RAF Topcliffe disc — Exercise Mainbrace

During NATO's Exercise Mainbrace, RAF aircrew at Topcliffe watched a silver, disc-shaped object following a Meteor jet as it came down to land at nearby Dishforth. The object descended, swinging "like a pendulum", hovered and rotated. It then shot away westward at high speed. The report made front pages and was raised in Parliament years later.

What was seen

Shape: Silver disc, rotating
Witnesses: Flt Lt John Kilburn and RAF aircrew on the ground
Duration: About 20 seconds of hovering

Sources

• The National Archives (UK) — MoD UFO files
• Wikipedia — UFO sightings in the United Kingdom

Browse

• United Kingdom
• 1950s
• Unresolved
• Military encounters
• Official government documents
• Many independent witnesses
• Military witnesses
• Discs and saucers

Similar cases

• Farnborough test pilot’s disc — the Flying Saucer Working Party 14 August 1950
• Milton Torres — ordered to fire on a UFO 20 May 1957
• Cosford incident 30 March 1993
• Little Rissington Meteor encounter 21 October 1952