Documents / Official release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section (62-HQ-83894, Section 4) collects 1947 to 1949 correspondence on flying discs. It includes Portland police officers' accounts of a silvery object over the city on September 11, 1947, an Alaska pilot's July 1947 sighting near Bethel, citizen letters answered by J. Edgar Hoover, and a 1948 Air Defense Command directive on disc investigations. The FBI replied that it was conducting no flying disc investigations. Later items concern William Albert Rhodes's disc photographs and a Los Angeles letter judged a probable prank.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A, N/A. The FBI's 62-HQ-83894 case file includes investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968. The records include high-profile incident accounts, photographic evidence from sites like Oak Ridge, TN, and technical proposals regarding potential propulsion systems. Additional topics include convention programs, researcher accounts, and extensive media coverage from the period. This file is partially posted on FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing. Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.
“Socorro, New Mexico”1 page
,, .. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION / FonnNo. 1. THIS CASE ORIGINATED AT / HOUSTON REPORT MADE AT DATE WHEN r,tAD.lit PERIOD FOR WHICH MADE LOS ANGELES 12/28 .29; 1/7,$3/30/49 TITLE ..t'LYING DISC~ 1011~"IE EDWA..W1 CK, com9lainant; Houston, Texas, ecember 27, 1948 SY N OPSIS OF FACTS: Object described by complainant as possible flying disc determined to be a model tow target or kite which had been ab3ndoned after unsuccessful tests . Portions of target positively identif'ied by HENRY T. RICE, L.A. manufacturer and erstwhile financial backer as being part of the model target or kite. RUC REFEREhCE : Teletype f r om Houston to Director dated 12/28/!8. Teletype from Los Angeles to Lirector dated 12/2u/48. Teletype f r om Los Angel es to Virector dated 12/29/48. DETAILS: This investigation is predicated upon the receipt of referenced teletype from the Houston Office advising that LONNIE EIJ?ARD NOACK had located an object in the desert near Helendale, California, r esembling a flying disc. This object , described as a flying disc, had been l ocated by NOACK, R. C. PERSON and :t.r. and l rs . NATHAN SMITH of Soutli Pasadena, Califori1ia, approxi- mately one hundred and fifty miles northeast of Pasadena or about twenty '7 miles from Lone Pine, CaliJ.'ornia. Special Agent ElJi!ARD OLSEN detemined that R. C. PERSON, Vasco tanufacturing Company, was traveling in Arizona and not available for interview. APPROVED AN P£CIA.LAGENT DO NOT WRITE IN THESE" SPA CESFO"WARDED: IH C H.AftG-K 3 I 1- -----~' --=-,~~~~~~--=-11BOAOm-9COPIES OF" TH IS REPORT Dureau b u l:_'8 ·.tlt1rrw.i .d 2 - Houston ~ 11•€! I J ..-----lffl:lt,tfh-:,y-- 1 - IFO #2, Fort 1:acArth~~ 2 - Los Angel es COPJ ,,S D-r;- 1 9 27 v FILE NO. 105- 445 REPORT MADE BY . . Wh.T!.iA? ~ROVINSE DPZ CHARACTER OF CASE INTERNAL SECURITY M
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 214 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.