On a Sunday morning in April 1949 a research team involved in guided missile studies was preparing to release several balloons to test wind, direction, and other factors. Several tools of tracking and sighting were in place and at the ready.
In tracking the balloons, other objects were observed : elliptical (or disc shaped),about 105 feet in diameter and capable of performing turns requiring more "G's" than any craft then in use. It's altitude was estimated at 57 miles (or 3000,960 feet) and moving about 5 miles per second.
This emerged from an article in the March 1950 issue of TRUE MAGAZINE. There may have also been similar sightings in May and June of 1949 at the White Sands Proving Grounds, in New Mexico. The chief informant for this was one Commander Robert B. McLaughlin, an expert on guided missiles, and at the time of the TRUE article in command of The Bristol destroyer for the U.S. Navy. He had been present at the time of the sighting.
Also of note was the response this this bombshell. March 8, 1950 - at the time the TRUE issue came out - Paul Ellis, an UP Science editor penned a wire story called "Flying Saucers Are they Real?" In that article he mentions that CHARLES B.MOORE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, who had worked with weather balloons since 1943 was in New Mexico the previous April (1949) working with New York University in an ongoing project. On April 24, near Cabello Damn in Arrey, New Mexico, witnesses using a theodolite instrument viewed a "non-balloon" object. Moore said the object was elliptical, 100 feet long, 300,000 feet in altitude, moving 7 miles a second. This sighting was duly reported to Navy and Air Force authorities but no replied had been received. This article says a "Commander Robert M.McLaughlin", researcher in guided missiles said he believed the object authentic and from Mars.
One of the most interesting aspects of this story is the fact the Air Force seems little connected with the story. It is a naval officer, a naval project and in April it the U.S. Navy that issues a rebuttal of sorts. This was a time when there was still some competition between the major armed forces over the whole "air power" issue. The Air Force had been created in late 1947, but the Navy, the Army and other branches retained their own air craft. Later, in the late 1950's this overlap will be addressed giving to each a specific field of development (the Army will have oversight of helicopter and rotor bladed craft, as a n example). At this early day, however, the various branches were ALL engaged in research, testing, and their own inter agency arm's race. It is the content of the press release, when compared to the other two articles from McLaughlin and Moore, that proves intriguing.
The U.S. Navy said that "flying saucers" are real - BUT they are merely revolutionary aircraft combining features of a fast jet plane and a helicopter. They are said to conform to known principles of flying, a quote from "the magazine," but were secret. Thus the hundreds of competent observers included Army and Air Force officers. The original source pointed out that the Navy was busy building advanced models of flying saucers-type craft "originally constructed and successfully test flown by U.S. engineers back in 1942." 1942 would have been a year after Pearl Harbor and if a viable air craft it would have outmaneuvered any known craft of the time and in war, one would think, its development would have been critical to winning the war and saving lives.
According to "reliable sources" concerning the topic of saucers in flight, they "are circular, diameter of 105 +/- feet." They have "apparent jet nozzles" around outer edge, they are ten feet thick, and are built in layers, are capable of flying 200-600 miles per hour; can land at low speed of 35 mph. The "U.S. News" pointed out, the news clipping continued, that a "saucer" was seen and tracked for several minutes at White Sands and so the conclusion was that the objects must have been these top secret craft described by the U.S. Navy.
There are numerous early sightings of in flight and near the ground craft in the 1950's with what appeared to be nozzles around the outer edge (along with lights), with clear canopy like projections on top or to one side, hovering speeds, and pacing speeds to current known commercial and military aircraft. The 1952 Pittsburg, Kansas sighting is one; it was one Dr. Hynek would later write should have been more closely and scientifically investigated.
Beginning in October 1946 many aircraft would begin testing the boundaries of height, speed, and maneuverability through various development projects with the government (Military and/or CIA). Yeager would "break" the sound barrier in a short aircraft called the Bell X-1 and the entire "X" series, and others, would emerge often in craft about 30 feet wide and about the same lengthwise. They were small and incredibly fast (1,000 + mph) and only reaching 90,000 ceiling altitude. Even the record breaking "X-15" only reached 67 miles in 1963.
So - - if there was a Navy project resulting in a craft acting as the ones described by the witnesses...what happened to it? Was it merely absorbed into the spy planes craziness of the early Cold War times? If this was all achieved in 1949 - why were the developments so slow in being actualized in other aircraft of the times?
(Sources include the March 1950 issue of True Magazine, NICAP records, "Naval Officer Says There Are Flying Saucers, Thinks They May Come from Mars," New Mexico Ledger (Mexico, Missouri) 10 March 1950, pg. 12; "Navy Researcher Says "Saucers" Are Interplanetary", Sapulpa Daily Herald, (Sapulpa, Oklahoma, 23 February 1950, pg. 1; Paul Ellis, UPI Science Editor, "Flying Saucers are the Real?", Sapulpa Daily Herald (Oklahoma), March 8, 1950. "The Answer Still Lacking." El Reno (El Reno, OK, April 1950)
