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.
“Headquarters”10 pages
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## O ## O The disc itself was approximately two feet thick in the center, tapering to a feather edge at the rim. On the outside of the disc, near the rim, there were funnel shaped cups bradded on and these were spaced all around on both sides, each cup being approximately twenty inches apart. The openings of these cups were to the rear. The disc itself was natural aluminum with no paint on it except of the type of aluminum which was 24 S.T. and it bore this stamp. The wings were painted a yellow-green camouflage color. The wing has a leading edge similar to that of an airplane and tapers to the rear to a feather edge. The wing was ribbed throughout with aluminum ribs for substantial strength. Each wing had a similar rocket cartridge on each tip fastened by two bolts. I had one of the wings in my possession and have turned it over to the proper authorities. The cartridge on the one I had was apparently knocked off in the crash. There were two strut bars attached approximately twenty inches from the disc leading to the rear with an elevator. Also, the two struts protruded toward the front with something attached, a weight or some tow system, which was during the crash anchored into the ground and bent and we could not exactly determine how it was weighted or controlled. I would say the elevator was approximately twenty-two inches long and about 5/8 inch thick with a slight taper to the rear and probably ten inches wide. The struts extending from the trailing edge of the wing to the elevator were made of 5/8 inch steel tubing. The disc, in being lifted, I would judge to weigh from 80 to 100 pounds. With respect to the pictures taken, I took approximately 15 feet of colored 8 mm film. The disc was built where they had the proper equipment to do the necessary work because they had to have a spot welder and building equipment to make the different angles. I might add that I am an instrument maker for the and have a generally good knowledge of machine and metal work. There was nothing on the object to indicate its origin, whether American or foreign make. It would appear, however, from the aluminum, workmanship, etc. that it probably was American made. ## 67c
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.