ACUFO:

ACUFO is my comprehensive catalog of cases of encounters between aircraft and UFOs, whether they are “explained” or “unexplained”.

The ACUFO catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file.

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Tampa, Florida, USA, on July 15, 1944:

Case number:

ACUFO-1944-07-15-TAMPA-1

Summary:

Peter Davenport, a U.S. ufologist, set up the “National UFO reporting Center” so that anyone can report a UFO sighting via the Web.

One report was collected on June 14, 2001, and the reporter told that in July of 1944, with his brother, he saw a craft that they thought was a secret flying machine “of the Army Air Corps.” They were watching P-38s fighter planes dogfighting over the area of Lowery Park, North Tampa, when suddenly appeared over the P-38s a very large black object that looked like a big piece of pipe. The P-38s quit dogfighting and quickly returned to base. The black object made several maneuvers and flew of very quickly. The sighting duration was noted as “3 or 4 minutes.”

The reporter told that it would be years before he would realize that he had seen something very unusual which was without any doubt a UFO.

Peter Davenport noted that the reporting person submitted several other reports to his National UFO reporting Center.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	July 15, 1944
Time:	?
Duration:	3 to 4 minutes.
First known report date:	June 14, 2001
Reporting delay:	6 decades.

Geographical data:

Country:	USA
State/Department:	Florida
City or place:	Tampa

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	2
Number of known witnesses:	1
Number of named witnesses:	0

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	Web report to NUFORC.
Visibility conditions:	?
UFO observed:	Yes.
UFO arrival observed:	Yes.
UFO departure observed:	Yes.
UFO action:	Maneuvers above dogfighting planes.
Witnesses action:	Planes go away.
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	Puzzled.
Witnesses interpretation:	Secret aircraft, later UFO.

Classifications:

Sensors:	[X] Visual: 2 [N/A] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages:
Hynek:	?
Armed / unarmed:	?
Reliability 1-3:	1
Strangeness 1-3:	3
ACUFO:	Possible invention.

Sources:

[Ref. nuc1:] NATIONAL UFO REPORTING CENTER:

NUFORC Sighting Report

Occurred: 1944-07-15 13:00:00 Local
Location: North Tampa, FL, USA
Shape: Cylinder
Duration: 3 or 4 minutes
No of observers: 0
Reported: 2001-06-14 00:00:00 Pacific
Posted: 2001-08-05 00:00:00
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

A black cylindrical object appears over P-38s dog fighting

In July of 1944 my brother and I saw a craft that we thought was a secret flying machine of the Army Air Corps. We were watching P-38s dog fighting over the area of Lowery Park which is in North Tampa, when suddenly appeared over the P-38s, a very large black object that looked like a big piece of pipe. The P-38s quit dog fighting and quickly returned to base. The black object made several maneuvers and flew of very quickly. It would be years before I would realize that I had seen something very unusual and no doubt a UFO.

NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. One of several reports submitted by same source. PD

Aircraft information:

Lockheed P-38 Lightnings had actually been in operation with the U.S. Army Air Forces since 1941.

The P-38 (photo below) was a twin-engine, twin-boom plane, with a central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament, developed as a long-range interceptor and used during the World War II as fighter, night fighter, long-range bomber escort, ground attack plane, and aerial photography plane.

Discussion:

The problem is obviously that anyone can report anything on the Web, that there was no investigation, and that the “witness” of this report is said to have reported a few other reports.

Furthermore, the American air force in 1944 was no longer called “Army Air Corps”, but “U.S. Army Air Forces”, and this since June 20, 1941.

Evaluation:

Possible invention.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

[nuc1] * Web report to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), USA, posted August 5, 2001, at https://nuforc.org/sighting/?id=18041

File history:

Authoring:

Main author:	Patrick Gross
Contributors:	None
Reviewers:	None
Editor:	Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version:	Create/changed by:	Date:	Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	November 19, 2023	Creation, [nuc1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	November 19, 2023	First published.

This page was last updated on November 19, 2023.