Lubbock Lights
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The Lubbock Lights were an unusual formation of lights seen over the city of
Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...
in August and September 1951. The Lubbock Lights incident received national publicity in the United States as a
UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
sighting, and was investigated by the
U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
. According to Ruppelt, ''Officially all of the sightings, except the UFO that was picked up on radar, are unknowns.''


The sightings

Edward J. Ruppelt wrote that the first sighting was reported by three professors from Texas Technological College (now
Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...
), located in Lubbock on August 25, 1951, at around 9 pm. According to Ruppelt, they were sitting in the backyard of one of the professor's homes when they observed a total of 20-30 lights, as bright as stars but larger in size, flying overhead. Ruppelt wrote that the professors immediately ruled out meteors as a possible cause for the sightings, and as they discussed their sighting a second, similar, group of lights flew overhead. Ruppelt said the names of three professors were A.G. Oberg, chemical engineer; W.L. Ducker, a department head and petroleum engineer; and W.I. Robinson, a geologist who reported their sighting to the local newspaper, the ''
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' is a newspaper based in Lubbock, Texas, United States. It is owned by Gannett. History ''The Lubbock Avalanche'' was founded in 1900 by John James Dillard and Thad Tubbs. According to Dillard, the name "Avalanche" ...
''. According to UFO author
Jerome Clark Jerome Clark (born November 27, 1946)"Jerome Clark". ''Contemporary Authors Online''. June 12, 2002. Retrieved on April 11, 2012. is an American writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other paranormal subjects. He has appeared ...
, three women in Lubbock reported that they had observed "peculiar flashing lights" in the sky on the same night as the professors' sightings, as well as Carl Hemminger, a professor of German at Texas Tech. Clark writes that on September 5, 1951, all three men, along with E. Richard Heineman, a mathematics professor, and one other professor from Texas Tech, were sitting in Robinson's front yard when the lights flew overhead. According to one of the professors named Grayson Mead, the lights "appeared to be about the size of a dinner plate and they were greenish-blue, slightly fluorescent in color. They were smaller than the full moon at the horizon. There were about a dozen to fifteen of these lights... they were absolutely circular... it gave all of us... an extremely eerie feeling." Mead said that the lights could not have been birds, but he also stated that they "went over so fast... that we wished we could have had a better look." Clark wrote that the professors observed one formation of lights flying above a thin cloud at about which he says allowed them to calculate that the lights were traveling at over .


The Hart photographs

On the evening of August 30, 1951, Carl Hart, Jr., a freshman at Texas Tech, observed a group of 18-20 white lights in a "v" formation flying overhead. Hart took a 35-mm Kodak camera and walked to the backyard of his parents’ home to see if the lights would return. Two more lights passed overhead, and Hart captured five photos before they disappeared. After having the photos developed Hart took them to the offices of the ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' where the newspaper's editor, Jay Harris, told Hart that the photos would be purchased for $10 and published in the paper, but that he would "run him (Hart) out of town" if the photos were fake. The photographs were soon reprinted in newspapers around the nation and in ''Life'' magazine. The physics laboratory at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...
in Ohio analyzed the Hart photographs. After an extensive analysis and investigation of the photos,
Edward J. Ruppelt Edward James Ruppelt (July 17, 1923 – September 15, 1960) was a United States Air Force officer probably best known for his involvement in Project Blue Book, a formal governmental study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). He is generally ...
, the supervisor of the Air Force's
Project Blue Book Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, O ...
, released a written statement to the press that "the
art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
photos were never proven to be a hoax, but neither were they proven to be genuine." The Texas Tech professors claimed that the photos did not represent what they had observed, because their objects had flown in a "u", rather than a "v", formation.


Air Force investigation and potential explanations

In late September 1951, Ruppelt learned about the Lubbock Lights and investigated them as part of
Project Blue Book Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, O ...
. Ruppelt traveled to Lubbock and interviewed the professors, Carl Hart, and others who claimed to have witnessed the lights. Ruppelt's conclusion at the time was that the professors had seen a type of bird called a
plover Plovers ( , ) are a widely distributed group of wading birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae. Description There are about 66 species in the subfamily, most of them called "plover" or "dotterel". The closely related lapwing subfa ...
. The city of Lubbock had installed new vapor street lights in 1951, and Ruppelt believed migrating plovers were reflecting the new street lights. Witnesses who supported this assertion included T.E. Snider, a local farmer who on August 31, 1951, had observed birds flying over a drive-in movie theater; the birds' undersides were reflected in the light. Another pair of witnesses, Joe Bryant and his wife, on August 25 observed groups of lights flying overhead. When a third group of lights passed overhead they began to circle the Bryants' home, and were identified by sight and sound as plovers. J. Allen Hynek, an
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
and one of Project Blue Book's scientific consultants, later contacted one of the professors and learned that the professor claimed the lights were plovers. J.C. Cross, the head of Texas Tech's biology department, and a game warden interviewed by Ruppelt both claimed the sightings could not have been birds. Mead, who had observed the lights, also disputed the plover explanation: "these objects were too large for any bird...I have had enough experience hunting and I don't know of any bird that could go this fast we would not be able to hear...to have gone as fast as this, to be birds, they would have to have been exceedingly low to disappear quite so quickly." William Hams, chief photographer for the ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'', took several nighttime photos of birds flying over Lubbock's street lights and could not duplicate Hart's photos. Regarding the lights, Ruppelt later wrote:


The flying wing

While investigating the Lubbock Lights, Ruppelt also learned that several people in and around Lubbock claimed to have seen a "
flying wing A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blis ...
" moving over the city. Among the witnesses was the wife of Ducker, who reported that in August 1951 she had observed a "huge, soundless flying wing" pass over her house. Ruppelt knew that the US Air Force did possess a "flying wing" jet bomber, and he felt that at least some of the sightings had been caused by the bomber, although he could not explain why, according to the witnesses, the wing made no sound as it flew overhead.


Publicity and media

In April 1952 ''Life'' magazine published an article about the UFO phenomenon that featured the Lubbock Lights. Ruppelt devoted a chapter of his 1956 book to the incident. In November 1999, Dallas, Texas-based television station
KDFW KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNet ...
aired a news story about the Lubbock Lights. Reporter Richard Ray interviewed Carl Hart, Jr. about taking the famous photos and being investigated by the U.S. Air Force. The Lubbock Lights were featured in the 2002
Sci Fi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Launc ...
miniseries '' Taken'', in which one alien poses as a human in the Lubbock area. In 2005, a film called ''Lubbock Lights'' was released about the music scene in Lubbock which describes some theories about the lights by the musicians from the area. In 2006, Lubbock-based
alternative country Alternative country, or alternative country rock (sometimes alt-country, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative), is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that differ significantly in style ...
band Thrift Store Cowboys wrote and recorded a song titled "Lubbock Lights" on their third album, ''Lay Low While Crawling or Creeping.'' The third episode of the 2019
History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
television series ''
Project Blue Book Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, O ...
'' is titled "The Lubbock Lights", and is based on the Lubbock Lights incident.


See also

*
Marfa lights The Marfa lights, also known as the Marfa ghost lights, have been observed near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, Texas, Marfa, Texas, in the United States. They have gained some fame as onlookers have attributed them to paranormal ...
*
List of UFO sightings This is a partial list by date of sightings of alleged unidentified flying objects (UFOs), including reports of close encounters and alien abductions. Second millennium BCE Classical antiquity 8th century 16th–17th centuries 19th c ...


References


Sources

*Clark, Jerome. "''The Lubbock Lights''", from ''The UFO Book''. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1998. pp. 342–350. *Ruppelt, Edward J. ''
The Report On Unidentified Flying Objects ''The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects'' is a 1956 book by then-retired Air Force UFO investigator Edward J. Ruppelt, detailing his experience running Project Bluebook. The book was noted for its suggestion that a few UFO sightings might be l ...
''. New York: Doubleday, 1956. pp. 96–110.


External links


Fortean Times Gallery




{{UFOs UFO sightings in the United States
Lights Light is an electromagnetic radiation, part of which stimulates the sense of vision. Light or Lights may also refer to: Illumination * Light bulb * Traffic light Arts and entertainment Music * Lights (musician) (born 1987), Canadian singer-son ...
1951 in Texas