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This Project Blue Book case file covers the 7 January 1948 incident at Godman Field, Fort Knox, Kentucky, which the file itself calls the famous "Mantell case." It holds control tower witness statements describing a large, bright object and the three P-51s sent to pursue it, whose flight leader, Mantell, stopped answering after climbing past 15,000 feet. It also includes weather data and Air Materiel Command correspondence. One analysis concludes that the object was not Venus and that the sighting must be considered unexplained.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
SUBJECT: Unidentified Aerial Object
8 JAN 48 $\textcircled{1}$ TILL 0630 THEN $\textcircled{1}$ TO $\textcircled{1}$ (6-10/10) BASES 11000 FT TO 20000 FT LOWERING AT 2100 TO 1800 FT AND REMAINING SO. VSBY VRBL 4 TO 8 MILES WITH HAZE OBSTRUCTION.
9 JAN 48 $\textcircled{1}$ SKY BASES VRBL FROM 1500 FT TO 5000 FT TILL 08300 THEN BECOMING $\textcircled{1}$ VRBL 6-9/10 TILL 18300 THEN LOWERING TO 2100 FT TO 4000 FT. VSBY VRBL 4 TO 8 MILES WITH HAZE AS OBSTRUCTION.
10 JAN 48 $\textcircled{1}$ SKY BASES 4000 FT TO 5000 FT TILL 0430 THEN BECOMING $\textcircled{1}$ TO $\textcircled{1}$ (0 2/10) VSBY VRBL 4 TO 12 MILES WITH HAZE AS THE OBSTRUCTION.
11 JAN 48 $\textcircled{1}$ TILL 0800 THEN BECOMING $\textcircled{1}$ TO $\textcircled{1}$ (8/10-10/10) BASES 6000 FT TO 10000 FT. VSBY VRBL 1 1/2 TO 12 MILES WITH SMOKE AND HAZE AS THE OBSTRUCTION.
12 JAN 48 $\textcircled{1}$ SKY DURING THE ENTIRE DAY WITH BASES VRBL FROM 3000 FT IN THE MORNING TO 600 FT IN THE P.M. VSBY VRBL 2 1/2 TO 5 WITH HAZE AND RAIN SHOWERS.
13 JAN 48 $\textcircled{1}$ SKY BASES 1000 FT TO 1000 FT TILL 1830 THEN $\textcircled{1}$ TILL 2230 THEN $\textcircled{1}$ TILL 2330 BASES 2500 FT. VSBY VRBL 1 TO 8 MILES IN GROUND FOG AND HAZE WITH OCCASIONAL LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS.
14 JAN 48 $\textcircled{1}$ TO $\textcircled{1}$ (6-10/10) IN THE A.M. TILL 1330 THEN BECOMING $\textcircled{1}$ TO $\textcircled{1}$ (0-5/10) BASES $\textcircled{1}$ CLDS 2500 FT. REMAINING SO REST OF PERIOD. VSBY VRBL 5 TO 15 MILES WITH OCCASIONAL SNOW SHOWERS AT 10000 TO 11000 AND HAZE THE REMAINER.
15 JAN 48 $\textcircled{1}$ TILL 04200 THEN $\textcircled{1}$ TILL 0730 BASES 15000 FT THEN $\textcircled{1}$ TILL 14300 THEN $\textcircled{1}$ REMAINER OF PD BASES AT 12000 FT VSBY 5 TO 15 IN HAZE.
JOHN W. MITCHELL
Colonel, USAF
Commanding 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. 75 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.