Today in UFO History

July 7, 1947 – Phoenix, Arizona, USA:

The Rhodes UFO photographs

The Rhodes UFO photographs are among the most famous and controversial images from the 1947 flying saucer wave. On July 7, 1947, amateur astronomer and inventor William Albert Rhodes photographed an unusual object flying over Phoenix, Arizona. Just two days later, the images were published in The Arizona Republic, making them some of the earliest widely circulated UFO photographs.

The object appeared dark and metallic, with a distinctive shoe-heel or boomerang-like shape rather than the classic flying disc. Rhodes captured only two photographs before it disappeared.

The photographs quickly attracted the attention of the U.S. military, which collected the images and interviewed Rhodes. The case became part of the Air Force's early UFO investigations and was later known internally as Incident 40. Some investigators noted similarities between the object's shape and descriptions reported independently by Kenneth Arnold.

Skeptics have suggested the photos could depict a tossed object, a small model, or another photographic illusion. Others argue the images show a genuinely unidentified aerial object. Although the Air Force eventually classified the case as a probable hoax, it never demonstrated exactly how the photographs were supposedly created.

Because they were taken during the height of the 1947 UFO wave, published almost immediately, and investigated by the military, the Rhodes photographs remain one of the most debated and historically significant UFO photo cases.