At 12:25 EST, while flying on a photographic mapping mission in a B-17, Major Leo Brubaker USAF, observed and photographed an object below the plane for 45 seconds. The aircraft was flying at an altitude of 18,500 feet at 220 knots. The speed of the object was estimated at 440 knots. The object traveled a distance of six miles over the ground at a speed twice that of the aircraft. The photos were taken with a F11 mapping camera.

Mike Swords:

The date is May 24, 1954 and the location is [over] Richmond [IN]. The primary witness is a Major L. N. Brubaker, who was flying a B-17 [not a RB-whatever as usually listed--and the case isn't "Dayton" as often listed], which was specially fitted out for aerial survey---at least this is what a combo of the extensive Blue Book records say, plus McDonald's files. Brubaker et al see an intense large "light" fly under their plane at twice their speed. Because he's out to take pictures, he doesn't freeze and shoots some film. Wright-Pat has some trouble with this one and allegedly gets a whole team of scientists [unnamed] on this and explains it away as a very rare case of ice-crystal reflection a la sundogs. Ruppelt reports the case somewhat inaccurately [it was after he'd left] and confusion reigns. McDonald gets the scent and here's what he says in a letter to his Navy Research buddy, Jim Hughes: "Concurrently I have been searching for and finally found the Air Force officer who took the photo aboard the B-17 in May 1954. He is a retired Lt. Colonel now working in the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington. He had his own set of prints; he loaned them to me; and sent three pages of transcribed notes on the incident. I regret to say that between the analysis of the sun-angles and the rather clear-cut description of the high angular velocity of the luminous entity as it sped into the B-17, I cannot agree with the Air Force explanation in terms of the sundog that has been on the record for 14 years. The print that we are trying to get from Project Blue Book is one that shows the duty card to double-check the time. However, Lt. Colonel Brubaker, who took the photo, sent me a verbatim transcript of his notes and it checks the information I already have. That time will not support the sundog hypothesis, it turns out. Thus we may have in this photo one that is above reproach with respect to credentials and yet has no obvious explanation in the area of meteorological optics."  Thus Mac feels that he has a winner here, and I'll trust him on this. Plus, this cleans up a lot of inaccuracy about this one and [with the extensive BB record] creates an unusual photo that we might not have to be ashamed of.

For reports, documentation, analysis or discussions - see below:
images/540524richmond_photo.pdf 
reports/540524richmond_McD (Mike Swords) 
docs/MAXW-PBB20-834-855.pdf (Dan Wilson)
docs/MAXW-PBB20-856-878.pdf (Dan Wilson)

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