UFOs and World War II: How a German Foo Fighter Might Have Functioned
Rudolf Lusar’s 1959 book German Secret Weapons of World War II claims that Luftwaffe engineers developed small, pilotless aircraft late in the war. Lusar identified one of these as the Kugelblitz (Ball lightning) and another as the Feuerball (Fireball). He may have been on to something: a November 7, 1944, Associated Press story about “New Aerial Weapons” said, “The Germans are using jet and rocket propelled planes and various other ‘newfangled’ gadgets against Allied night fighters. . . .” According to Lusar, the advanced German aircraft were more than idle experiments: they carried klystron tubes (vacuum tubes that contain an electronic gun) that emitted electrostatic discharges designed to foul Allied aircraft’s vital electronic-control systems.
As the English translation of Kugelblitz might suggest, the electrical phenomenon known as ball lightning is another possible explanation for foo fighters. Ball lightning (sometimes referred to as ghost lights) is a rare form of lightning manifested as a bright, luminous sphere. It is probably composed of ionized gas, but the precise conditions that create it are unknown. Speculation of causation encompasses microwave radiation, nuclear energy, oxidizing aerosols, slowly burning particles of silicon left by a lightning strike—even exotica the likes of dark matter, antimatter, and black holes.
Ball lighting that manifested itself as green “fireballs” regularly visited the American Southwest during 1948–51. Some of the sightings were close to U.S. military bases. A theory propounded in 2012 by Australian scientist John Lowke (representing a research team) holds that ball lightning occurs when air molecules are excited by an accumulation of streaming ions on the outside of a glass window. The “ball” can even appear to pass through the glass. When encountered by aircraft, ball lightning often “rides” on wingtips or appears near the ship’s nose. Occasionally, though, the phenomenon can be violent. Social historian Lee Krystek found just such a case for his online Museum of Unusual History, describing a literal explosion of light and electricity inside a cockpit of a USAF KC-135 Stratotanker flying near thunderheads above New Jersey in 2007.
The pilot, copilot, and Krystek’s witness, an Air Force Reserve master sergeant, looked on in alarm as a basketball-sized “globe” that rotated out of nowhere roiled above the plane’s instrument panel. The witness described the sphere as yellow with blue and pink accents. After a few minutes, the thing “slithered” onto the deck and made its way to the aft portion of the ship, where it dissipated.
The entire event lasted seven or eight seconds.