Dr. Menzel's UFO Report (1963)

 The document is labeled "UFO SIGHTING BY DHM, September 8, 1963:

"From a jet plane flying at an altitude of about 30,000 feet over eastern Kansas, September 8 1963, I saw a remarkable and realistic UFO, quite unlike any that I had previously noted. I was seated on the northern side of the plane The time was around noon, local time, and the sun was shining very brightly at that altitude. I suddenly became aware of a bright object, broken in two by a  horizontal dark line. It closely resembled the Saturn shaped saucers frequently reported. It seemed to be pacing our plane at a distance of several miles and at an appreciably lower altitude, I almost immediately recognized it for what it later proved to be though its physical appearance was certainly very different. It was indeed a jet plane, the silver body brilliantly illuminated. There was no trace of wings.

The double line was a reflection effect between the double windows and I was actually seeing two reflections, themselves very bright, separated by a region in between that seemed dark by comparison. It did give the effect of a single Saturn -shaped ship following along. While I was trying to conform this by detection of the plane itself, to my amazement a second similar apparition came flying by at an enormous speed in the opposite direction. It was, of course, a jet and the relative speeds of the plan were about a mle in three seconds. Another jet, of course.  The saucer shaped illusion continued for at least ten minutes. And then, with gradual changing illumination or something, the brightness of the reflection must have concentrated rather sharply toward our plane, diminished and I could then see the form of the plane itself.  You will recall these windows are truly double with a considerable air spacing between them. This gives rise to the multiple effect. I could not help but think of the Chesapeake Bay Case in this connection and again keep wondering if you could not build up a reflection from outside in some such fashion by repeated reflection between the double windows. I do not know, however, whether there are actual double windows in the DC4 and if the spacing of them would give rise to such reflections."

---1963 09 9733827 EasternKansas.

One of the astounding things in this narrative is that this is a man, it is suspected, who left his impression on many, many case files by the presence of acerbic, sometimes slightly sarcastic, and imperative commands concerning the quality of witness statements, data collection, what was not asked, etc. The impression was those heavy, black, and sternly made notes and comments is of a man with little tolerance or patience and who did not suffer fools gladly. His multiple "??!!!" are very different from the notes left by others identified by name or initials. This individual NEVER left any sign of who he was.

If that man was this man, Donald H. Menzel, he had been involved with the "project" for many years, mostly in the shadows.  Had he been reading his own report I would expect those heavy, impatient, "!!!" because there is no mention of the type of plane he was in at the time, no clear indication about where he was over "eastern Kansas", there is no indication of which direction the plane was flying. Both of those details would have a lot to say about the quality of his sighting, the quality of his suggested explanation, and that seriously limits the ability to verify what other planes were in the air at the time to support his claims. 

In 1963, Menzel published his second book on the topic of "flying saucers" - a term he used as both label and laugh line - with Lyle G. Boyd. The book, THE WORLD OF FLYING SAUCERS (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963) can be found in gallery format and photocopies in more than a dozen Project Blue Book files. It, literally, appears to have been the "bible" for assigning solutions to cases and probably contributed greatly to the shifting of cases from the "Unknown" columns into the "probable". He was, however, very selective in stories he presented, how much he presented, and how he formed the narrative about the people, the events, and the explanations. 

According to his 1963 book preface several things stand out:

"At a conference with Air Force officials in Washington in April 1952, He [Menzel} presented his idea that planetary mirages, sundogs, reflections and other atmospheric, and optical phenomena probably accounted for a large percentage of the mysterious UFO's.  This suggestion met with strong skepticism from some of the conferees who at that time were sympathetic to the interplanetary hypothesis."  I wonder if this was one of the planning meetings with the AF, CIA about the "study" then being planned, i.e., The Batelle Institute study (the results would not be published until 1955).