Documents / FOIA release

FBI file: UFO, UFO Part 06

Federal Bureau of Investigation · 129 pages · text by GLM-OCR

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.

  • p. 66 …Your cooperation in furnishing photographs and negatives, together with information contained in your letter of 16…
  • p. 73 …an active interest in the investigation throughout, cooperating, of course, with O.S.I. representatives. Mr…
  • p. 82 …officially, but as a personal matter of cooperation. He stated that the matter was being given…
  • p. 102 …This Division will appreciate your cooperation in this matter. Very truly yours. Incl James J. Hauser…
  • p. 107 …Your cooperation in this instance was deeply appreciated. Cordially yours KENNETH S. WHERRY KSW:f* RECORDED…
  • p. 117 …this headquarters, D 355.3 EX, subject, "Cooperation of FBI with AAP on Investigation of 'Flying…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

negatives certainly did not appear to be the case. It was observation that had the negative been "doped" with some sort of chemical, it would have removed the emulsion from the face of the film in such a way that the negative would have been thin at the point which is supposedly a ball of fire, whereas, in fact, both the vapor trail and the corona of fire are dark on the negative, indicating that it was an actual exposure. It was the opinion of that the photographs were, without doubt, authentic.

In accordance with Bureau instructions, no active investigation of this matter was made, but it was deemed advisable to interview prior to submitting the photographs to the Bureau.

predicated his remarks concerning the "flying saucers" or "mystery missiles" by stating that he knew nothing of an official nature concerning them, other than the fact that they were believed by air force intelligence officials to be man-made missiles, rather than some natural phenomena. It was his further belief that a great deal of information had been compiled concerning these missiles by air force intelligence, and that research on the matter was being extensively done at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. He also expressed the opinion that information at the disposal of the United States Army Air Force Intelligence had, in all probability, been made available to the Bureau at Washington, D. C.

then continued with his own ideas as to what might be the nature of these discs, which ideas he had formulated through review of those known facts and theoretical conjectures of himself and other scientists concerning the nature of flying discs and methods of propulsion for such type of aerial mechanism. According to him, flying discs have long been a theoretical possibility and, in fact, a possibility which would indicate one of the best means by which to break through the barriers of the supersonic area. Scientists have, for many years, been attempting to develop this type of aircraft. Some experimentation has been done even in the United States, but insofar as is known in the United States at the present time, there have never been any practical developments. As a second factor of consideration, stated that insofar as is known to U.S. scientists at this time, there is no known chemical fuel which would make possible tremendous range of flight such as is ascribed to the reported "flying saucers." There is only one possible fuel which could be utilized which is in accord with present theory, and that is the utilization of atomic energy. As further evidence of this possible means of propulsion, called attention to the vapor trail and gaseous corona described as a ball of fire, which he states might give some evidence to the fact that a radio-active field is present. He explained that the corona, or exhaust, has what appears to be layers of intensity which are circular rather than elongated and have no tendency to trail at the extremities, as would be the case if a normal type of exhaust from a combustion engine was being utilized in the propulsion of these aircraft. He continued that the vapor trail left by the missile appears to be one single line of uniform intensity which is extremely slow in dissipating. It was pointed out by him that in the case of a normal

Cases discussed

About this file

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.