Aston Clinton area, Buckinghamshire, England
Incident period: 9 February 1962, early morning
A car-delivery driver travelling from Luton towards Swansea described a silent white object above a Buckinghamshire road and a sudden loss of engine power. Flying Saucer Review printed his own letter, a sketch and an investigation made the following day, preserving useful details often blurred in shorter versions of the story.
The delivery journey
Ronald Wildman was delivering a new Vauxhall estate car in the early hours of 9 February 1962. His account says he had left home at about three in the morning, driven through Dunstable and reached the approach from Ivinghoe towards Aston Clinton. The magazine called the case the Ivinghoe flying saucer, although the written description places the experience at the Aston Clinton end of that journey.
The driver was familiar with cars through his work and was described by the investigators as a skilled mechanic. That makes his description of the vehicle’s behaviour an important part of the case. He was not simply reporting a distant light glimpsed while continuing an otherwise ordinary drive.
The story entered print quickly. The March–April 1962 Flying Saucer Review published his first-person letter and an accompanying signed account by three people who interviewed him on 10 February. It also reproduced his outline of the object and a sketch map of the road. Those are contemporary witness and investigator materials, rather than a modern reconstruction.
A white object over the road
Wildman described something oval and white, with regularly spaced dark marks around it. He thought the marks could be openings or vents, but did not claim to see through them. He estimated the width at at least forty feet and its height above the ground at roughly twenty to thirty feet.
The shape in his drawing had a hazy upper portion and a sharply defined edge. In the written account he argued that the object was solid because light from the car’s headlights appeared to reflect back from it. The drawing and letter are descriptions of his impression, not a photograph or a surveyed measurement of an airborne structure.
He reported no sound from it. Its position above the road made the experience particularly immediate: he was approaching it in a moving car, rather than trying to estimate the movement of a point against the stars. No occupants or separate accompanying objects were described in the published letter.
What happened to the Vauxhall
As the car came within an estimated twenty yards, Wildman said its engine lost revolutions and its speed fell to about twenty miles per hour. Changing down into second gear and pressing the accelerator fully did not restore normal power.
The original account is specific about two details: the engine did not simply stop, and the headlights did not fade. Those particulars matter because this case is sometimes grouped with reports in which a vehicle’s whole electrical system failed. Wildman described impaired performance while the car remained in motion.
The object appeared to stay ahead of him for about two hundred yards. His estimate of its distance during this part was closer, around twenty feet. These changing figures describe different stages of the approach and pacing; neither was obtained from an instrument. He then described the object lowering as it continued along the stretch of road.
The departure and the frost
A white haze appeared around the object before it veered sharply away to the right and disappeared at what Wildman judged an extraordinary speed. He compared the haze to the halo around the Moon. The article’s illustration emphasises this as a change at departure, rather than a luminous ring present through the entire observation.
The final physical detail was frost. Wildman said the object brushed frost from the treetops, scattering it across his windscreen. That was his explanation of what reached the car; the investigators did not report recovering a distinctive substance or conducting a laboratory analysis of it.
The departure gave the story a vivid ending, but the surviving publication contains no second roadside eyewitness observing the same sequence. Its value is the driver’s detailed account, the prompt interview and the record of what was subsequently sought at the location.
The investigation on 10 February
The three visitors were Dr B. E. Finch, Dr J. Doel, described as a radiologist, and a photographic specialist identified as Mr Russell. They interviewed Wildman in Luton, then accompanied him to the scene. Their signed report expressed confidence in his honesty and stated that they had not found a commercial motive.
At the site they looked for magnetic or radioactive changes and inspected the road, hedges and nearby fields. Some metal objects in the area were highly magnetic, but the writers explicitly said that was inconclusive. There was no obvious increase in radiation. Enquiries among neighbouring farmers produced no additional evidence.
The distinction is worth retaining: a search for an effect was carried out, but an anomalous magnetic field or radiation trace was not established. The investigators’ favourable impression of Wildman and the negative or inconclusive site checks are both part of their report.
Police, press and the first explanation
The magazine said Wildman reported the experience to police at Aylesbury. Its account of the officers’ reaction comes through the article; the actual police statement or station log is not reproduced there. The authors also mentioned two other Vauxhall delivery workers said to have seen something near the Luton factory, without presenting those experiences as independent witnesses to this particular road encounter.
A brief Daily Telegraph item of 10 February was quoted as carrying an Air Ministry suggestion of a low cloud illuminated by headlights, or a practical joke. The magazine challenged that response, saying no Ministry representative had visited Wildman when it wrote. The suggestion was therefore an early press explanation, rather than the outcome of the field visit described by Finch and his colleagues.
The Aston Clinton file remains a useful comparison with Hook and Sopley because it preserves a different pattern of vehicle behaviour. Its engine-power complaint, steady headlights, short pacing sequence and frost detail should remain attached to Wildman’s particular report, rather than being combined into a generic story of a completely disabled car.
Timeline
9 February 1962: Wildman reports the roadside encounter during a delivery journey from Luton towards Swansea.
10 February 1962: Finch, Doel and Russell interview him and visit the area; the Daily Telegraph carries an early Air Ministry comment.
March–April 1962: Flying Saucer Review publishes Wildman’s letter, illustrations and the investigators’ account, including the inconclusive magnetic checks.
Sources & further reading
Flying Saucer Review 8/2: The Ivinghoe Flying Saucer — Contemporary first-person letter and signed next-day investigation, printed page 18 and its continuation on the final cover page.
Aston Clinton locality map — Geographical reference for the broad locality marker.
Related case files
Hook, 1967: the stalled Transit, the dark object and the engineer’s roadside checks
The Avon–Sopley encounter, 1967: Karl Farlow’s green object and the changing vehicle-stop story
Location note: Broad Aston Clinton locality marker. The contemporary account describes the Ivinghoe-road approach, but this marker does not identify an exact roadside viewpoint.
UKPX historical case file. Researched and checked 4 November 2026. Explore the UK case map · Links & Sources.