| On 24 April 1949, at 3 miles north of Arrey,
New Mexico, (107 degrees 19½' W 300 deg 52½' N) 4 Navy enlisted men from
White Sands Proving Ground (Chief Akers, Davidson, Fitzsimmons and Moorman)
and I saw a rapidly moving object while making a pibal wind run. We had
released a 350 gram balloon at about 1020 MST and were following it with
a standard ML-47 (David White) Theodolite. After the 1030 reading, Davidson
took over the theodolite, and Akers and I looked up to find the balloon
with naked eye. We thought we had the balloon when we saw a whitish spherical
object right along the direction the theodolite 45 degree elevation and
210 degree azimuth) was pointing. The object was drifting east rapidly
(5 degrees/sec. as estimated by stopwatch and width of fingers) but we
had thought to encounter similar winds on the balloon. When the difference
in angle between the theodolite and supposed balloon became apparent,
I took over the theodolite and found the true balloon still there, whereupon
I abandoned it and picked up the object after it came out of the sun.
(The computed bearing of sun was 127 degrees azimuth and elevation 60
degrees) The object was moving too fast to crank the theodolite around,
therefore one of the men pointed the theodolite and I looked.
The object was an ellipsoid about 2½:1 slenderness
ratio, length about .02 degrees subtended angle, and white in color, except
for a light yellow of one side as though it were in shadow. I could not
get a hard focus on the object due to the speed at which the angles changed.
Therefore I saw no good detail at all.
The Azimuth angle continued to decrease as the object
continued on a north heading, growing smaller in size. At around 20 degrees
- 25 degrees Azimuth, the Azimuth held constant and the elevation angle
began increasing from the 25 degree minimum to about 29 degrees. The object
then apparently disappeared due to distance after a total time of observation
of about 60 seconds.
The object was not a balloon and was some distance
away. Assuming escape velocity, a track was figured which put the elevation
about the station of about 300,000 feet over the observed period. If this
is true, the flight would have probably gone over the White Sands Proving
Ground, Holloman Air Force Base and Los Alamos.
We made another pibal wind run 15 minutes later. This
balloon burst after an 88 minute flight of 93,000 feet only 13 miles due
south of us. Therefore this object could not have been a free balloon
moving at such angular speed below 90,000 feet.
Information is desired if this was some new or experimental
aircraft or for any explanation whatsoever.
NOTE: /s/
C.B. Moore
No clouds in sky, no haze. C.B. Moore
No noise, very quite in area General
Mills Aeronautical Research
(no cars, planes or other) 2010
H. Hennepin Avenue
(engines running) Minneapolis,
13, Minnesota
No trail, no exhaust visible. Geneva
0371 X 385
No odor.
|
