The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

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# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

the theodolite was pointed (45 degrees elevation and 210 degrees azimuth). The object was moving east at a rate of 5 degrees of azimuth change per second.

"When the difference in angle between the theodolite and the supposed balloon became apparent, Moore took over the theodolite and found the true balloon still there, whereupon he immediately abandoned it and picked up the unidentified object as it came out of the sun. At the time, the sun was at a computed bearing of 60 degrees elevation and 127 degrees azimuth. The object was moving too fast to be kept in the scope through cranking the theodolite around; one of the men, therefore, had to point the theodolite while Moore observed the object through the telescope.

"The object was an ellipsoid about 2-1/2 times as long as it was wide. It had a length of about .02 degrees subtended angle and was gleaming white in color. It did not have metallic or reflected shine. Toward the underside near the tail, the gleaming white became a light yellow.

"The object, readily visible to the naked eye and seen by all the members of the group, filled the field of the theodolite's 25-power scope. Its rapid movement, unfortunately, prevented Moore from obtaining a hard or clear focus, and no good detail was observable.

"The azimuth angle decreased as the object continued on a north heading (it originally came out of the southwest). Becoming smaller in size it moved to an azimuth reading of 20 degrees to 25 degrees, at which point the azimuth held constant. Coincidentally with this constant azimuth, the elevation angle suddenly increased from 25 degrees minimum to 29 degrees, at which point the object was lost to sight. It disappeared in a sharp climb after having been visible to Moore and his group for about 60 seconds.

"Fifteen minutes after the object had disappeared, Moore sent up another pibal weather balloon to check wind values. This balloon burst after an 88-minute flight to 93,000 feet and traveled only 13 miles in a southerly direction during that time. This was positive proof that the object could not have been a balloon moving at such angular speed below 90,000 feet.

"The object was seen under conditions of a cloudless sky and no haze. It left no vapor trail or exhaust. It was observed from an isolated mud flat in the New Mexico desert where there was extreme quiet; no noise of any kind was heard in connection with the sighting, and there were no cars, airplanes, or other noises nearby which might have blotted out sound coming from the object.

"As the day progressed and airplanes flew over and near the balloon launching site, Moore's group was able to identify them by appearance and engine noise. They saw nothing again that day which bore any resemblance to the white elliptical, unidentified object.

"Moore's sighting was an extremely fortunate one in that tracking instrumentation was set up and a weather balloon airbourne at the time. It represents one of the best substantiated and authentic unidentified object sightings on record.

"The foregoing discussion of 'flying saucers' does not represent any desire by the author to become involved in this controversial subject. The saucers have been mentioned because there has been in a number of cases a close relationship between reported sightings and the flight trajectories of Skyhook balloons. The description of Moore's instrumented sighting of an unidentified object has been included because it is authentic, details have not been previously published, and it occurred during a Skyhook operation.

"The author, and indeed Moore himself, make no claim that the unidentified object was a 'flying saucer.' The details have been set forth. Let the reader take the sighting for what it is worth and evaluate it for himself!" [1.]

Dr. Seymour L. Hess, who sighted a UFO in 1950, is a meteorologist and astronomer. He is currently head of the Department of Meteorology, Florida State University, and is considered an expert on planetary atmospheres. [2.] See letter next col.

Another sighting by General Mills, Inc., personnel in the vicinity of White Sands, New Mexico, was reported by Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, former Chief of the Air Force Project Blue Book UFO investigation. [3.] Two General Mills employees and four others at Artesia, New Mexico, were watching a Skyhook balloon, January 16, 1951. Suddenly they noticed two tiny specks on the horizon moving rapidly toward them. The objects shot

Approved For Release 2001/04/02 :

I saw the object between 12:15 and 12:20 P.M. May 20,1950 from the grounds of the Lowell Observatory. It was moving from the South-east to the Northwest. It was extremely prominent and showed some size to the naked eye, that is, it was not merely a pinpoint. During the last half of its visibility I observed it with 4-power binoculars. At first it looked like a parachute tipped at an angle to the vertical, but this same effect could have been produced by a sphere partly illuminated by the sun and partly shadowed, or by a disc-shaped object as well. Probably there are still other configurations which would give the same impression under proper inclination and illumination. I could see it well enough to be sure it was not an airplane (no propeller or wings were apparent) nor a bird. I saw no evidence of exhaust gases nor any markings on the object.

Most fortunately the object passed between me and a small bright cumulus cloud in the Northwest. Thus it must have been at or below the cloud level. A few seconds later it disappeared, apparently into the cloud.

Against the sky it was very bright but against the cloud it was dark. This could be produced by a grey body which would be bright against the relatively dark sky, but dark against the bright cloud. Alternatively, if the object were half in sunlight and half shadowed the sunlit part might have had no detectable contrast with the cloud while the shadowed part appeared dark.

I immediately telephoned the U.S. Weather Bureau (2-3 miles S.W. of the Observatory). They were estimating the cloud to be 6000 feet above the ground. Now estimates of cloud heights are rather risky, so I obtained their observations of temperature and dew point, and from the known lapse rates of these quantities in a convective atmosphere, calculated the cloud base to be at 12,000 ft. I believe this latter figure to be the more accurate one because later in the afternoon the cumulus clouds thickened but at all times remained well above the tops of our nearby mountains. These are about 6000 feet above us.

Thus, having some idea of the object's elevation and its angular diameter through the binoculars (about equivalent to a dime seen at 50 ft. with the naked eye), I calculated its size to be 3 to 5 ft. for a height of 6-12 thousand feet, and a zenith angle of about 450. This size estimate could easily be in error by a factor or two, but I am sure it was a small object.

The clouds were drifting from the SW to the NE at right angles to the motion of the object. Therefore it must have been powered in some way. I did not time it but for that elevation I would estimate its speed to be about 100 miles per hour, perhaps as high as 200 m.p.h. This too means a powered craft. However, I could hear no engine noise.

straight toward the balloon, tipped on edge revealing their disc shape, circled the balloon once and flew off over the horizon. In comparison with the known size of the balloon, the discs were estimated to be 60 feet in diameter.

A particularly detailed account of a lens-shaped disc was obtained from an experienced engineer by the NICAP Assistant Director in personal correspondence during 1955. [4.]

Date: October 1954, about mid-month

Location: Cherry Valley, New York

Time: About 4:00 p.m.

Witness: Major A. B. Cox, graduate of Yale University, member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Society of American Engineers.

Excerpts from letter dated December 28, 1955 from Major A. B. Cox to Richard Hall:

"The sky was more or less covered with streaks or layers of clouds, with blue sky between, so that the rays of the sun came through almost horizontally, the time being not far from sunset in the Valley. I was walking in a NE direction, having been an airplane spotter for a long time, I have formed the habit of looking at the sky, quite naturally.

"I happened to be looking at the West in the direction of my farm buildings, perhaps a half mile distant, and saw something which at first glance was about over my farm buildings. It was quite low, and did not seem to be more than a few hundred feet above the earth. I thought at first it was a large airplane not moving very swiftly. . . . It was moving horizontally in a direction parallel to my own direction. Then I noticed that it seemed to make no noise, and then I could not see any wings or tail or fuselage generally.

"It seemed to be a large disc or lens-shaped object, and in comparison with the objects below I estimated it to be perhaps 30 or 35 feet in diameter. . . . It was moving like a wheel sliding sidewise and not rotating, and in perspective presented an elliptical appearance such as any circular object would when viewed from an angle; the degree of ellipticity varying as it came up and then passed me. I must have seen it for 20 seconds or a little more. Then it got ahead of me and it presented the appear-

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