Documents / FOIA release
This is the first part of an FBI file on flying discs, made up of internal memoranda, teletypes, letters from the public and news clippings from July and August 1947. Field offices report sightings and several objects that were recovered, including a disc found at Black River Falls, Wisconsin, and a North Hollywood device that Army G-2 called a hoax. Other items cover a Norfolk boy's photograph and the Tacoma plane crash tied to Dahl and Crisman. Director Hoover forwarded several letters to the War Department.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# Pilot Recalls Seeing Dises ## Dick Rankin Tells Of Odd Aircraft More reports of "flying flap jacks" turned up Wednesday, one from no less than Dick Rankin, brother of the late Tex Rankin, and himself an experienced pilot of more than 7000 hours' flying time. Rankin, who is recovering from an old back injury received in an automobile accident, came to Portland over the week end to spend the summer. He saw the "silver eaucers" over Rakersfield, Cal. June 23, while lying on the lawn sun bathing, he told The Oregonian. "I hesitated to say much about them." Rankin said, "until I noticed all the hullabaioo in the papers. I puzzled over their strange shape for a while and finally concluded that they were the navy's new XFSU-1 flying flapjacks, which are thin and round, with twin propellers and stubby tail." ## Only One XFSU-1 Built The navy and the manufacturer have announced officially that only one such machine was built and that it never left Connecticut. These planes were flying high, maybe 9000 feet, and fairly fast, about 300 or 400 miles an hour. I first counted ten of them in formation, going north. About 2:15 P. M. they returned on the reverse course, headed south. But there were only seven in the formation. They were not weaving or hobbling in formation I couldn't make out the number or location of their propellers and couldn't distinguish any wings or tail. They appeared almost round They looked like pictures of the navy's flying flap-jack." Rankin said. Rankin, who plans to spend the summer here at 834 N. E. Simpson street, H now able to resume a little Rying for sun, but not commercially, he said He now operates a string of auto courts, spending his winters at Palm Springs. "THE GARDEN" Portland, Oregon. 3 July 187
FOIA release, from the fbi-vault collection. 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. 69 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.