July 24, 1948, at 0340 hours, 30-40 miles SW of Montgomery, Alabama

Pilot Capt. Clarence S. Chiles and Co-pilot John B. Whitted, flying an Eastern Airlines DC-3 observed a double-decked cigar shape fuselage without wings flying at an estimated 500 mph northeast to southeast. A cherry red flame extended 50 to 75 feet from the rear of the object. Altitude of the object was approximately the same as the DC-3 at 5000 feet. The object appeared to fly upward before disappearing into a cloud bank.

The Air Intelligence Information Report (No. 102-122-79) written by Robert R. Sneider, Capt. USAF, concerning the events of 24 and 26 July 1948, whick includes the Chiles/Whitted report of a cigar-shaped object, states this: The analysis was undertaken as only one 219 reported incidents with an objective of arriving towards a definite pattern or trend in order to determine whether the objects reported  were of domsetic or alien origin, or natural phenomena.

The following pdf files contains all of the resized Project Blue Book documents below now housed on the NICAP site for security reasons.

Frames MAXW-PBB4-4-17

The original over-sized docs from the Blue Book site are listed below: