Arlington, Virginia Cobb sighting
7 July 1947 · Arlington, Virginia
Summary
Lt. Col. James O. Cobb, Air Corps, wrote a memorandum dated 25 July 1947 for the Counter Intelligence Branch of the Air Staff. He said he was preparing for bed at about 2230 or 2300 EDT on or about 7 July 1947 at his home on North Glebe Road, Arlington, Virginia. He wrote that he was sitting on the bed facing the windows when a light appeared at the right-hand edge of the end window and moved off to the south.
Cobb wrote that he first thought of it as a passing light and later reflected that it did not look like any meteor he had seen. He said he joked in the office the next morning that he had seen a flying saucer. He gave an assumed distance of three quarters of a mile, an elevation of 3 or 4 degrees, an altitude considerably below 500 feet and a size of about 30 feet. He wrote that he heard no sound.
He recalled the light as visible for a couple of seconds. Taken literally, that gave a speed of 1350 mph, but he wrote that it seemed to move at the speed of a jet. He described a cool white light with no visible trail. He cited Bolling Field weather records of scattered to broken clouds and 10 to 12 miles visibility. He felt it was some natural phenomenon which occurs but rarely. He ruled out a weather balloon, a beacon flash on the cloud base and a burning airplane, and said it was not entirely imagination.
The Air Force check-list compilations list the report as Incident # 80, with one object, a distance of 3/4 mile and 2-3 seconds in sight. They give the size as a small plane, the shape as a "blob", the exhaust trails as none and the manner of disappearance as behind trees. The remarks sheet repeats the 1350 mph estimate and the reflected white light wording. A second copy of the check-list gives the same entries. The copies differ in the time range and in the house number on North Glebe Road. The documents give no official conclusion for this incident.
Where the files disagree
Two documents give different accounts of the same detail. Both are quoted as written; we don't say which is right.
Address of the observation
“I was living at 2607 North Glebe Road, Arlington, Virginia, with my wife.” page 65 →
“7. Place of observation Arlington, Va. - 2507 N. Glebe Road.” page 171 →
What the files say
“Observed from a bedroom window as a blob of light crossing at very high speed estimated by observer at approx 1350 MPH.”
Page 172 →“a light appeared at the right-hand edge of the extreme end window and moved rapidly along to disappear below the trees or horizon, or to be extinguished in some fashion at some place in a general southerly direction.”
Page 66 →“In color, the subject had the appearance of a reflected white light, a cool, bright white light with no red in it, like the moon on a clear night.”
Page 68 →“It did not deviate from a straight course while I observed it, and did not perceptibly lose altitude.”
Page 68 →“(a) it was no weather balloon, (b) it was not the flash of a beacon on the cloud-base, (c) it could hardly have been an airplane on fire, since it would have at least crashed in this general area, (d) it was not entirely a result of imagination, and (e) it was not spending much time in one place.”
Page 68 →
Also discussed in
Explanations in the record
What the documents themselves say the event was, as recorded. Not our assessment.
- Cobb said his first explanation was a meteor falling toward the earth, but that it did not look like any meteor or shooting star he had seen. He later thought it was a natural phenomenon that occurs rarely. — FBI file on 1947 flying saucer wave, Arnold sighting, page 67
- Cobb noted that a firefly at 30 feet, an airplane at about 3/4 mile and a meteor at several hundred miles can look alike in size, altitude and speed, and that most people know this illusion. — FBI file on 1947 flying saucer wave, Arnold sighting, page 67
- Cobb said the cloud conditions meant a meteor might not have been visible, and he excluded a weather balloon, a beacon flash on the cloud base and an airplane on fire. — FBI file on 1947 flying saucer wave, Arnold sighting, page 68