Documents / Report
This declassified U.S. Air Force compilation of unidentified flying object incidents 101 to 172 contains check-list reports from 1948 and 1945. Incident 101 covers the 18 February 1948 sky explosion over Norcatur, Kansas, with letters from Norman G. Markham suggesting a lunar spacecraft, Dr. Lincoln LaPaz's reply judging it a genuine meteorite fall, and witness statements. The final incident, 172, records George F. Gorman's 27 minute F-51 pursuit of a white light over Fargo on 1 October 1948, corroborated by tower controllers and Dr. Cannon.
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Includes a "Check-List - Unidentified Flying Objects" that contains details about the incident. Many summaries also include witness lists or statements and other narrative reports or descriptions.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
pilot
At about 0230 on July 24, 1948, C. Kingsley/and Capt Perry R. Mansfield saw what they thought was an unusual meteor. It was brighter than any ever seen before and traveling in a horizontal direction, slightly above the horizon. It was observed for 3 seconds before it died out. At no time did it appear to travel in a downward direction. Kingsley & Mansfield discussed the matter that the meteor appeared to be traveling horizontally.
At the time they were traveling between Blackstone, Va., and Greensboro, S. C.. The sky was clear and the visibility unlimited. They were ona magnetic heading of $ 2 4 0^{\circ} $ and estimated the object to be on a bearing of about $ 2 1 0^{\circ} $ from them - that is - about $ 3 0^{\circ} $ to the left of their heading. It appeared to be traveling in a southerly direction, above, but close to the horizon.
NOTE: There is a 15 minute variance in time f/this sighting (0230) to the rocket sighting at 0245 in Atlanta some 400 to 475 miles distant. The time (0230) also tallies with Inc 144a Pilot Louis Feldwary's account of sighting a jet or rocket trail just after leaving Blackstone. Report, from the pursue 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. 210 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.