65 HS1-834228961 62-HQ-83894 Section 004

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negatives certainly did not appear to be the case. It was Mr. RATEMAN'e
observation that had the negative been "doped" with some s ort o'f' chemical, it
would have removed the emulsion from the 'f'ace o'f' the ril.m in such a way that
the ne~tive would have been thin at the point which is supposedly a ball of
fire, v'hereas, in fact, both the vapor trail and the corona of fire are dark
on the'negative, indicati118 that it was an actual exposure. It was the opinion
of Mr•. RATHMAN that the photographs were, withn.ut doubt, authentic.
In accordance with Bureau instructions, no active investigation of
this ma.tter was made, but it was deemed advisable to interview Colonel GASSER
prior to submitting the photographs to the Bureau.
Colonel GASSER~ redicp.ted his remarks concerning the "flyi118 saucers"
or "mystery missiles" b; fstat~ that he lmew nothi118 of an official nature
concerning them, other than the 'f'act that they were believed by air force
intelligence officials to be man-made missiles, rather than some natural
phenomena. It was his :rurther belief that a great deal of inf'ormation had been
compiled concerning these missiles by air force intelligence, and that research
on the matter was being extensively done at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio . He also
expressed. the opinion that information at the disposal of the United States Army
Air Force Intelligence had, in all probability, been made available to the
Bureau at Washington, D. C.
(Eolonel GASSER then. continued with hie own ideas as to what might be
the nature of these discs, which ideas he had formulated through review of
those known facts and theoretical conjectures of himself and other scientists
concerning the nature of flying discs and method.a o'f' propulsion for such type
of aerial mechanism. According to him, flying discs have long been a theoretical
possibility and, in fact, a possibility which would ind.icate one of the beet
- means by which to break through the barriers of the supersonic area. Scientists
have, for many yeaxs, been attempting to develop this type of aircraft. Some
experimentation has been done even in the United States, but insofar as is
known in the United States at the present time, there have never been any
practical developments. As a second '!'actor of consideration, Colonel GASSER
stated that insofar as is known to U.S . scientists at this time, there is no
known chemical fuel which would make possible tremendous range of flight such
as is ascribed to the reported "flyi118 saucers. " There is only one possible
fuel which could be utilized. which is in accord with present theory, and that
is the utilization of atomic energy;\ As further evidence of this possible means
of propulsion, Colonel GASSER calledattention to the vapor trail and gaseous
corona described as a ball of fire, which he states might give some evidence
to the fact that a radio-active field is present. He explained that th~ corona,
or exhaust, has what appears to be layers of intensity which are circular rather
than elongated and have no tendency to trail at the extremities, as would be
the case if a normal type of exhaust from a oombustion engine was being utilized
in the propulsion of these aircraft. He continued that the vapor trail left by
the missile appears to be one single line of uni.form intensity which is extremely
slow in dissipating. It was pointed out by him that in the case of a normal
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