Radar echoes without visual contact at Cognac air base (1957)

Summary

On 17 December 1957, four military personnel at the Cognac air base recorded two anomalous radar echoes. The first appeared at 15:01 — an object detected at 40 km that vanished at 16 km after 30 seconds of tracking, implying a speed of roughly 2,880 km/h. At 15:45 a second echo appeared at 37 km and was lost at 25 km in 15 seconds, yielding the same estimated speed. Neither echo was accompanied by a visual sighting. The witnesses filed a report with sketches. GEIPAN classified the case as C due to the lack of visual confirmation.