Loedding, Albert
A 1930 graduate of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics, Loedding worked with the pioneering Bellanca Aircraft Company until 1938, when he became a civilian engineer for the U.S. Air Force at Wright Field, later Wright-Patterson Air Base. One of his specialties was low-aspect design aircraft, such as flying wings or flying disk designs, including a 1948 patent registered with the U.S. Patent Office. In the summer of 1947, hundreds of UFO reports earned considerable mainstream publicity, and were taken seriously by the U.S. military. Due to his expertise in low-aspect aircraft design, similar to the "flying disk" or "flying saucer" shape of many reported UFOs, Loedding became the focus of early informal Air Force UFO reports, serving as liaison between the Pentagon and his bosses at AMC (Air Materiel Command) in Dayton, Air Force officers Col. Howard M. McCoy and Lt. Col. William R. Clingerman. From 1948 to 1949, Loedding was chief engineering consultant on SIGN and main advocate for the ETH. He investigated many UFO reports and interviewed witnesses. Went on the Chiles/Whitted case as well as Mantell and Rhodes photo. Probably wrote as much of the EOTS as did Robert Sneider. Michael Swords described Loedding as part of "probably the most talented group to work on UFOs until the air force ended its investigation in 1969." Jan Aldrich: "Initiator of Project SIGN. Civilian monitor of Project SIGN which meant he was the chief civilian on the project. He held a number of aviation patents. He was the last of the "Saucer Boys" purged by LTC Rosengarten on orders of Col. Watson, head of TID. He was supposedly terminated for inefficiency. However, he was able almost immediately to get a job with the Navy in Washington DC. In a few years he was back at WPAFB in another position." Alfred Loedding & the Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947 (Mike Hall & Wendy Connors)
A 1930 graduate of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics, Loedding worked with the pioneering Bellanca Aircraft Company until 1938, when he became a civilian engineer for the U.S. Air Force at Wright Field, later Wright-Patterson Air Base. One of his specialties was low-aspect design aircraft, such as flying wings or flying disk designs, including a 1948 patent registered with the U.S. Patent Office. In the summer of 1947, hundreds of UFO reports earned considerable mainstream publicity, and were taken seriously by the U.S. military. Due to his expertise in low-aspect aircraft design, similar to the "flying disk" or "flying saucer" shape of many reported UFOs, Loedding became the focus of early informal Air Force UFO reports, serving as liaison between the Pentagon and his bosses at AMC (Air Materiel Command) in Dayton, Air Force officers Col. Howard M. McCoy and Lt. Col. William R. Clingerman. From 1948 to 1949, Loedding was chief engineering consultant on SIGN and main advocate for the ETH. He investigated many UFO reports and interviewed witnesses. Went on the Chiles/Whitted case as well as Mantell and Rhodes photo. Probably wrote as much of the EOTS as did Robert Sneider. Michael Swords described Loedding as part of "probably the most talented group to work on UFOs until the air force ended its investigation in 1969." Jan Aldrich: "Initiator of Project SIGN. Civilian monitor of Project SIGN which meant he was the chief civilian on the project. He held a number of aviation patents. He was the last of the "Saucer Boys" purged by LTC Rosengarten on orders of Col. Watson, head of TID. He was supposedly terminated for inefficiency. However, he was able almost immediately to get a job with the Navy in Washington DC. In a few years he was back at WPAFB in another position." Alfred Loedding & the Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947 (Mike Hall & Wendy Connors)