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NZDF declassified RNZAF UFO files

NZDF / RNZAF via Internet Archive · 2010-12 · 445 pages · text by OCR

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.

  • p. 11 …I have never seen a planet move like that. My co-pilot (First Officer S G…
  • p. 22 …I can only add if anyone believes my something they have never seen then here's…
  • p. 50 …they have landed, someplace, but I have never been able to track it down, but as…
  • p. 51 …the space people? A. It was not. Never deliberate on their part, but our aggression and…
  • p. 52 …Well I was taken pretty close to one other planet like that of Venus but never…
  • p. 53 …to class-room, for graduation which is never attained because eternity is eternity. Do they have…
  • p. 62 …lot on this great took it has never been strong yet I gave my standing son…
  • p. 72 …I never read who-dunnits, and I shun thrillers like poison; I suppose I have to…
  • p. 91 …such things for personal files but have never had copies made. I can see the value…
  • p. 97 …g) No peculiarities except that I have never observed its like before. (h) Solid in appearance…
  • p. 126 …moment. "In all my flying I've never seen anything 'like it," he said today. Air…
  • p. 137 …Someplace, but I have never been able to track it down, but as far as I…
  • p. 138 …the space people? A. It was not. Never deliberate on their part, but our aggression and…
  • p. 139 …Well I was taken pretty close to one other planet like that of Venus but never…
  • p. 140 …to class-room, for graduation which is never attained because eternity is eternity. Q. Do they…
  • p. 145 …we are making them," stated Mr. Quarles. Never in the history of our subject have I…
  • p. 151 …I have never said that the Big Four gathered to discuss the question of the UFO…
  • p. 152 …The real issues at Geneva are not yet known, and may never be, but we are…
  • p. 157 …a subjective reason why more stories have never been related, especially so, where PROMINENT PEOPLE are…
  • p. 158 …Wallace's mother, whom we later interviewed, claimed that her son had never been so frightened…
  • p. 167 …the phenomenon of Horseheads, N.Y., may never be known. ## ******* ## THE SWEDISH GHOST ROCKETS by S…
  • p. 172 …ALTHOUGH THE STORY WAS WIDELY REPORTED, IT WAS NEVER PUBLISHED IN FULL OUTSIDE SCANDINAVIA. NOW Flying…
  • p. 174 …I was never more than three or four minutes walk from the girls, and I reckon…
  • p. 176 …to time in the area, but they never heard of them flying at night. "What I…
  • p. 183 …He could not say whether or not it might be a meteor as he had never…
  • p. 201 …Besides, you never know what they could do to you . . . There is no material we know…
  • p. 213 …Church-because of the probability that they never contracted "original sin." ## Flying Discs Sir,—Periodically, Mr…
  • p. 216 …phenomena, there are many individuals who have never reported "sightings" of their own or knowledge. Hope…
  • p. 222 …France, never to be outdone, when it comes to autumn tourist attractions, has also had its…
  • p. 223 …It is necessary for me to state here that I would never falsely colour or manufacture…
  • p. 224 …They said this because they had never seen a modern deep-water diving suit. What they…
  • p. 231 …first reports were immediately followed by a never-ending chain of fantastic stories mostly created by…
  • p. 242 …I do not know what it was, I have never seen such an object before. President…
  • p. 248 …We have never heard of & find it difficult to imagine any meteors or aurorae presenting such…
  • p. 249 …He says that he and his companions never thought of flying saucers, being sure that it…
  • p. 254 …Civil Aviation Dept for some years, but never with the openness and seriousness of these last…
  • p. 256 # ore Observers Confirm # "NORTHERN ADVOCATE" # Seeing Strange Object 凯6 NOV 195本 "I HAVE never seen anything…
  • p. 257 …the man and his family. "I have never seen anything like it in my life," he…
  • p. 263 …or Martians, they reiterate that astronomers have never made any observations which could indicate a high…
  • p. 271 …With this weight of evidence you could well ask why saucers have never been, officially accepted…
  • p. 272 …chances are greater—a planet we have never even heard of. But wherever they come from…
  • p. 273 …I have never seen a saucer—but at least I have seen Mars! Vow the first…
  • p. 280 Acura shall call the existing currency All Min the Prairie neverer less len Qian FILE. for…
  • p. 286 …The world may never know, although he definitely has had a hand in the disk project…
  • p. 302 …observing of evidences, while those who have never seen a flying saucer make a show by…
  • p. 306 …In 18 years of flying I have never seen anything like it. If it had been…
  • p. 307 …and not forgetting those very important ones never to be forgotten sightings. We sincerely hope you…
  • p. 308 …likes light reading as well, but can never find the time now, so great is the…
  • p. 320 …Another official said that the Air Force had never accepted this theory. By classifying sightings as…
  • p. 321 …I never saw it happen before. If the acceleration explanation is true, then the speeds involved…
  • p. 324 …The Air Force has never denied that such a possibility exists. Some of the personnel believe…
  • p. 332 …more closely, I am sure they would never be so keen to rashly debunk it. Right…
  • p. 356 …These have never been confused with flying saucers as some sources of information contend. Recent events…
  • p. 367 …happenings in the sky that science had never been able satisfactorily to explain. Unger, beginning in…
  • p. 373 …Forefathers, the great majority of their ranks never dreamed of or envisaged that which is ordinary…
  • p. 401 …nuclli open to doubt because there have never been reports of them from sailors, astronomers and…
  • p. 416 …to bright red. "I wish I had never seen it," he said. "It's too fantastic…
  • p. 436 …In spite of all the flying saucer reports all over the world, science has never been…
It was anclear day, in fact so clear that when we were over the English Channel we could see aircraft over the Airport at Orly 100 miles away. and if we had been high enough we could have seen the Alps. I had reported our position to Control when we were over Seaford, Sussex. We were en route to Paris on a course of about 150 degrees. London Radar said that an aircraft was overtaking me on my left.

This aircraft a Constellation flying some fifty knots faster than ourselves passed on ahead and a few minutes later reached its cruising altitude of 13.900ft and was in a position immediately ahead of me and above. At this stage the relative position of my aircraft to the Constellation and the sun was such that the sun's light was reflected to me from the top surface of the aircraft's wing, making the lit surface very clear to see, while a darker shadow etched in the lower part. This is important in view of the later observations.

It was then that I first noticed the "flying saucer". It was apparently another aircraft above the constellation and a little way to the left, and it seemed to have similar sun reflections. Bearing in mind that all airliners flying around Europe are basically of similar linear size-- that is a wing span of a hundred ft to 150 ft, I judged this other aircraft was flying at approx 20.000 ft and was about the same distance from me as the constellation or probably a further 20 miles away.

After watching the two aircraft --- and I had no reason up to now to think that the other object was not an aircraft --- it became apparent that there was a subtle difference between the two. I must get a little technical here. Both my aircraft and the constellation were on precisely the same course and therefore its bearing from me remained exactly the same, but as it was drawing away from me at a greater speed, its relative position to me slowly changed. As slight irregularities occurred in the path of the Constellation's flight, the intensity of light reflected from the upper surface varied.

Even when the Constellation was getting on for thirty miles ahead the irregularities of fuselage, engines, and tail could still be distinguished breaking up the reflecting surface of the top wing. But it was quite different to our "flying saucer". First Officer Lemon and I studied it intently. We had plenty of time. IT HAD THE APPEARANCE OF TWO SHALLOW SAUCERS WITH THEIR RIMS TOGETHER. WE NOTICED THAT:

(I) Its relative position to ourselves remained completely unchanged for the whole of the 30 minutes that we had it under observation. IT APPEARED TO BE STILL.

(2) The intensity of reflected light fromith top surface remained absolutely steady until the last ten of observation when it gradually dwindled away at a speed consistent with the changing position of the sun,

(3) The top reflecting surface was smooth and unbroken. It was more highly polished than is usually the case with an aircraft's"skin".

At first I had automatically classified the "stranger" as the Elizabethian that had taken off two or three minutes before no bound for Nice

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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.