in the news 1952
PART THIRTY-SEVEN
Top Picture: Dr. Daniel Q. Posin in a publicity photo in 1959. Dr. Posin was born in 1909 in Russian Turkestan. At the age of six his family fled the coming turmoil of the Russian revolution, and over the course of three years made its way to the United States, its final leg via steerage on a cattle boat. Knowing no English when he arrived at the age of nine, the brilliant young immigrant went on to graduate from the University of California at Berkeley with a Ph.D. in physics. For the next two years he stayed at Berkeley as a teaching assistant, at the same time teaching himself Spanish. From 1937 through 1941 he taught physics in Panama while also authoring textbooks in Spanish. It was during his time there that he would have his own unusual aerial sighting, which he openly wrote about later (second and third pictures, above, from his 1959 book "Out of this World"). Returning to the United States Dr. Posin taught at Montana State University and the Montana School of Mines, moving on in 1944 to M.I.T., where he researched radar and radioactivity. In 1946 Dr. Posin became chairman of the department of physics at North Dakota Agricultural College in Fargo, where in 1952 he authored "Flying Saucers, Space Travel and Atomic Energy" (story below). However Dr. Posin was accused of communist sympathies and was forced to leave his position in 1955. Dr. Posin moved to DePaul University in Illinois, and soon after began a very successful career as host of several science series for WGN and WTTW. Dr. Posin was the author of many books, gave thousands of lectures across the U.S., and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize six times for his work against nuclear proliferation. In his 2003 obituary, the Chicago Tribune stated...
"Daniel Q. Posin went to great lengths to explain the way the world behaved. Sometimes that meant the physics professor would do a handstand. Other times it meant using kittens to represent the nine planets orbiting the sun. But most often, it meant dancing, even during a university lecture on higher mathematics...
" 'The universe danced in his mind,' said his daughter, Kathryn, who described her father as a cross between Groucho Marx and Albert Einstein...
"He won six Emmys for his educational series broadcast by WGN and WTTW, including "Dr. Posin's Universe," "On the Shoulders of Giants" and "Out of This World." He served as an on-air consultant for WGN during the 1960s space race.
"In 1967 he moved on to San Francisco State University, where he taught physics and earth sciences until his retirement in 1996 at age 87."
NINETEEN FIFTY-TWO might be remembered for many things, large and small. The election of Dwight Eisenhower as President of the United States. Fifty thousand American families afflicted by Polio. The British A-bomb. The first issue of Mad magazine. The theory of the Big Bang.
But for those of a certain bent, 1952 will also be remembered for the second great 'flying saucer flap' which climaxed with the reports of radar and visual sightings over the nation's capital in late July.
Part of the story of that event-filled year is now available in declassified government files. But for the public back then -- at a time when only one in three families in America had a television set -- the story was mostly found in the newspapers and magazines.
This then is a look back at those stories, as they first appeared in print...
SEPTEMBER 3, 1952:
Hayward, California Daily Review - 3 Sep 52
Side Views
Now and then around a magazine office, some third vice president gets the idea that circulation is not as it should be. When that time comes, lookout. A little magazine called "People Today" is exhibiting the result of such a decision in this month's issue.
The result is the pronouncement that flying saucers are American and Soviet guided missiles. If you are a "pro" in this long argument, you'll want to tear out a copy for ready reference; if you're ag'in 'em, you'll find plenty of room for arguing with the "facts" presented.
But it's fun, anyway. And the conclusions are "a remarkable analysis" and "inescapable," according to the authors who, it should be pointed out, reached the above-mentioned decision independently.
The Soviet missiles are crewless, between 50 and 75 feet in length and powered by rockets. Ovoid in shape, the gismos fly up to 10,000 feet at over 2500 mph.
The best way to sum things up -- and the "cons" will hate this -- is done by Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, head of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico. Said he, "Compare the saucers with the atomic bomb. If someone had asked a Manhattan Project official for an explanation of the brilliant mushroom of light at Alamogordo, he would have received a blank stare and told that no such thing ever happened."
All of which may prove the things exist, but still is disappointing to some of us dreamers who had envisioned an invasion of super-intelligent Amazons from space.
Albuquerque, New Mexico Journal - 3 Sep 52
METEORITE EXPERTS: Four visiting meteoriticists at the University of New Mexico for the 15th annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society examine a piece of nickel iron material. Left to right they are: John R. Horan, Atomic Energy Division, American Cyanamid Co., Idaho Falls, Idaho; Col. D. Moreau Barringer, president of the Canyon Diablo Crater Co.; Clyde W. Tombaugh, White Sands Proving Grounds; and Dr. W.D. Crozier, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro. (Kew photo)
Albuquerque, New Mexico Journal - 3 Sep 52
Green Fireballs On Meteoritical Society's Agenda
The fifteenth annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society got underway at the University Tuesday with the reading of several scientific papers and a meeting of the society's council.
Approximately 25 members of the society from throughout the United States were present. A number of latecomers are expected to arrive today.
At the council meeting, which Dr. Lincoln LaPaz called the "biggest ever" because seven of the nine members were present, a request of an Albuquerque radio station to broadcast a certain portion of the meeting was rejected.
The station had asked permission to broadcast a round table discussion on green fireballs and "other anomalous luminous phenomena" which is presumed to mean flying saucers among other things.
11 Papers Read
The council refused the request on the grounds that "several members of the panel are associated with classified military projects." The round table discussion, however, will be open to the press and the public.
All told, 11 scientific papers were read at the two sessions of the meeting Tuesday.
They included highly scientific subjects and discussions from "On Pre-Atmospheric Geocentric Velocities of Meteorites" to a "Possible Explanation of the Nickel in Ancient Asiatic Coins."
On the subject of pre-atmospheric geocentric velocities, Dr. La Paz pointed out that this is the problem inhabited rockets will face on return trip to earth. It is a question of speed.
Noted Scientist Here
Among the men attending on the first day of the meeting was Clyde W. Tombaugh, who is now working at White Sands. Tombaugh is noted as the man who discovered the planet Pluto in 1929.
Col. D. Moreau Barringer, president of the Barringer Meteor Crater Co. in Arizona; Mr. and Mrs. George E. Foster, custodians of the famed crater; and John D. Buddhue, secretary treasurer of the society, were among those attending the meeting.
Two of Buddhue's scientific papers were read at Tuesday's meeting.
Albuquerque, New Mexico Journal - 3 Sep 52
Meteoritics Hear Paper On Chase of Fireball
"The Detonating Fireball of Nov. 8, 1951," a paper written by five university students and a mathematics instructor, was one of the scientific papers read before the fifteenth annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society Tuesday.
The paper was read by Dr. Paul W. Healy, UNM assistant professor of mathematics, and concerned the series of explosions and observations of witnesses who saw the fireball. Some of these observations were 350 miles from the probable point of impact near Cloverdale, N.M.
The paper grew out of a field trip made by the five students. They were:
William Cassidy, geology graduate student; Harry Baldwin, mathematics graduate student; Arthur Sorensen , senior in anthropology; James Yarnell, sophomore in mathematics; and Marie T. Smith, junior in mathematics.
These students were recruited from an astronomy class taught by Dr. LaPaz. The field trip was an Institute of Meteoritics project.
The paper covered a description of the field trip and also included answers given by observers to the questioning students.
In Chihuahua, Mex., one observer said the fireball was so bright that it cast shadows. Another observer said he saw a column of smoke rise 1500 feet into the air.
The field party interviewed 35 people from the Cloverdale impact area who had seen the fireball. All told, more than 100 people were interrogated by the party. This fireball, which fell in Mexico, was never found although a search party started after it.
Baldwin, one of the members of the party said, "We had to give up the search because of rough canyons. Each one would have taken several hours to cross."
Salisbury, Maryland Times - 3 Sep 52
Seven flying Saucers Reported Seen Over Wicomico County
Flying saucers -- seven of them in a "V" formation -- were sighted over Wicomico County at 1:30 a.m. yesterday.
But the man who sighted them wasn't "fool enough" to tell anybody about them.
John A. Vickers, Salisbury contractor, let the word slip out at a baseball dinner yesterday afternoon. He had sighted the saucers on his way home to Sharptown.
He had decided to say nothing about them because he didn't think much of flying saucer stories. Operator of a plane charter service, he was talking about flying when he said he saw the saucers at least 20,000 feet high.
They were traveling faster than the fastest jet plane he has ever seen, he added reluctantly. They were yellow round disks, he said, with white tails. The tail was not like the short and more yellow afterglow of a jet plane, he added.
They soon disappeared from view at a high rate of speed. Although Mr. Vickers is a frequent flier, he said that he had never seen anything like the saucers before. He had time to stop his car and watch them momentarily.
Altoona, Pennsylvania Mirror - 3 Sep 52
Hollidaysburg Watchers Sight Strange Object
Whether they were flying saucers or not, watchers of the ground observation corps at Hollidaysburg have spotted two unknown objects in the sky, which they lost no time in reporting to the Pittsburgh filter center.
Because of limited visibility at the temporary post on top of the courthouse annex, they missed seeing a strange object which floated above Northfield Tuesday evening, before sunset.
Citizens of that area, alert to the potential danger of any unusual appearance in the sky these ominous times, phoned to the ground observer supervisor, Alfred L. Rhett, immediately. The thing which zigzagged across Northfield was reported to be like an orange ball. One man said he saw it plainly until it was obscured by a cloud. When the cloud moved away it had disappeared.
Walla Walla, Washington Union-Bulletin - 3 Sep 52
Officer Finds Nothing Where Radar Reports
CHICAGO -- An Air Force officer said Wednesday he flew his jet fighter plane "right through" a spot where radar had shown an unexplained object. He said he saw "nothing but empty air."
Capt. William W. Maitland said he believed it was the first time "that an Air Force intercepter [sic] actually tracked down and rode through what some observers have said were mysterious extraterrestial [sic] flying crafts or flying saucers.
Two Sabre jets were summoned after night radar crews of the Civil Aeronautics Administration reported tracking a number of unexplained objects over the city, he said.
The jets passed close to the spot where radar observers had reported reflections but Maitland and Lt. Beverly L. Dunjill, pilot of the other plane, saw "nothing but empty air."
Before discontinuing the air search, Maitland and Dunjill asked CAA radarmen: "Head us right for whatever you see. We'll ram it if necessary."
"We then passed right through the spot of reflection and din't [sic] see or hit anything," Maitland said.
A CAA official explained the reflections could be caused by atmospheric conditions, differences in moisture content between two layers of air, temperature differentials and possibly differences in electrical charges in patches of air.
Mason City, Iowa Globe Gazette - 3 Sep 52
Solution Found to Flying Saucer With Sound Effects at Rockwell
KOCKAVELL -- A flying saucer with sound effects puzzled a great many Rockwell residents Tuesday evening. The puzzle was not solved until Wednesday when the sound was finally identified.
At 10:15 p.m. Tuesday a number of persons heard what they thought was the town fire siren. Albert Gossweiler, Jr., ran from his home in the south part of town and as he turned north toward the station saw a "red-orange disc" flash across the sky. His view was limited by trees on both sides of the street so it was only a momentary glimpse.
At the fire station he was joined by another citizen who also had heard the siren. Mrs. Alice Powell, night telephone operator, also reported a number of calls asking where the fire was. She replied that she had not pressed the button to sound the fire siren.
Wednesday it was reported that the Rockwell nursing home has a new automatic fire siren which had tripped because of a short in the electrical circuit al 10:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Gossweiler's disc is assumed to have been a meteor. There were no aircraft reported in that vicinity at that hour, according to the CAA station at the Mason City Municipal Airport.
Hutchinson, Kansas News Herald - 3 Sep 52
Ness City Woman Reports Saucer
NESS CITY -- Mrs. John Kindsvater has won the title of initial flying saucer spotter of Ness county, according to a belated announcement.
Mrs. Kindsvater saw her saucer -- first and only one reported in this county -- at 11 p.m. on Aug. 14.
She promptly reported her experience to the Ness County News. The News held up publication of the information in the hope someone else would report seeing the saucer, without first being tempted to hallucination by the news report.
But no further reports came in, so the News belatedly, but gratefully bestows the title on Mrs. Kindsvater.
Billings, Montana Gazette - 3 Sep 52
'Flying Saucer' Reported Over Billings Believed To Be Weather Balloon
A "flying saucer" reported to have been seen over Billings Tuesday night was believed to be a pilot baloon [sic] released by the weather station at the municipal airport.
Persons who declined to be identified reported seeing a bright colored object which at first appeared to be white and then turned "reddish, like a star" traveling across the sky from west to east about 8 o'clock. They said it was very high, looked to be about the size of a quarter and was visible for some 15 minutes. A telephone call to the weather station revealed that the bureau had released a pilot balloon 17 minutes previously. The balloon had a flashlight attached to it and traveled in an easterly direction
Ogden, Utah Standard Examiner - 3 Sep 52
It's Not Saucers On Oquirrh Peak
SALT LAKE CITY -- There was a flurry of flying saucer reports last night when residents of the Salt Lake valley saw lights in the Oquirrh mountains to the west and over Great Salt lake west of Bountiful.
Investigation showed:
The light in the Oquirrh mountains turned out to be a spotlight at the site of a television tower under construction. Workmen had forgotten to turn it off.
And the control tower at Salt Lake municipal airport said the lights over the lake were from night flying military planes.
Tucson, Arizona Daily Citizen - 3 Sep 52
Local 'Saucer' Balloonish
By James Cooper
DAVIS-MONTHAN officials said today that the object which
intrigued so many Tucsonians this morning was one of the vast
"Moby Dick" observation balloons released in the east to check
winds aloft.
What was probably the world's first radio report of a "flying saucer" was broadcast this morning by Stan Norman, KTUC announcer and Square-Deal McNeal, a used car advertiser.
Breaking into his commercial program at 7:21, Norman said a saucer had been reported north of Tucson and west of the Catalinas. He and McNeal stretched a cord through the rear door of the station and began broadcasting its location from the back yard.
This reporter, en route to his labors, heard the broadcast, whipped his car to the station and joined Norman and McNeal, never once believing they had sighted anything -- knowing a used car man will do anything to turn a piece of iron.
Norman and McNeal, however, spread their arms in welcome and pointed out their find.
It looked like a weather balloon looking like a flying saucer probably looks.
It hung to the northwest, about 45 degrees above the horizon. It appeared to be motionless and seemed to have a halo around it. It was silver in color and reflected the sun. Estimations of its altitude ranged from 5,000 to 25,000 feet.
Forty minutes later, several Citizen reporters viewed the object, and then the phones started to ring from observers who advanced any number of theories.
Best offered came from Hector Salvatierra, 2102 E. Helen st. He had watched it through a home-made high-powered telescope. It was a balloon, he said, shaped like a turnip. He said it was transparent.
At the airport, the U.S. weather bureau reported the object probably was not a weather balloon. They are released at 8 a.m. and this was spotted earlier. Besides, the wind was in the wrong direction, they said.
Tucson, Arizona Daily Citizen - 3 Sep 52
[No Headline]
Don McCraven, 4237 Oracle rd, an instructor pilot at Marana air base, said he saw an object at 9 a.m., maneuvering wildly over Tucson -- "not an airplane, not a balloon, you name it."
He said the craft flew a circular course over Tucson and made at least two flat dives toward the earth. Its speed was described as phenomenal in that it moved 43 degrees along the horizon in three to four seconds. On the second dive, the object came from 50 degrees altitude to 20 degrees in about one second, McCraven said. It then disappeared.
"I have my own opinion as to what it was," he said. "But I'll not make a statement until there is something more definite to back it up."
Sault Ste. Marie, Canada Daily Star - 3 Sep 52
Red Light Mystery In Lake Simcoe
BARRIE -- Provincial Police and residents of the northeast end of Lake Simcoe played tag, last night and early today, with a red light.
The light, first reported late in the evening, was said to have appeared at many points around the lake. Police checked each report, but the cause of the light has not been determined.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette - 3 Sep 52
Foto Facts
By John Reynolds
AS SOON as fall is in prospect, I start laying plans for my annual Indian summer day-dream.
It's always been an enjoyable experience because I make careful preparations to assure its pleasurable success.
Then along comes one of those lazy-hazy Indian summer afternoons when the sun seems to slant more than ever and when the air is filled with soft cobwebs that brush your face when you walk along.
The it is that I goof off to dream...
Probably the story I'd most like to write would be one which would finally tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about Flying Saucers.
In my dream I come upon one of these saucer things which finally has achieved a landing on an Iowa prairie.
A door would open in the strange-looking space ship and a human figure or figures would emerge.
Through their super-intelligence they would tell me that I had naught to fear. They would say that their trip was benevolent, that their visit to the Earth-land would be repeated many times. They would explain that their purpose in coming was to insure the cessation of Earth wars which might employ atomic attacks that could set up chain reactions destroying not a world but a universe.
The scoop probably would get me a Pulitzer prize and let me leave off worrying so goldarn much about the Russians...
Hope, Arkansas Star - 3 Sep 52
Sky Secrets Experts Confer in Rome
ROME -- The world's greatest experts on the secrets of the skies met here today -- but flying saucers were a forbidden topic.
Leading astronomers of 35 nations are among the 430 delegates gathered for the eighth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union.
Flying saucers are not the only subject of public speculation which the stargazers are giving the go-by. Discussion of possible life on other planets also will be avoided.
"The congress will discuss only positive facts concerning astronomy," said Prof. Lucio Gialanella, the union's secretary-general.
SEPTEMBER 4, 1952:
Bismarck, North Dakota Tribune - 4 Sep 52
Common Problem
Lost Balloons Plague Cosmic Ray Scientists
Cosmic ray scientists working here this summer have at least one problem in common with local youngsters.
They lose balloons.
Unfortunately for the scientists, their balloons aren't toys. When one gets lost it disappears with a collection of scientific instruments vital to the cosmic ray studies they are making.
The cosmic ray men are confident their balloons are coming down, but either they aren't being found or they're not being returned.
The balloons are worth $10 to the finder who returns them in the condition found, but nothing to the finder who keeps them.
Prof. H.V. Neher, in charge of the crew, said the situation has grown so serious that his crew is now out of instruments.
Of the last 11 balloons released, only three have been returned, he said. He asks cooperation, which he said is vital to the success of the project.
Flights which have been returned and the dates of their release include: Aug. 21, found by Clifford Hiam, Lisbon; Aug. 26, found by John Gross, Cleveland; and Aug. 30, found by Robert Fogstad, Maddock.
Flights unreturned include Aug 23, 90,000 feet, heading east; Aug 23, night, 90,000 feet; Aug 24, 65,000 feet, heading east; Aug 27, 92,000 feet, heading northeast; Aug 28, 108,000 feet, heading northeast; Sept. 1, 92,000 feet, heading southeast; Sept. 2, 110,000 feet (highest in two years), southeast; and Sept. 3, 100,000 feet, southeast.
By way of comparison, the one found near Maddock reached 80,000 feet and the one at Cleveland was lost after an hour and a half. The distance the balloons travel depends on the velocity of the wind.
Bismarck, North Dakota Tribune - 4 Sep 52
Space Travelers Get Some Tips From Dr. Posin
"Flying Saucers, Space Travel and Atomic Energy," Dr. D.Q. Posin's latest book, offers some valuable tips for prospective interplanetary space travelers.
It also provides good reading for stay-at-homes.
Dr. Posin, chairman of the department of physics at North Dakota Agricultural College in Fargo, devotes his sixth book to a readable, scientifically backgrounded account of interstellar mysteries.
Widely known for his brilliant presentation of atomic energy for laymen, Posin now discusses the possibility that flying saucers are connected with people from another planet in our solar system.
Power and fuel requirements for a successful space ship also are discussed, and an estimate of the time required to reach various planets is included.
Before coming to NDAC seven years ago, Posin was a research man and professor at a number of other institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he worked on radar; University of Montana, where he was president of the Montana Academy of Science, and the University of Panama where he also headed the physics department.
He has lectured both at home and abroad on the subjects of atomic energy and flying saucers, has appeared often on radio and TV, and his talks have been filmed in England and Hollywood.
Ludington, Michigan News - 4 Sep 52
Flying Saucer Comes to City?
Flying saucers have come to Ludington. At least Wanda Hayes, 13, of Ludington Route 1 and her uncle, William Leslie of Hart believe that they have.
While driving through the Fourth ward delivering fruit this morning, Mr. Leslie thought he saw an airplane. However, after taking a second look and calling the attention of his niece, they deducted that a flying saucer was hovering over Ludington, slowly revolving toward the direction of the lake.
Mr. Leslie estimated the saucer to be 500 or 600 feet in the air. He described it as disc shaped with aerial like aperture sprouting horizontally from the side, and slightly larger than an airplane.
According to Wanda, the disc appeared silvery and with the sun shining upon it, a halo effect seemed to revolve around the disc.
Reno, Nevada State Journal - 4 Sep 52
Forester Says He Saw Saucers
On August 26, 1952, at 11 a.m., Kelso Dellera, who resides in Sierraville and is a foreman for the Forest Service, says he saw four or five flying saucers. Dellera was removing logs from a road near Yuba Pass when he looked up into the sky and saw these four or five shiny, greenish-blue, swift-moving objects.
When he saw them they appeared to be very high over Antelope Valley on the south side of Sierra Valley. They were heading in a northeasterly direction at a tremendous speed, said Dellera. They disappeared out of sight in less than a minute.
They were travelling in an up and down, half circular pattern. They were not in formation. Some were going up while some were going down. When they started to go up they appeared to momentarily pause. Dellera tried to call the flying saucers to the attention of one of his fellow workers who was only a short distance away, but before he could do this the objects were beyond sight.
Newswire Report Agence France Presse - 4 Sep 52
Pousan [sic], Sept. 4 -- A "flying saucer" was supposedly seen today by several persons over Pusan, the temporary capital of South Korea. This is the second such report in two months.
According to the witnesses, the machine, of a whitish color, spun slowly above the city for 11 minutes, then disappeared at a "terrific" speed.
Tangier, Morocco Espana - 4 Sep 52
Luminous Object Seen Over Mallorca
On 3 September 1952, late at night, four professors of the Seraphic Seminary in Palma, Mallorca Island, noticed a luminous disk in the sky, traveling from west to east. They said that it could not have been a shooting star and that they were giving the report as objectively as possible in its barest details to provide another item for the study of the flying saucer phenomenon.
SEPTEMBER 5, 1952:
Walla Walla, Washington Union-Bulletin, 5 Sep 52
Scientists Report On Flying Saucers
STUTTGART, GERMANY, Sept. 5 -- A group of scientists who seriously expect man someday to rocket to Mars say that flying saucers may be nothing but optical illusions. And they are not space ships from another planet.
The 200 scientists from 12 countries gathered here for the Third International Astronautical Congress agreed almost unanimously that the "saucers" aren't men from Mars or any other body out in space.
The experts also said they did not believe the reported flying
discs were a new weapon -- but they did not rule out that possibility completely.
Most of the scientists at the congress said, however, they felt the illusion theory probably was correct.
Spokane, Washington Daily Chronicle - 5 Sep 52
"Green Fireballs" Held Man-Caused
AGLBUQUERQUE, N.M., Sept. 5 -- A noted American astronomer believes the mysterious flaming green "fireballs" observed in western skies during the last three years were artificial, and not natural phenomena.
Dr. Frederick Leonard, head of the astronomy department of the University of California at Los Angeles, told a convention of experts on meteors here yesterday that "in view of overwhelming reports by scientists, I am forced to believe in them (fireballs)."
However, he added, he was certain the objects were not natural phenomena such as meteors or other celestial bodies that accidently wander into the earth's atmosphere.
Although he indicated they were artificial the California astronomer did not elaborate on his theories concerning the nature of the "fireballs."
Leonard spoke at the 15th annual meeting of the American Meteorital [sic] society.
Lima, Ohio News, 5 Sep 52
Northern Gets World-Wide Reports on Flying Saucers
ADA -- Response to Ohio Northern university's world-wide plea for reports on flying saucer sightings has been gratifying, it was learned Friday from officials of the institution.
ONU recently announced plans for Project A under which it will
analyze reports from any individuals or groups that have sighted objects believed to be flying saucers. Purpose of the study is to arrive at a logical explanation for the saucer appearances if possible and to publicize the true findings.
Officials have received word from several European countries, and a series of water color sketches from an eye witness in Denmark. Another water color sketch was received from a witness in Cleveland area and a wooden model has been furnished by a central Ohio witness.
This wooden model represents the object witnessed by seven witnesses in that particular sighting. This model is unique in that it represents a sighting made about July 24, yet the model is almost identical in shape to the sighting recently reported by Scoutmaster E.S. DesVergers at West Palm Beach, Fla.
MOST SIGHTINGS are from the Texas area, and the university data forms have been filled in by persons in all walks of life including housewives, airline presidents, and engineers.
The objects reported to the university seem to break down into two or three types, the most numerous of which at present indicate an object several times larger than the largest transport plane seen by eye witnesses. Usually it performs complicated maneuvers and finally disappears at tremendous speed.
Another group of sightings are in some ways similar to conventional aircraft in more recent design. No pattern can be determined yet because of the limited number of reports received, but apparently more saucers are sighted in the southwest part of the U.S. although some have come from as far north as the state of Washington.
The university is in need of at least 200 more sightings reports before they are able to effectively categorize the data. They are asking the public to support this project and send in the report of their sightings of these flying saucers. There have been several persons who have written to Project A about their intensive interest in the program, and tho they have not personally sighted any phenomena, they have requested the university to send them the findings. Ohio Northern will be very happy to send this information to any group or persons desiring it after they have completed the study on the basis of the reports received from eye-witnesses, officials explained.
Titusville, Pennsylvania Herald - 5 Sep 52
Echoes In Oil Creek Valley
By the Staff
...Miss Ruth Mitchell, Colestock Annex kindergarten teacher, registered two sets of twins in her afternoon class on Wednesday. One set is a rarity, but this was Miss Mitchell's firm experience with two sets...
Yesterday Miss Mitchell gave her children paper and crayons and urged them to draw a picture of anything. One child drew an odd-looking object, and when the teacher asked what that was, the artist replied: "A flying saucer."
(Not to get off the kindergarten subject, but a red object was sighted in the sky over Plumer Wednesday night at 9:30 by five persons. They said it remained stationary for about ten minutes and hummed unlike an airplane. "It was a real bright red," one woman said, "but when it started for Titusville it turned white.")...
Bradford, Pennsylvania Era - 5 Sep 52
Round The Square
SAUCERS SEEN: From nearby Roulette comes reports of flying saucers. On separate evenings last week near midnight, a man and his wife and a group of boys traveling by car from Port Allegany to Roulette reported seeing a bright object moving slowly over the hills and crossing the road at a low altitude. The couple said the object seemed to follow them most of the way to Roulette. Both observers reported the sight as "eerie and frightening."
Beckley, West Virginia Raleigh Register - 5 Sep 52
Bug Dust -- By Thomas F. Stafford
Bill Grass, of Daniels, says he doesn't think he is ready for the boogey house yet. He hasn't started cutting out paper dolls and he has no delusions that he is Stonewall Jackson or Harry Truman.
Its a sure-fire fact in Bill's book that there's something to this business of flying saucers.
Last Tuesday morning -- about 3 a.m. -- he got up to feed his new offspring, and after doing so looked out the window.
Over Beckley, riding the crest of the airwaves, was a white-to-red object that first flew sideways, then up and down. It moved swiftly, but had no trouble hovering in midair whenever it wanted to.
Bill proved he wasn't seeing things by his wife. She saw it, too.
Lima, Ohio News - 5 Sep 52
Looking at Lima
FLYING SAUCER department: Those "saucers" in the north Lima sky at 10 a.m. Thursday were no saucers, according to Mrs. Earl Long, 323 Maple Lane. "It was a jet plane," she reported. "I saw it and so did my neighbor."
Lemars, Iowa Semi Weekly Sentinel - 5 Sep 52
Rev. Straube's Family Sees "Flying Saucer" West Of Pomeroy
Rev. M.L. Straube, pastor of St. John's Evangelical and Reformed church, and his family were returning from Fort Dodge Sunday afternoon, when They sighted what they thought was a FLYING SAUCER!
It was about 6:30 p.m. and the family was traveling in their car on Highway 5 west of Pomeroy. Sharon Straube was first to notice the blue-white glow traveling slowly west against a bank of low hanging clouds.
"It didn't look like an airplane, it was something different than we had ever seen before," Rev. Straube explained.
"It looked like a star, but the stars weren't out yet. It appeared to look a lot like the planet Venus."
The Straubes saw the glow several minutes before it disappeared.
"We all thought is was very pretty, and it didn't bother us too much," Rev. Straube added.
Deming, New Mexico Headlight - 5 Sep 52
Object In Sky Seen Here Again
A "big, white, round object" which appeared to be traveling faster than a jet airplane. A flying saucer?
Deming's Fire Chief Danny Simonds wouldn't hazard a guess at what it was, but that's what he saw Tuesday night.
Chief Simonds and Buster Williams were standing in front of the fire house at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, when they both saw the object, the chief said. It was big, round, white in color, traveling like a jet plane but faster. They saw it in the southwest and it appeared to be heading on a level towards the southeast.
The fire chief said they watched it for about 10 seconds. "We thought at first it was a shooting star," Simonds said. "But it didn't leave any trail of lights. I don't know what it was we saw. I wouldn't guess."
Phoenix, Arizona Republic - 5 Sep 52
Just A Balloon
Scores In Prescott See Flying Saucer -- Almost
PRESCOTT, Sept 4 -- You could have knocked Prescott people over with a comic strip rocket gun Thursday.
For two hours scores jammed sidewalks to ogle at the sky while telephone lines to the newspaper, police, and fire stations, and the weather bureau were choked with queries.
Hovering about 10,000 feet overhead was a whitish-silver balloon -- but it looked for all the world like a flying what-ya-call-'em. People reported it as soon as the sun came up. At the same time Prescott's only radio station, KYCA, went off the air with a blown-out transmitter.
The disk hung around for two hours, occasionally floating leisurely northwesterly, before finally leaving.
Weather observers here followed its course with an instrument used to track weather balloons.
They explained it was a plastic balloon and said it was about 25 feet in diameter, used for gathering scientific upper-air data.
But local folks, particularly the youngsters, called it a flying what-ya-call-'em.
Reno, Nevada State Journal - 5 Sep 52
More Flying Discs Are Being Sighted By Reno Residents
Flying saucers are popping over Nevada skies again.
Latest report was made to the Journal office by Jack Baldwin and Mr. and Mrs. Chet Cleary of Reno. The objects -- 22 of them by actual count -- were seen by Mr. Baldwin and Mr. and Mrs. Cleary as they were driving to Winnemucca. Furthermore, they were seen for a full ten minutes between 7:30 and 7:40.
They reported that the 22 saucers were like silver discs. The saucers hung motionless in the sky, making no untoward moves that were noticed by their observers.
No report was made as to what happened to the saucers.
Oakland, California Tribune - 5 Sep 52
Vallejo Pair See Fleet Of 24 Saucers
RENO, Sept. 5. -- A Vallejo, Calif., couple reported they saw 24 strange objects flying east of here today.
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Gracik, 271 Highway 40, Vallejo, insisted the objects were not airplanes, birds or anything else they could recognize.
The objects were silver-colored and shaped like eggs, said Gracik. They were reportedly seen about 30 miles east of here.
Paris, Texas News - 5 Sep 52
Scaring Us Should Come To An End
It is refreshing after being treated to a dose of scare from day to day to have a man competent to express an opinion say that he believes Russia has never made an atom bomb.
Statements to the contrary have ranged all the way from President Truman's some time ago, that Russia had exploded atomic bombs three times, to the estimate of others that Russia had a stockpile of one hundred or more of the weapons. None of them offered proof of their statement or estimates. They just put them out and let it go at that.
That these statements were calculated to drive us into far greater expense and waste in preparing for defense against Russia is certain, besides starting us to having a lot of people waste their time sky-watching, some of them seeing flying saucers that never offered to do any damage.
Now comes an engineer who knows Russia. He helped build a big dam there in 1930, and during the second world war he was an Army engineer with the rank of colonel, building a road from the Persian Gulf to carry supplies we gave Russia in the fight against Hitler. This man knows Russian engineers and scientists and he found that in Russia nobody trusts anybody else. He says Russian scientists are brilliant theorists, but theory alone does not produce an atom bomb nor anything else.
Russian engineers, he says, do not cooperate, for any sign or combination of effort is looked on by the secret police as a threat to the dictatorship. There is no trusting of one by another. The greatest rewards are given those who expose others who are accused of working against the government.
So let's have a vacation on being scared of Russian bombs. Let us devote more time and effort in identifying and getting rid of the Communists in our midst -- our greatest threat.
Helena, Montana Independent Record - 5 Sep 52
Developing Long Range Planes
Every kind of flying machine but a witch's broom and a flying saucer has wobbled, chugged, roared or otherwise trailed its peculiar sound-effects across the Atlantic ocean for a first-time record. Zeppelins and even a helicopter have done it.
A year ago a Royal Air Force "Canberra" twin-jet bomber made a non-stop flight westward from Ireland to Newfoundland. Now the same pilot has flown the same plane for the first Atlantic round-trip in a single day.
His elapsed time, including a two-hour refueling stop at Gander, was a bit over 10 hours. His actual flying time averaged 500 miles an hour. That was somewhat more than an ordinary eight-hour day's work for Wing Commander Roland Beamont and his crew.
The top speed of the Canberra is still a secret, but there is more speculation as to its payload. It may be assumed that the great quantity of fuel required did not leave much airborne capacity for a cargo of what the plane was meant to carry -- bombs. An airplane that pours fuel through its engines like water through a hose is extremely dependent on good weather and the absence of strong head winds.
Nevertheless, these ocean flights are more than stunts by which a nation struts its stuff. Grueling flights of dramatic character are marvelous tests of aircraft. Faults that might not show up in a month of one-way crossings may come to light sooner if the plane turns around and heads back without any rest or overhaul.
The Canberra's latest achievement is no exception to the value of this kind of testing by ordeal.
Salt Lake City, Utah Tribune - 5 Sep 52
This space suit was shown scientists from twelve nations attending the third International Aeronautical Congress at Stuttgart.
Trip to Moon? Scientist Says Not for Long Time
STUTTGART, Germany, Sept. 4 -- The cold wind of scientific realism blew across the International Congress of Astronautics Thursday.
Prof. Joseph Stemmer, president of the Swiss Astronautics Assn., in the first address of 10 delivered during the day, warned enthusiasts that a trip to the moon or Mars "cannot even be blueprinted yet" and deplored exaggerated optimism over the immediate future of space travel.
Like a great many other scientists gathered for the conference, Prof. Stemmer fears that stunts such as selling tickets for a trip to the moon may harm rather than help research in astronautics.
His address thus keynoted an atmosphere of scholarly investigation which the congress hopes will prevail henceforth and emphasized the difficulties remaining rather than the barriers already overcome.
One factor which hampers the congress is that most of the work in long range rockets, which are considered the only means of man's reaching outer space, is controlled by various national military establishments and thus is secret.
What most of the scientists hope is that they will be able to conquer other problems related to space flight while researchers and experimenters working in secrecy solve the question of the construction of rockets capable of reaching outer space.
Arthur C. Clarke, chairman of the British Interplanetary Society, pointed out that objects like saucers have been commonplace to Japanese fishermen for years. Saucers themselves thus are not new, he said, but are merely appearing in areas where they have not been observed in the past.
Prof. Stemmer's address was regarded by delegates as a dash of scientific horse sense applied to the "mythology" of astronautics.
"This is where we stand today," Stemmer said, "firmly on the earth. The great tasks are still ahead of us."
Notes:
1. The "Moby Dick" balloon project mentioned in "Local 'Saucer' Balloonish" was a series of balloon launches to test high altitude winds. There were two such launches on September 2, 1952, and one on September 3, 1952, in addition to a launch listed as "infrared gear". One of these may also be the same balloon mentioned in "Scores In Prescott See Flying Saucer -- Almost", or a More information on the various balloon programs at Holloman can be found here.
2. The unheadlined article telling of the reported sighting by Don McCraven, instructor pilot at Marana Air Base, may or may not be the incident referred to in Project Blue Book's listing of files for September 3, 1953, which lists a file for Tucson, Airzona on that date. That incident was evaluated as unidentified. Unfortunately, the file either does not exist or is not easily located in declassified Blue Book files.
3. Translations of foreign-language articles in this post come from the declassified files of Project Blue Book as well as the CIA.
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