The UFO sighting of Clarence Kelly Johnson , Father of Area 51 and the SR-71 Blackbird

Clarence Kelly Johnson was one of the world's leading aircraft designers , his work with Lockheed Martin saw the development of iconic aircraft such as the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird , he was one of the first team leaders at the Lockheed Skunk Works and at the request of the CIA initiated the building of Area 51 , he was undeniably of the greats of Aeronautical engineering and certainly not someone you could call a UFO nut.

On December 16, 1953 Kelly Johnson , his wife and one of Johnson's test flight crews saw an incredible flying object from different locations , Johnson and his wife were on the ground at home in Agoura, California while the test crew were flying a Lockhead WV2 over Long Beach California , because both sets of witnesses locations were known it allowed the UFO's location to be triangulated , the UFO was seen for about 7 minutes as it hovered over Santa Barbara Channel around Point Mugu.

Johnson wrote an official witness report of the incident in which he says ....

"For at least five years I have definitely believed in the possibility that flying saucers exist — this in spite of a good deal of kidding from my technical associates. Having seen this particular object on December 16th, I am now more firmly convinced than ever that such devices exist, and I have some highly technical converts in this belief as of that date."

"When it did not move or disintegrate, I asked my wife to get me our 8X binoculars, so I would not have to take my eyes off the object, which by now I recognized as a so called 'saucer.'"

"I gathered its' speed was very high because of the rate of foreshadowing of its' major axis. The object, even in the glasses, appeared black and distinct, but I could make out no detail, as I was looking toward the setting sun, which was, of course, below the horizon line,"

Johnson is able to get a good look and the object is about 20 miles away. For an object that size to completely vanish, I estimate it has to travel at least 50 miles further away in the 90 seconds. I think that is conservative when you figure that the airborne witnesses see the object from not quite 50 miles away at first and with unaided vision. With the binoculars, Johnson should be able to see the UFO well beyond 70 miles away. But 50 miles in 90 seconds is 2000 mph.
Whether the UFO was smaller and much closer to the witnesses than they thought or it was bigger and further away, the UFO had to be traveling at beyond 2000 MPH to follow a path, get smaller and finally leave the witnesses' sight. They all state this. The bigger it was, the faster it must have been traveling.
ufopartisan.blogspot.co.uk...

Johnson's report from the Blue Book files

People will no doubt say that what Kelly Johnson saw was an experimental aircraft of some kind and I would usually agree but with this witness being at the forefront of experimental aircraft at that time that explanation is almost as difficult to believe as the official explanation of a lenticular Cloud.

Not saying it's Aliens but .....

a reply to: gortex

Oh yeah, I remember getting irked with Phage a few years back. He said 'lenticular cloud' and I was saying Kelly had considered that first and ruled it out. Iirc we agreed to disagree...

Kelly wouldn't have necessarily known about every experimental aircraft under development. Still, nothing has since come to light that would fit the description and that he wouldn't have known about.

It's *unknown* in my opinion

Never heard of this sighting previously, so thanks for revisiting it.

If this guy was at the forefront of aeronautical research and he claims that he couldn't identify it, speaks volumes.

Unless of course, and I'm only playing Devil's advocate here, he knew exactly what it was, but shared his sighting as a cover?

a reply to: Kandinsky

It's *unknown* in my opinion

I'll second that , the quality of the witness makes the sighting all the more interesting for me and it's from the Golden Age of strange stuff in the sky so who knows , maybe , just maybe.
There's still a small ember of hope flickering in my heart that at least one of these old cases was caused by something from out there.

Love that sighting.
People will be around shortly to tell you how
bad an eyewitness Kelly Johnson was.
He couldn't possibly tell an advanced craft
from a hole in the clouds.

a reply to: gortex

Kelly Johnson, a household name amongst all aviation experts to the novice researcher of aviation history, declaring he "recognized a saucer" is news to me and quite the revelation. As mentioned, this was the man at the forefront of experimental aircraft in the US and to declare he misidentified an experimental aircraft he likely was program manager of is beyond "grasping at straws". I have no idea what Mr. Johnson witnessed, but I think it's fair to say he saw something he couldn't reconcile with his knowledge of manned-aircraft. And this was the man behind AREA 51 (where according to urban legend is a housing depot for recovered alien technology) and his exasperation as to what he witnessed says, to me, far more about the anamolous phenomena than any other account I have come across. Thanks for posting as I find it incredible.

I guess, we'll wait for Phage to discredit the esteemed Johnson's account to lenticular clouds, as in an attempt to remind us that UFOs aren't 'real', and even an armchair expert can point out the errors in Mr. Johnson's misidentification propensity. A legend of experimental aircraft is usurped by an armchair expert - who wasn't there or privy to any of Johnson's conversations - because he could somehow design and engineer the best aircraft man has knowledge of, but wasn't intelligent enough to recognize a lenticular cloud, but instead made the age old of error of misindentifying natural weather phenomenon with a 'saucer'. Glad y'all agreed to disagree, but that's just below someone like Phage to assert without anything to 'prove' his conclusion.

Again, thanks for posting

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

Why report it? I don't see the benefit as a cover story

a reply to: Falcon37

Maybe he thought other people had witnessed it, so he claimed he'd sighted an U.F.O.

As I said, I was playing "Devil's advocate", just throwing it out there.

It's an interesting encounter though, for sure.

a reply to: gortex

Here's the report from the Blue Book files. It'll help if people can read it for themselves.



Project Blue Book archive

a reply to: gortex

I have not heard of this one before either. But, there are many from that time frame, (1950's), as well as late 1940's as we all know that coincided with our military weapons testing and more specifically, nuclear missile testing. Good find.

a reply to: gortex

It is probable that Kelly spent the rest of his career trying to achieve in design, what he saw in the air on that occasion. Certainly, the aircraft of today are beginning to resemble the object he reported.

originally posted by: UnderKingsPeak
Love that sighting.
People will be around shortly to tell you how
bad an eyewitness Kelly Johnson was.
He couldn't possibly tell an advanced craft
from a hole in the clouds.

Then again, just because he was a Blackbird pilot, that doesn't mean he necessarily would be "in the know" about all secret advanced aircraft. It's possible that it was an advanced secret military aircraft that was more advanced than he had ever seen or considered.

...or an alien craft, or some other explanation.

a reply to: Box of Rain

He wasn't a Blackbird pilot he designed it , and other sekret machines () like it.
en.wikipedia.org...(engineer)

I think he had more knowledge of what was ours than most.

a reply to: gortex

As I've reported on ATS before Ben Rich, Johnson's successor to running the Skunk Works reported more than once in his book "Skunk Works" that as they were testing the SR-21 prototypes with high speed runs into the country they would call NORAD and let them know that the incoming blips were ours and not a UFO "fast walker."


It is fascinating how some people and a slew of aircraft enthusiasts on ATS never want to consider the term "UFO" in a serious vein. Assuming that they are intelligent, open-minded individuals, what would make them deny the obvious given the decades of sightings such as Johnson's, and thousands and thousands of others? What is the government's role in strong denials coming from what is supposedly the public sector? One must always ponder this blanket denial from all quarters and what purpose does it serve other than keep an important truth hidden from the public?

Other governments know that the UFOs are alien craft and that there is the very obvious fact that the US has the triangles, our mysterious craft with UFO-like capabilities. So everybody that can read and think knows that we have cracked that hard nut of motion beyond aerodynamics, so let's get on with integrating those devices into our world right along with understanding the bitter pill that we have overlords beyond our national capitols. Or maybe that last point is the real point in the over half a century of denying the obvious?

(I and many other abductees have a stake in this game that most of you can't even contemplate except to deride and also deny our experiences.)

a reply to: Aliensun

Jacques Vallee's claims have always piqued my interest and created a lot of cognitive dissonance too.

He's written about his early work in a French observatory where he says he saw the director destroying evidence of incoming objects. This would be the late 1950s and it's covered in an old Flying Saucer Review issue (iirc) and in the first volume of his diaries.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: Box of Rain

He wasn't a Blackbird pilot he designed it , and other sekret machines (

) like it.
en.wikipedia.org...(engineer)

I think he had more knowledge of what was ours than most.

Thanks for the correction.

But still, just like flying wing and Jack Northrop, Northrop was not let in on the existence of the B-2 until after its initial development.

a reply to: gortex

Great sighting! After reading his self written biography- More Than My Share Of It All, I am of the opinion that he knew just about everything flight worthy that was planned or in experimental stages from not only Lockheed, but everyone else. He was a scrapper, and if he had his way, the P-38 would've had a 50MM cannon and "free range" to pick off Germans during the war. Certainly ahead of his time, and a lenticular cloud is a stretch of a conclusion at best.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: Kandinsky

It's *unknown* in my opinion

I'll second that , the quality of the witness makes the sighting all the more interesting for me and it's from the Golden Age of strange stuff in the sky so who knows , maybe , just maybe.
There's still a small ember of hope flickering in my heart that at least one of these old cases was caused by something from out there.

REALLY yet we had so many supposed educated professionals that couldn't understand why no stars show in the Apollo Moon surface pictures.

Peoples ideas of distance and estimated speed always give me a how do they work it out they don't have an exact size or distance for the objects so claims like that are pure BS.

Never heard of this thanks for posting, like reading accounts like these that are buried deep. From the report it almost sounds like it hovered until he saw it then whoever was in the craft said you helped build that but look what we got and off it went! Slap in the face so to speak lol..

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: gortex

As I've reported on ATS before Ben Rich, Johnson's successor to running the Skunk Works reported more than once in his book "Skunk Works" that as they were testing the SR-21 prototypes with high speed runs into the country they would call NORAD and let them know that the incoming blips were ours and not a UFO "fast walker."


It is fascinating how some people and a slew of aircraft enthusiasts on ATS never want to consider the term "UFO" in a serious vein. Assuming that they are intelligent, open-minded individuals, what would make them deny the obvious given the decades of sightings such as Johnson's, and thousands and thousands of others? What is the government's role in strong denials coming from what is supposedly the public sector? One must always ponder this blanket denial from all quarters and what purpose does it serve other than keep an important truth hidden from the public?

Other governments know that the UFOs are alien craft and that there is the very obvious fact that the US has the triangles, our mysterious craft with UFO-like capabilities. So everybody that can read and think knows that we have cracked that hard nut of motion beyond aerodynamics, so let's get on with integrating those devices into our world right along with understanding the bitter pill that we have overlords beyond our national capitols. Or maybe that last point is the real point in the over half a century of denying the obvious?

(I and many other abductees have a stake in this game that most of you can't even contemplate except to deride and also deny our experiences.)
Wow, I feel you.