Documents / Document
This is a New Zealand Defence Force public release of RNZAF file AIR 39/3/3, "Flying Saucers," which covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010 under the Official Information Act. It collects sighting reports from the public and military personnel, press clippings, and a table of 1952 sightings. It also holds Carter Observatory opinions attributing some reports to meteors. A large part covers the inquiry into lights seen from National Airways Corporation Flight 108 on 31 October 1955, which the RNZAF could not fully explain as Venus.
“Sea”47 pages
# Flying saucers: Some may be # man-made SYDNEY.—A distinguished visiting scientist thinks 90 per cent of the flying saucer reports are imaginary. "But," he said, "I'm not sure about the others." He is Professor Otto Struve, a 55-year-old, sixfoot, Russian-born scientist, head of astronomical research at the University of California, who is here to advise on developments and research in Australia. "These things are not from another planet, and Russia is not making them." he said. "They might be man-made, so there might be a simple explanation. Whatever it is, I don't think there is anything sinister about their origin." As in Melbourne at the moment, a wave of interest was sweeping the United States as saucer reports poured in. ## "Cannot be disregarded" "The reports cannot be disregarded," he said. "Reliable scientists have seen unexplained phenomena. Deflection of light had been responsible for many reports and some prototype American planes almost circular in shape were mistakenly identified." He said possible explanations for the "wrong 90 per cent." of reports were: Objects seen at night could be meteors—the high speed ones give off a green-blue light. Patches of fog or cloud lit by light reflected from the setting sun. One "flying saucer" he saw himself in California proved to be sun-lit fog when seen through an observatory telescope. Space subjects Discussing other space subjects Professor Struve said:— Spacemen The nearest planet that could support life similar to that on Earth is 10,000 billion miles away, and what life there is on other planets is not intelligent. Earth has not had any visitors from space yet. Rockets-It will take 25 years to develop a rocket to carry man from Earth to the planets, although by 1964 a rocket to the moon might be possible. Interplanetary rockets would be too costly ever to be justified. Earth Satellites.For about 3,000,000 dollars scientists could produce an artificial earth satellite-probably a rocket-to send into space, and move indefinitely in an orbit around the earth. Professor Struve said Australia was a perfect place to stargaze because the Milky Way was right over us. Australian physicists led the world in radio-astronomy—a kind of high-plane radar. The professor is to work at the National Observatory at Canberra. # 'FLYING CIGAR' REPORT LONDON, Oct. 31.—The first "flying cigar" reported in Brussels fluorescent and moving very slowly from east to west—disappeared after about three minutes behind a cloud tonight, according to several eyewitnesses who included a journalist, M. Edouard Gautier. N.Z.P.A. (Rec. 1nm # 'Flying Objects Thought New Secret Weapon LONDON, Oct. 26.—Reuter's Belgrade correspondent says that a Yugoslav scientist suggested today that seven "flying saucers" reported to have been seen over the northern and central part of the country yesterday were "some new secret weapon of the Americans or the Russians." Mr. Peter Djorkovic, assistant director of the Belgrade Astronomical Observatory, said the objects could not have been parts of a meteor, "but must be some technical contrivance." The Yugoslav Air Force today investigated reports from many parts of the country that up to seven "flying saucers" were seen early yesterday. They were variously described as pear-shaped, cigar-shaped, and round, while their colour shadings were given as blue, green, orange, and white. He said their steady flight along a straight line to the horizon excluded the possibility of their being meteors. Besides, he added, "They left traces of their rockets' exhaust." The Yugoslav Air Force would have to find out whether they were not perhaps some new secret weapon of the Americans or the Russians, Mr. Djorkovic stated.—N.Z.P.A. (Rec. 11 am).
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 445 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.