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.
“Gray”2 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Observer noticed what appeared to be a small black cloud between two white ones. Seemed peculiar because the weather was clear and there were a few white clouds in the sky - but no other dark clouds or formations of any kind. The black cloud did not have any definite shape but looked like an anti-aircraft shell a few seconds after it explodes. Suddenly it stretched out into a wide streak with smaller vertical streaks, then rapidly turned and twisted, moving into a different direction and disappearing. In three or four seconds, the smoke burst appeared again spontaneously, approximately 20° west of the place where first noticed. Smoke pattern dark, very large, and dispersed rapidly, appearing again as a wide streak a mile or so in length which appeared to twist from a wide to a narrow streak and then back again changing direction as it twisted. Moving in westerly direction against light wind. Plainly visible altho far away and very high. No sound heard. Seemed like a streak that would be made if a flying wing with several engines banking and turning and leaving exhaust trails. Note: Yantis was in the war and had seen a lot of anti-aircraft shells burst and many vapor trails from planes but had never observed anything like this. He states: "It was so spontaneous like a rubber band which is round, then suddenly is stretched at length and twisted, and then disappears without a trace." Agent's Note: Yantis drew the sketches below
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.