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
1be disc .1iielf wae approx1111ately two reet thick in the center, tapering to a reather edge at tll• rim. On the outalde or the disc, near the rill, there were tunnel shaped cupa bradded on and these were apace4 all around on both aides, each cup ti-.C approxiMtel,- twenty tnehea apart. The openings of these cups were to the rear. The d1ac 1teelr was natural al'UD'linum with no paint on it except ot the type or aluminum which waa 24 S.T. and 1t bore th1a stamp. 'l'he ·wings were painted a yellow.green cuaoutlage color. The wing has a leading edge similar to that ot an airplane and tapera to the rear to a teather edge. ll'he wing••• ribbed throughout with altiJDinum r1ba ror substantial atrength. Each wing had a s1.m1lar rocket cartridge on each tip tutened by two bolts. I bad one ot the winga in my po■ aeea1on and have turned it over to the proper authorities. 'l'he cartridge on the one I had waa apparently knocked orr 1n the craeh. • There were two strut bars attached approxi•tel7 twenty 1nchea h-011 the disc leading to the rear with an elevator. Alao, the two struts protruded toward ·the front with something attached, a weight or aome tow a)'Btem, which waa during the oraeh anchored into the ground and bent and we could not exactly determine how 1t waa weighted or controlled. I would say the elevator wu approximately twenty-two inches long and about 5/8 inch thick with a alight taper to the rear and probably ten 1nchea wide. 'nle at"'• extending trom the trailing edge or th• wing to the •levator were •d• ot 5/8 inch steel tubing. The di■ c, in being lifted, would J~dge to weigh rro~ 80 to 100 pounds. With respect to the picture• taken, I took approximately 15 reet ot colored 8 mm film. . Tbe diec was built where they had the proper equipment to do ttie neceeaaey work because the7 had to have a epot welder and bu1ldμig equipment to male• the d1t'ferent angles. I ll1ght add that I ua an in■ tru■ent Ulcer tor the BUlllble 011 and Ret1n1ng. ColllJ)any and haYe a generally good knowledg• of machine and metal work. There was nothing on the object to 1nd1oate ita origin, whether .American or foreign •ke. It would appear, however, from the alum1nwa,worlalianah1p, etc . that it probably waa American 11&.de. -3-
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.