Two American commercial pilots reported that their Douglas DC-3 had nearly collided with a strange torpedo shaped object flying near them. It was an important UFO sighting for several reasons: it was perhaps the first that occurred at close distance (allegedly within a few hundred feet); and it was reported by two very experienced pilots, Clarence Chiles and John Whitted. Both pilots had been decorated for their service as airmen during World War II, and both were regarded as valuable, respectable employees of Eastern Airlines.

Cape Canaveral, a name that would become synonymous with the U.S. space program by the late 1950s, was just an obscure spit of land jutting into the Atlantic Ocean along FloridaÕs eastern shore when, in 1948, an Air Force committee recommended its procurement for a missile testing range.