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This Project Blue Book case file, digitized by the Internet Archive, covers Incident 144: two Eastern Airlines pilots reported that a wingless, cigar-shaped object with a flaming exhaust passed their DC-3 about 20 miles southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, on 24 July 1948. The file includes an OSI interview with a Robins Air Force Base employee who saw a similar object, negative aircraft traffic reports from many bases, and later correspondence. A December 1948 intelligence report found fairly consistent descriptions across four related sightings.
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# AIR IN LIGENCE INFORMATION Tech Intellgence Div Intelligence Department 102-122-79 Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio 4. Apparently it is not of domestic origin since a thorough check of 225 flight schedules, both commercial and governmental, revealed that in only one instance did the reported flight patrol cross. (See chart included as Exhibit "I"). This single exception was the flight in a northwestern direction of a C-47 enroute Robins AF Base to Olmsted Field, Pa. Its time of departure would have enabled it to have passed through the approximate areas on the 24 July 1948 where the sightings were reported. However, the factors of speed, direction of flight, maneuvers, configurations, lights and other factors fule out this one possibility. 5. Objects similar in configuration have been reported as follows: a. Rocket-like objects capable of immense speed were seen during the past summer in broad daylight in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. b. A wingless aircraft was observed moving at high speed at Obrechstreet, Arnheim, The Hague, Holland. The object was seen intermittently through clouds and was reported to have two decks. ## 6. Flying Fuselages (Torpedo or Cigar-Shaped Body) a. While the cigar or torpedo shaped body represents an efficient form for the fuselage of an airplane or the body of a guided missile, in neither case has it been used as a primary lift producing surface. However, an extension of the Prandtl theory of lift indicates that a fuselage of the dimensions reported by the Eastern Airlines pilots in the Montgomery, Alabama, incident could support a gross weight of approximately 12,000 pounds at an arbitrarily chosen stalling speed of 150 miles per hour, conservatively estimated. The Prandtl theory probably gives very conservative values of maximum lift for bodies of this shape. If a lift coefficient twice as great were used (such a value has been given by a German scientist from memory of his wind tunnel researches in Germany), a gross weight of 24,000 pounds could be supported at the assumed stalling speed. b. Although the craft sighted by Whitted and Chiles was reported to be with out wings or fins, it is possible it could have been equipped with extensible wings for take-off and landing, contained within the fuselage. In such a case a wing span of nearly 90 feet would be possible. If an aspect ratio of 5 were used (18 ft. mean aerodynamic chord), and if the wing design incorporated slots and flaps, the wing could support 115,000 pounds at a stalling speed of 150 mph. It is possible that the fuse-lage could also contribute lift with this arrangement, depending upon the incidence of the wing. This type of aircraft could also be partially supported in the take-off and landing condition by the vertical component of the jet thrust, if the landing and take-off took place with the fuselage axis, or the jet stream direction in a vertical or nearly vertical attitude. The further possibility that an extensible rotor, co-pealed within the fuselage, could have been used, would provide another method for landing and take-off that would allow wingless flight at very high speed. Such a design could result in a relatively large duration of flight and warranted range. c. While no stabilizing fins were apparent on the "rolling fins" re- corted by and it is possible that vanes within the get operated by a groservo system could have provided static stability, longitudinal directionally and laterally. The same vanes could also have been used for maneuvering. A square-tail design of the type reported with the centric of gravity sufficiently far forward by a neutral stability and the possibility exist to deter maneuverability produced by a juicious use of flow-control slots located near the fuselage.
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 161 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.