conversation, Gorman reiterated three definite certainties about the mysterious object:

• Its maneuvers indicated intelligent control.
• It seemed bound by the laws of inertia.
• Its flying characteristics exceeded the F-51’s capabilities.

By April 27, 1949, Project Sign released its first report on the Gorman Dogfight, labeling the case “unidentified.” It also released its assessments of the witnesses, indicating that, to a certain degree, it believed their statements were factual.

George F. Gorman	2nd Lt. Gorman did not make the impression of being a dreamer … He appears to be a sincere and serious individual who was considerably puzzled by his experiences and made no attempt to blow his story up.
L. D. Jensen	Mr. Jensen is exactly what his name implies—typical, quiet, steady, Scandinavian type of individual. He seems very reliable, deliberate, and calculated in his observation.
H. E. Johnson	Mr. Johnson is approximately the same type as Mr. Jensen, stoical, quiet, Scandinavian type, not easily impressed.
Dr. A. E. Cannon	“Highly alert, quick-witted, and very capable,” but he was said to have been “not impressed by the incident.”3

The Possible Explanations of What the Gorman Dogfight Was

As with every other UFO encounter, the Gorman Dogfight also generated considerable theories from researchers and other professionals. The two primary theories were:

Cold War Testing

One theory speculated that what Gorman saw was a top-secret test craft. The Gorman Dogfight occurred at a time when tensions were still high.

It was believed that the Soviets were testing the R-1 rocket, which others believed was the mysterious object involved in the incident. However, Dr. Travis Taylor, an aerospace engineer, debunked this theory, saying that the R-1 didn’t have the range to fly over to Fargo.

It was a dumb rocket. All the rockets at the same time were projectiles. They used aerodynamics mostly to guide them. They could do slow maneuvers, but if they did a fast maneuver, they’d start tumbling apart.

Weather Balloon

Another theory was suggested by Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the head of the Air Force’s Project Blue Book. He hypothesized that Gorman was merely chasing a lighted weather balloon, explaining that whenever he overtook it, he created an illusion of a head-on pass.

The Air Weather Service supported this by claiming that a balloon had indeed been released 10 minutes before the Gorman Dogfight and published its alleged flight path.

George Gorman also almost believed the balloon caused the incident, and he was merely confused by the dark. However, this changed after Project Sign interviewed George Sanderson, who tracked the weather balloon using a theodolite and showed the team his records.

It revealed that the time, altitude, and wind direction didn’t fit the incident—the balloon was flying in the opposite direction.

This theory was further debunked when it was later revealed that the weather balloon was, in fact, a black rubber one, 2 ft in diameter. This would’ve made it impossible to be observed at night. It was also revealed that the balloon was 2 to 3 miles higher than the P-51.

Gorman’s Adamance on Intelligent Control

Even after these theories were released, George Gorman remained steadfast in his belief that the mysterious object was intelligently controlled.

When asked, he stated that he had this hunch based on the questions the Project Sign’s teams had asked him. He added that if he was right, he “might be talking about an official secret.”

Gorman was keen on believing there was thought behind the craft’s movement. He claimed that it couldn’t have been a radar-responder gadget, and when asked to elaborate, he answered:

It reacted differently at different times. If it had been a mechanical control, it would have turned or climbed the same way each time. Instead, it was as if some intelligent mind was directing every turn like a game of chess and always one move ahead of me.

What Is the Significance of the Gorman Dogfight in Modern Ufology?

For many, the Gorman Dogfight story remains one of the earliest, unrefuted UFO encounters. In fact, it might have been so compelling that George Gorman was allegedly threatened with a court-martial if he continued publicly speaking about it.

Still, the incident ranks among the most convincing UFO sightings, with credible witnesses to corroborate it. Given how well-documented it had been, and with Project Sign’s initial inability to explain or debunk it, the Gorman Dogfight deserves a considerable amount of probability.

Was it an extraterrestrial or a top-secret military aircraft? There’s now no possible way to conclude. But if there’s one thing to be taken into account, it’s that this mysterious object was controlled by something or someone extraordinary.

In the words of George Gorman:

When I attempted to turn with the object, I blacked out temporarily due toexcessive speed. I am in fairly good physical condition, and I do not believe that many, if any, pilots could withstand the turn and speed induced by the object and remain conscious.

If you’re interested in reading more UFO sightings investigated by the U.S. Air Force’s Project Sign, browse our selection of cases today.

FAQ

Did the object in the Gorman Dogfight appear hostile?

The mysterious object wasn’t hostile. It didn’t fire any weapons or collide with Gorman’s aircraft. Its close approaches and rapid maneuvers led Gorman to describe the event as a dogfight.

What happened to Gorman after the incident?

It was said that Gorman appeared shaken after the incident, to the point that he had trouble landing his P-51, but he wasn’t physically harmed.

What was the U.S. Air Force’s official explanation?

The Air Force later concluded that Gorman most likely encountered a lighted weather balloon and misidentified it due to altitude and lighting conditions.

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