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Woodland Man Sights Disks at Close Range

The far-famed "flying objects" were seen at close hand over Woodland, Wash., Friday afternoon.  In two groups, numbering either 9 or 10 in all, and soaring between 1000 and 2000 feet, they skimmed silently as clouds from north to south  making a southeasternly turn as they disappeared.  There was no sound, no vapor trail, only the very thin, pie-plate affairs now reported as having been seen in several Western states, which, as they "undulated" in the air, flashed the rays of the sun like the reflection from mirros.

REPORT TELEPHONED

This is the report, telephoned in a matter-of-fact tone to The Journal late Friday by Clyde Homan, who lives in Woodland and is manager of Tulips, Inc., a bulb-growing property about, two miles south of that city in Southwestern Washington.  Homan said the objects also were seen by the farm foreman who was in a warehouse but ran to the door as Homan called and glimpsed them just as they were disappearing in the southeast.  "I was sitting at my desk in the office when a bright flash came in the window," Homan reported.  "I looked up at the sky and saw these things in two groups pretty close together.  I didn't get an exact count  there were four or five in the first bunch, and the same number in the second, which was behind the first some 400 or 500 yards.

"I couldn't see shapes much either because they were very bright, reflecting the sun like from metal  not glass mirrors - and the flash was so bright I couldn't make out the shape behind it.  They were going fast, but not 1200 miles an hour.  I'd say about twice as fast as an ordinary airliner, maybe 600 miles an hour.  There were no particular formation except that they were bunched.

"The peculiar thing was the way they moved along  tilting back and forth, tipping up and down, undulating  and every time they reached the right reflection angle, the flashes came"

Homan ventured the opinion the objects might have been the new type of tailless aircraft know as flying wings.

DAY WAS CLOUDY

Homan was reminded that the day was mostly cloudy and he replied, "It wa pretty cloudy here, with sunshine occasionally through the clouds.  There were 'holes' of blue sky.  And, anyway, the clouds were high and these things weren't over 1000 to 2000 feet up and were flying under the clouds.

"And there wasn't a sound, not a trace of vapor trail  just these things sailing along.  As soon as I saw them, I ran to the warehouse and called the foremen, and he got to the door just in time to see them.  They came over the hill back of us here from the north and they were following straight along the Pacific highway.  Just south of here they veered off sharply to the southeast.

"Shape?  Very flat, very very thin, particularly when you saw them on edge as they were banking, as very bright."  Homan said he had flown many times, feels he knows pretty well the speed of planes, and is confident these "objects" were going just about twice as fast as airliners and judge them to be jet-propelled, but he was puzzled by absense of vapor trail.

"And I am not too excitable and I have good eyesight and I know what I saw this afternoon," he said in conclusion.  "I'm surprised you don't have reports from others of having seen them today."  Meanwhile, other reports of the flying saucers continue to come in.

United Press reports that Charles Kastil, railroad engineer of Jollet, Ill., said he spotted "about nine" of the things as he walked along a highway at 1:50 p.m. Central standard time Tuesday.  If these are the same ones seen by Kenneth Arnold, Boise, it means they must have covered the distance from Seatle to Chicago  about 2000 miles  in 50 minutes.

FLIPPED TOGETHER

Kastl said he could see no connecting link between them, but they acted as though the leading disk had a motor in it to power the others because when it flipped, the others would too.  When it would right itself, the others would right themselves.

Archie Edes of Wenatchee said he saw one explode about 200 feet from the ground near Moses lake last Friday night.  He said there was no blinding flash, but a great shower of sparks and flames seemed to hurtle to the ground.