65 HS1-834228961 62-HQ-83894 Serial 130

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# CONFIDENTIAL

PORTLAND, OREGON

30,July 1947

C-E-H-T-1-F-I-C-A-T-E

on 30 July 1947 Mr Richard Rankin, 834 N. E. Simpson Street Portland, Oregon was interiewed by this agent and stated in substance as follows:

My name is Richard Rankin. I am 47 years old and have flown since I was nineteen years old. I first soloed in an air craft in 1919. I have flown over all the western parts of the United States many times and have mapped all of the western part of the United States during the years before the late war for the US Forest Service. I am familiar with almost every part of the western United States. During a great part of my life I have done stunt flying for air shows and various other types of aeronautical exhibitions. My brother was "Tex"Rankin who was quite well known in both civilian and military flying circles for many years before his death and during the late war ran thousands of Flying Cadets through primary training schools owned and operated by him. To date I have accomplished 7000 hours in the air as pilot of both civilian and Military aircraft. I am well acquainted with most articles that one would see in the air and I feel that I am well qualified to say when I see articles flying through the air, although I would not attempt to say that I am infallible and state that I could definitely identify every object that might be flying through the air. The following is an account of what I saw on 14 June 1947 from the yard of my home at 180 South "M" St, Bakersfield, California.

At approximately 1200 noon on the 11 of June I was lying in the front yard of my home. There was a lad mowing the lawn at the time. I looked up into the sky and saw ten articles flying from the South to th North at what I would judge to be 8500 ft. The objects were flying at approximately what I would judge to be 350 miles per hour. As I have stated before, I have done quite a lot of map work for the US Forest Service. I distinctly remember that at the time I saw the articles I mentioned it to the lad who was mowing the lawn at the time. I told the lad that the objects were in all probability some sort of Army or Navy test planes from the nearby test centers on the deserts of Southern California. Having quite a knowledge of aircraft in general I attempted to explain to the lad mowing the lawn that the objects were probably on some sort of training mission for either the Army or Navy. At that time I did not give the slightest thought to anything but that the objects were some sort of test ship for the Government Services. The objects resembled the pictures that I have seen of the XF5U-1, the so called "Flying Flapjack" that the Navy is testing. After the objects disappeared I proceeded into the house and had my noon meal. At approximately 11:15 I went back into the yard to sit and lie in the shade. At this time the objects reappeared going from North to South, although this time there were only seven of the articles. When I first saw the original ten objects they were flying in a "V" formation with one object seemingly stargling in the rear of the formation. When the objects apparaed the second time they were still in the "V" formation although there was only seven of the objects at this time. I remember at this time that I told the lad, who was still working on the lawn, that probably three of the objects had proceeded back to their base on a different course. I actually thought that this was the case, that the other three objects had probably gone back to their base on the other side of the mountains from Bakersfield. A week or so later when I read of Mr Kenneth Arnold claiming that he had seen articles flying through the air over the Cascade Mountains in