Lockbourne AFB, Ohio: Amber object circles base at over 500 mph, appears to touch down

At 7:15 p.m. on January 7, 1948, air traffic controller and pilot Alex A. Boudreaux and VHF direction-finding operator and amateur astronomer Frank M. Eisele of the 103rd AACS Squadron at Lockbourne AFB in Lockbourne, Ohio, spotted a bright object southwest of the airfield that appeared and disappeared intermittently. Fighter pilot USAF Capt. Charles E. McGee saw it on the runway 23 approach at about 1,800 feet, first at about 3,000 feet some 4–5 miles to the southwest and later apparently on the ground 6–7 miles to the west. VHF DF operator and pilot Albert R. Pickering of Detachment 733 was awakened by a lighted amber-colored round or oval object about the size of a C-47 or larger dropping out of the overcast at 10,000 feet, while the control tower radioed a report at the same time. The object moved toward Commercial Point about 3–5 miles to the west-southwest, made three full 360° circles over one spot at 30–40 seconds per turn and more than 500 mph, leaving a luminous amber trail about five times its length, repeated the turns at another location and disappeared into the overcast for one minute before reappearing. Just before departing it hovered or 'appeared to touch down' on the grass extension past the end of the runway for 10 seconds, then left on a 120° heading into the overcast; the pilot of a C-45 at 5,000 feet also saw it at 7:53 p.m. The entry cites the NICAP case file, Brad Sparks's catalog of Blue Book unknowns and pages of the PURSUE document release. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.