Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“The Advance”52 pages
68"the pilot * * * sighted a round white light below him, circling and rising at a speed estimated at 150 to 200 knots as it proceeded on a southeast course." Menzel states that the B-36 "made a sharp descending turn toward the light, which was in view for a period of three to [we minutes." The light was blinking, and Keyhoe mentions that the blink -interval was esti- mated at about 2 seconds. Menzel concurs in the official evaluation of this as a "weather balloon", noting that a pilot balloon had been released at Fairchild AFB at 1:00 a.m., and remarking that the "winds aloft at altitudes of 7,000 to 10,000 ft. were from the northwest with, a speed of about fifty knots." He says that "computations showed that the existing winds would have carried the balloon to the southeast, and it would have been over Rosalia, which is 12.5 nautical miles southeast of Fairchild, in about fifteen minutes." In fact, Rosalia lies 33 statute miles SSE of Fairchild, or about twice as far as Menzel indicates. The net drift of the balloon cannot be deduced simply from the winds in the 7 -10,000 -ft. layer; and, in fact, an examination of the upper-winddata for that area on February 6 indicates that the winds at lower levels were blowing out of the southwest. The trajectory of the balloon would have taken it initially east-northeast, then east, and finally curving back to the southeast as it got up to near the 10,000 -ft. levels. By that time, it would have been already east of Spokane, nowhere near Rosalia. The small light (candle or flashlight bulb) used on night pibal runs is almost invisible to the naked eye beyond a few miles' distance. (A 1 -candle source at 3.000 ft. is equivalent to a star of about the 'first magnitude. At 6 miles, then, one finds that the same source equals the luminosity of a sixth -magnitude star, the limit of human vision under the most favorable conditions. For a pilot, looking out of a cockpit with slight inside glare to spot a 1 -candle source against a darkbackground would require that the source be only a few miles away.) At some 30 miles, the B-36 pilot could not have seen the small light on a ballon east of Spokane. Menzel states that "the balroon carried white running lights which accounted for the blinking described, and the circling climb of the UFO is typical of a balloon's course." Neither inference is supportable. The light used on pilot balloons is a steady source; only if one were right above it, with its random swing causing intermittent occultation, would one ever perceive blinking. But then, flying at B-36 speeds, the pilot would have swept over the sector of perceptible occultation in only a matter of seconds. Yet here the pilot watched it for a reported 3-5 minutes. Furthermore, "circling climb" cannot be called "typical of a balloon's course." The balloon trajectory is controlled by the ambient wind shears and only with unusually strong directional shears would a pilot flying a straight course perceive a pilot balloon to be "circling." In all, there appear to be so many serious difficulties with the balloon explanation for the Rosalia sighting that it is not possible to accept Menzel's statement: "Thus all the evidence supports ATIC's conclusion that the UFO was a weather balloon." 4. Case 34. Boston, Mass., June 1, 1954 At 0930 EDST, a Paris -New York TWA Constellation was passing near Boston when the cockpit crew spotted "a large, white -colored disc -like object" overhead ( Ref. 41). Capt. Charles J. Kratovil, copilot W. R. Davis, and flight engineer Harold Raney all watched it for a total time of 10 minutes as they flew on their own southwestward course to New York. They would occasionally lose it behindoverlying clouds. Knowing that they were flying into headwinds, they concluded that it could not be any kind of balloon, so they radioed the Boston airport control tower, which informed him that jets were scrambled and saw the object, but could not close with it. After landing in New York, Capt. Kratovil was informed that official spokesmen had attributed the sighting to a "weather balloon" released from Grenier AFB, in New Hampshire.
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.