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This 92-page Project Blue Book file, released through The Black Vault, covers the 7 January 1948 sighting at Godman Field, Fort Knox, Kentucky. It holds control tower witness reports, a record of the P-51 pursuit led by Captain Thomas Mantell, AMC requests for theodolite readings and weather data, and astronomical tables for Venus and the Moon. One analysis concludes the object was not Venus and calls the sighting unexplained. The file also includes a 1964 letter to the Simpson County coroner about Mantell's death.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# CIVIL AROMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE FEDERAL AVIATION AGENCY AERONAUTICAL CENTER P. O. Box 1082 Oklahoma City Oklahoma 73101 July 20, 1964 IN REPLY REFER TO: AM-119 T/Sgt. Moody TDEW Foreign Technology Division Air Force Systems Command Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio Dear Sgt. Moody: Re: Mantell Case I would like to thank you for forwarding us a copy of the Mantell case so promptly. As I explained in our earlier telephone conversation we were interested in obtaining data on this case to compare it with a recent P-51 crash occurring in Oregon in which the pilot also apparently became hypoxic at an altitude of over 20,000 feet and dove into the ground. Since in this case the aircraft also disintegrated prior to impact the copies of the wreckage photos were particularly helpful. We are assisting the Civil Aeronautics Board on this investigation and due to the similarity of certain points would like to obtain a second duplicate copy of this case for our record--I forwarded your earlier copy to the CAB. Secondly, we especially needed any medical information available concerning trauma to the pilot due to impact. This report was not complete since autopsy report, medical findings, and photos of the body of the pilot were not included. We should particularly like to obtain these medical data. Please air mail if possible. Sincerely, Richard G. Snyder, Ph. D., AM-119 Acting Chief, Protection and Survival Branch
Document, cited by the archive. 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. 93 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.