The Gorman dogfight was a widely publicized UFO incident which took place on 1 October 1948, in the skies over Fargo, North Dakota, United States.
[2] Although he was only 25 years old when the incident occurred, George F. Gorman was a veteran fighter pilot of World War II.
Gorman noticed a small Piper Cub plane flying some 500 feet below him; otherwise the skies appeared clear.
At 9:07 PM Gorman contacted the control tower at Hector Airport and asked if it had any air traffic in the area other than his P-51 and the Piper Cub.
I am further convinced that the object was governed by the laws of inertia because its acceleration was rapid but not immediate and although it was able to turn fairly tight at considerable speed, it still followed a natural curve.
I am in fairly good physical condition and I do not believe that there are many if any pilots who could withstand the turn and speed effected by the object, and remain conscious.
[7]Within a few hours, military officers from Project Sign – the United States Air Force's (USAF) study of UFO phenomena – arrived to interview Gorman, Cannon, his passenger, and the control tower personnel at Hector Airport.
[7] USAF investigators also ruled out the possibility of the lighted object being "another aircraft, Canadian Vampire jet fighters, or a weather balloon.
"[7] Their initial conclusion, writes UFO historian Curtis Peebles, was "that something remarkable had occurred" to Gorman in the skies above Fargo.
[8] A plane flying high in the Earth's atmosphere is less shielded from radiation than one at ground level, thus the Geiger readings were considered invalid evidence for stating that the lighted object was atomic-powered.
[8] The Gorman dogfight received wide national publicity and helped fuel the wave of UFO reports in the late forties.