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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.
3 Incls
It is apparent, from the data given above, that the object sighted at Godman Air Force Base on 7 January 1948 was not the planet Venus. Therefore, this sighting must be considered as unexplained.
3 Incls
n/c A. B. DEYARMOND
Asst Deputy for Tech Analysis
Tech Intelligence Div
Intelligence Department ABD/amb
6-6398
P.213B
B.208
THU: MCIAT MCIAT-3 8 Nov 1943 1
TO: Attn: Mr. Money
MCIAT
Attn: Mr. Deyarmond
b. It is doubtful that Venus could be observed by the unaffected eye from the ground or 15,000 feet as it would probably be hidden by the high degree of sky brightness due to its proximity to the Sun.
c. Jupiter is the only other planet within $ \pm 90^{\circ} $ of the sun during this period and its magnitude of brightness is only -1.4 as compared with -3.4 of Venus, making it impossible to observe with the unaided eye. However, the following figures on the Moon are submitted for your information:
Time Local Altitude Arimuth
10:00 23° 00' 197°
10:30 26° 00' 204°
11:00 23° 00' 211°
11:30 20° 00' 217°
12:00 17° 00' 223°
12:30 13° 00' 228° 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.