In the late 1930s and into the mid-1940s, the Boeing 314 flying boat was the queen of the skies as far as commercial overseas passenger service was concerned. These planes, flying for Pan-American Airways, offered luxurious accomodations to the wealthy traveler who wished to cross the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans in style and comfort. There was no faster way to go at the time.

With the outbreak of World War Two, these liners of the air were pressed into service for the duration, ferrying such luminaries as Sir Winston Churchill on their missions around the world. By the end of the war, however, the era of the flying boat was over. New land based types, developed during the war years, superceded them. Big four engine, long range transports, from such as Lockheed, Douglas, and of course Boeing themselves, were capable of trans-continental flight at speeds the flying boats could never compete with.

Recently, while watching a historical documentary on the development of the great flying boats of the past, on Speedvision, I noticed an anomalous object following one of the early model Boeing 314s as it flew over the ocean. This was extremely rare COLOR footage of the plane, and it would necessarily have been filmed in 1938 or 1939, before the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939. We can narrow this time frame down, because after the beginning of war, these "Yankee Clippers" as they were called, were repainted with a giant American flag on the nose. This was to denote them as Neutrals in the European war zone, and hopefully prevent them from coming under attack.

Here we have a photo from that early WWII period when the Clippers had the "Stars & Stripes" painted on each side of the nose to show their Neutral status in the war zone. Please note the large flag circled.

The picture was almost certainly taken at Treasure Island Seaplane Terminal between late 1939 and late 1941.

The time frame for this film clip makes it absolutely the EARLIEST U.F.O. video I've ever come across! This incident even predates the famous Foo Fighters reported by all sides in the Second World War! It was very lucky I was watching carefully. The clip used in the documentary only lasts THREE SECONDS!

The anomalous object was very bright, and appears to be trailing the big plane, skimming above the clouds as it flew along. Let's have a look now, at a couple still frames from this most amazing event, before going to the animated GIF.