Dept. of DefenseUnresolvedAmbiguous
Egg-shaped object with heat-wave radiation, 10 autos stalled — Alamogordo, New Mexico, November 1957
~Nov 1957White Sands/Alamogordo area, New Mexico (desert highway) (approx.)
⟳ Deeper read pending. This record is from the FBI 62-HQ-83894 flying-disc file, whose cursive, clippings and faint scans are under-read by automated OCR. It is flagged for a vision-transcription pass and likely undercounts what the source contains — see the documents collection note.
Analysis — our summary
In November 1957, James Stokes, an engineer at the Air Force Missile Development Center at Holloman AFB, reported that approximately 10 automobiles stalled on a desert highway near White Sands/Alamogordo, New Mexico. Stokes observed a brilliant, colored, egg-shaped object that produced a heat-wave radiation effect perceptible to those on the highway. The observation is significant given the witness's technical background and proximity to a sensitive military installation.
As reported — verbatim from the document
“James Stokes (AF missile development center engineer) reported 10 autos stalled on desert highway; saw 'brilliant colored egg-shaped object' with heat wave radiation.”
Analyst notes — caveats & confidence
Witness has technical-military background at a missile development center. Multiple vehicle stalls corroborated by other motorists. Location is theater centroid; exact highway and coordinates not specified. Confidence moderate; source is FBI summary document.
Provenance
Source document65_HS1-101634279_100-DE-26505.pdf
Document typeincident report
Reporting agencyDept. of Defense
Source pages15
Redaction markers in doc1
DeclassifiedFirst public at this release (2026)
Held classified~69 years (≥, to this release)
Extraction confidence ModerateHow cleanly this record could be parsed from the source — driven by legibility & redaction. It is not a measure of how credible or anomalous the sighting is.