U.S. Air Force Analysis of Flying Objects in the United States, 1-100

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On Oct 8th or 9th, 1947 while witness was driving on the NW outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada, he observed what appeared to be a sky-writing pilot's trail. He stopped his car to observe it and noticed two things which troubled him. (1) Where the missile should have been at the head of the steadily appearing trail there was nothing visible or was too small to see (estimated to be a distance of about 5 miles or less) and (2) the speed appeared startling. It ought it was between 400 and 1,000 MPH but thought more precisely to be from 700 to 800 MPH - too fast for conventional aircraft. The trail he thought could have been smoke, vapor from intense speed or any unknown substance. The color was almost white - much like a cumulo-nimbus cloud and of approximately the same density and it was 15-50 minutes before the trail disintegrated.

The object took a radius of from 5 to 15 miles to complete a turn (he estimated closer to 10) in an attempt to judge its exact course over topographic features of the surrounding countryside. He stated that since the climate in this vicinity is extremely dry and it was almost a cloudless day that the speed would have to be exceedingly great to create such a trail.