UFO History: The RB-47 encounter of 1957

The late 50s saw the United States and Soviet Union locked in an ideological and economic struggle that, at any moment, could have led to nuclear war. Because of this, both sides began to operate fleets of aircraft designed to eavesdrop on communication and electronic signals. One of these types was the RB-47, which was a modified version of the B-47 jet bomber (the smaller, sleeker, predescessor of the B-52).
On July 17, 1957, an RB-47 under the command of Major Lewis Chase took off from an air base in Kansas and headed towards the Gulf of Mexico for manuevers. After these were completed, one of the ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) officers on board detected a strange, airborne signal. Following it with his instruments, he noticed that it rose, turned, and crisscrossed the path of the RB-47 with amazing speed. Finally, it appeared to take up a pursuit course in regards to the big jet.
Beginning a manuever, the pilot, Chase, and his co-pilot (who, because they were flying a RB-47, sat in a cockpit that resembled a fighter jet's) suddenly spotted a bright blue object that was, now, coming alongside them. Thinking quickly, Frank McClure, the ELINT officer who had first detected the strange signal, was able to correlate the unidentified light with the aformention signal.
The RB-47 then turned back on a course towards home, however, the object, which no ground controllers could identify, kept following it. What followed was a classic 'chase': Major Chase put the big, fast (cruising at 550mph) jet into a series of zigzagging turns, intended to shake off the UFO, while crossing over the state of Texas. Still, the thing seemed to keep closing on the Stratojet. This pursuit continued for awhile, with the object appearing to dissapear at times. Also, on occasion, a second UFO would appear on the 'scopes' behind the jet.
Finally, nearing the state of Oklahoma, Chase turned the RB-47 and began pursuing the UFO. As the jet neared the strange light, it suddenly dropped down to 15,000 feet and 'blinked out' from everyone's scopes. Turning back around, the crew, moments later, found that the UFO was back on their tail.
A cat and mouse game continued for awhile until, concerned about his fuel, Major Chase turned the big jet back towards home. Over all, the UFO had kept pace with the RB-47 for over 800 miles!

Now, besides the endurance of this incident, and the apparent fact that the UFO was responding to the RB-47's manuevers, this incident stands out as a classic UFO sighting because the whole thing was recorded on the RB-47's electronic records.

This was, also, an acceptable UFO incident for USAF commanders, for awhile. An illustration of it appeared on an USAF Academy booklet, in fact.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed hearing about this... and I also hope you have some comments.

Jim

[Edited on 5-7-2003 by onlyinmydreams]

[Edited on 5-7-2003 by onlyinmydreams]