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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.
“Open Minds”13 pages
# THE ORIGINAL FLYING SAUCER? Sir. Under the heading "Fifty Years Ago," the Dunedin "Star" recently reprinted the following paragraph, dated November 21, 1902: ADELAIDE, Nov. 21.—An extraordinary phenomenon was seen from the observatory yesterday in the form of a slowly-moving brilliant, globular light having a planetary disc. It moved slowly northward, passing within 15 degrees or 20 degrees of the sun. It was distinctly visible for three or four minutes, and appeared like Venus at its greatest brilliancy, travelling in full view over a space of 90 degrees. When near the point of vertical axis its form changed and became elongated. It was then lost in the glare of the sky. This suggests that "flying saucers' are at least not a novelty. I am, etc. L. D. AUSTIN. To Date... The above press cutting is forwarded for your information.
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.