2003-04-08 - Tempe, AZ - Cylinder

Noontime sighting on a sunny, cloudless day of a long, brightly glaring craft that disappears from view.

I was meeting my sister for lunch at 12:15 PM. I was driving south on S. Hardy Drive towards Baseline. The day was sunny, the sky was blue, and there was no haze or clouds in the sky. Just as I was coming up to the Hwy 60 overpass I glanced up and saw what I first thought was a jet airplane. It was right above the center of my steering wheel moving slowly to the right within the frame of my windshield. Unfortunately, the "sighting" didn't appear out of the ordinary at first and occurred so quickly that I didn't think to try and take a measurement. However, from my position in the driver's seat, I would estimate that if I pointed my thumb up, with my arm straight out in front resting on the steering wheel, the aircraft would have been as wide as my thumb. As I continued to drive, I switched my gaze back & forth being mindful of the road while checking out the object as well. It appeared to be elongated like a passenger jet would be, but I couldn't make out the specific features due to the bright, silvery glint that was reflecting off of it. My first thought was that the sun was reflecting off the aircraft at just the right angle for it to create such a glare. As I continued to look up at it I noticed that the glare began to diminish, and along with it, the aircraft slowly faded from view. Completely. I kind of shook my head and thought if the glare slowly faded because the angle had changed due to the forward movement of the aircraft, shouldn't I have had a clearer view of it rather than no view of it? I searched the sky briefly in the direction it had been flying, but there was nothing there. Then from the view on the right side of my windshield, traveling to the left, I could see the narrow contrail of another jet (but not the jet itself) high in the sky, as one normally sees contrails when a jet flys high over a city. (30,000 feet perhaps?) At that point I realized that the craft I first saw must have been flying much lower because I could definitely see that it was some! type of aircraft, long and shining brightly, however it did not have a contrail…and it dissolved away from view.