White Sands Missile Range Disc Observations 1949

On April 24, 1949, during a test of a Navy Skyhook balloon at White Sands Proving Ground, Navy Commander Robert McLaughlin and a team of tracking engineers using precision theodolites and tracking instruments observed a large metallic disc flying in a flat trajectory at extreme altitude. The tracking team, accustomed to precision measurement for missile and rocket testing, applied their instruments to the object and calculated its altitude at approximately 56 miles and its speed at 25,000 mph or higher — figures that would place it well above and faster than any known aircraft. The encounter was classified. However, McLaughlin subsequently wrote an account of the incident for TRUE magazine in 1950, representing one of the first public scientific measurement claims about UAP by a serving military officer. McLaughlin's article generated significant public interest and official discomfort. The White Sands observations in 1949-1950 produced multiple scientific measurement attempts and remain some of the earliest instrumented UAP observations in the American record.