Documents / FOIA release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section collects 1947 to 1949 correspondence, memoranda and newspaper clippings about flying disc reports. It includes Hoover's replies to citizens, a Maine woman's account of a drifting object judged probably a weather balloon, a Richmond memo on a cigar-shaped object seen over Radford, Virginia on May 12, 1949, clippings on the Chiles and Whitted sighting near Montgomery, a Flyin' Saucer toy promotion, and agent interviews with witnesses in Vermont and a pilot near Bethel, Alaska.
“Socorro, New Mexico”1 page
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
## O ## O On December 7, 1948 we went out in Mr. car and picked up his wife and left his home in South Pasadena about 11 A.M. We drove out to an airport where his plane was about forty miles from Pasadena where he was having the plane repaired. He wanted to be sure the plane was on a truck before we left for the destination where the disc was. In making this trip, we proceeded out by a race track and passed one of the Kaiser steel works and the Virginia Dare Wine Orchard. I would say we went directly north or northeast from Pasadena, California. We drove through a town called Vitolius (phonetic) and followed a road through some mountains and through a small desert. I would estimate the distance from Pasadena to where the disc was found to be about 150 miles. The terrain in which the disc was found could be described as flat, desert, and desolate. I would like to explain that Mr. has private property (an airport which he purchased from the government) right by the location of the disc. Mr. thought the disc might have been launched from his airport, but whether that was it or not - we don't know. Mr. said he usually flew at an altitude of about 8,000 feet and, of course, he flew lower in some spaced. He did not mention his altitude at the time he first saw the disc. The disc was located practically just outside his property and we were going north, so it would be east of his property. He has about 900 acres. When we arrived at Mr. property, we saw the disc, or flying wing, and it was on the ground in a semi-vertical position, approximately a 45-degree angle, with the left wing imbedded in the ground. In looking at the ground, it appeared that the object had hit the earth with considerable force and had slid 300 to 400 feet. It was dented but was generally intact. I think the pictures I took with a Revere 8 mm camera quite well show the form, shape and size of the "wing." I am 5'7" tall and in standing next to the object when it was in an upright position, it was slightly higher than my height. I would say it was roughly seven feet in diameter, before crashing. On each side of the object there were wings approximately four feet by twenty inches and three inches thick with an axle that protruded through the disc and into the wings. It was mounted on ball bearings which the disc rotated on.
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. 129 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.