Muroc Army Air Field discs
On 8 July 1947, at the secret Muroc test base (now Edwards AFB), several officers, technicians and test pilots separately reported silvery disc- or sphere-shaped objects over Rogers Dry Lake.
1947 CE · 34.91, -117.88 · status: unexplained
The account
The sightings came the same day as the Roswell press release. Army Air Forces intelligence collected witness statements, and Project Blue Book later listed the Muroc reports among its unknowns. Accounts differ on the number and shape of the objects.
The sceptical view
Balloon launches and aircraft were frequent at Muroc; descriptions vary between witnesses, and some may have seen a weather or research balloon.
The researched reading
Trained observers at a secret test base during the 1947 saucer wave. Balloons and test projects account for much of it; a residue was not explained, but the descriptions are inconsistent.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | Muroc was a busy test base; the morning sighting coincided with launches of weather and research balloons, and silvery balloons with reflective payloads, at unknown distance, look like discs. Some witnesses described spheres, others discs, which suggests different objects. |
| Secret human technology | 20% | In July 1947 secret balloon projects such as Mogul and many classified aircraft tests were under way; personnel without clearance would not recognise them. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 15% | The sightings came at the height of the July 1947 saucer wave, a day after Roswell’s press release; people on watch for discs find them. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 13% | Several trained observers at different points reported silent, fast discs, and the Air Force did not formally explain all of them. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 5% | Sunlit cloud or ice crystals may explain a part, but the descriptions are of solid objects. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 3% | No natural phenomenon is strongly indicated. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 2% | Officers and test pilots reported through channels. |
| Undetermined | 2% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
Official position: The reports were sent to Army Air Forces intelligence and appear in the early Air Force files; some were attributed to balloons, others left unidentified.