South Dakota: Metallic disc holds position off RB-36H wing, detected by radar

Shortly after noon in fall or winter 1956, an Air Force Convair RB-36H of the 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing based at Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City, South Dakota, captained by Lt. C. Lenny Marquis, was flying over northern South Dakota at 423 mph when a crew member saw a metallic disc 100 feet in diameter approach from the left and take up a fixed position less than 300 feet off the left wing. Crew members photographed it through the portholes; the object had a low dome with three round openings or light sources, a nearly flat bottom, narrow sides with many differently colored lights and an otherwise “light golden” hue. After 5–8 minutes it accelerated, rose about 30° above the horizontal and sped out of sight within seconds as its peripheral lights brightened and turned greenish. Both inflight and ground radars detected the object. Substitute navigator Lt. Jimmie Lloyd said the crew turned in all photos, logs and equipment to an intelligence unit after landing. 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.