Part 2-15: Plan 62
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Dan Wilson: Prof. Shapley, Director of
Harvard
Observatory said that a new comet should be visible in the northern
hemisphere on the southwestern horizon on about January 1, 1948.
Information pertaining to the appearance of a flaming red cone in the
skies of Wilmington, Ohio, on January 7, 1948, at between 7:20 and 7:55
P.M.
http://nicap.org/docs/mantell/wilmington480107pr.htm USAF-SIGN1-530-533 Brad Sparks: Without
the
centralized directories you put on NICAP and the BB Archive, access to scattered
BB docs this would be hopeless and nothing could be
accomplished.
Dan Wilson: Corporal Hudson at
Clinton AFB
monitors
Godman Control Tower theodolite tracking. Page II. The following
information came
over Plan 62. This observation was made at Godman control tower in
Kentucky with
an 8" telescope, cone-shaped object 43 feet by 100 feet, red with green
tail, height, 4 miles. Observation made at Godman Field from 1854 to
1906 CST with a
theodolite of a triangle-shaped object at 2.4 elevation, 254.6
Azimuth. Object last seen at 1.2 elevation, 253.0 Azimuth.
http://nicap.org/docs/mantell/godman480107tscope.htm ------------------------------ June 7, 2006 Fran Ridge:
Brad, first of all, what is Plan
62? Brad Sparks: I think it is the
intercom system between Godman, Standiford,
Lockbourne, Clinton County, etc., which was patched together the
afternoon of Jan 7, 1948, to keep everyone up to the minute on
events. People mention hearing about sightings at the other bases
as it happened. Here are the figures based on US
Naval Observatory calculations. <snip>
The problem with this being Venus is that the azimuths are off by 7-8
degs and the elevation by 7 degs at first, but more troubling is that
the object WENT SOUTH from 6:54 to 7:02 PM, instead of Venus which WENT
NORTH. A setting celestial body cannot do this. However the
nearly simultaneous disappearance of Venus and the object is troubling
too. <snip> And of course it could not possibly be a Skyhook
balloon which would be invisible in the darkness. http://www.nicap.org/mantell/mantell_sparks_venus.htm Fran Ridge: Air Force History Office research by Dan Wilson shows that Plan 62 was already in place 14 months before the Mantell incident.: Dan Wilson located this information: "Plan 62 Military Flight
Service Communications System (1946--1952) (was) designed to
provide a permanent integrated network of Army Air Forces (AAF) centers
connected via AT&T long line circuits to furnish all common purpose
aeronautical communications services pertaining to aircraft dispatch,
movement and visual flight control within the continental U.S.
Plan 62 ensured that military authorities knew the whereabouts of every
military aircraft operating in the U.S. at all times. Official
operations began 1 Nov 46.
"Military personnel were
stationed at Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) Air Route Traffic
Control Centers throughout the U.S. prior to development of this
system, which consolidated military communications (AACS), weather
(AWS) and flight services (ATC) operations at nine regional flight
service centers Olmsted Field, Pa.; Wright Field, Ohio; Maxwell
Field, Ala.; MacDill Field, Fla.; Fort Worth AAB, Tex.; Lowry Field,
Colo.; Hamilton Field, Ca.; March Field, Ca.; and McChord Field, Wash.
"These centers were connected via
interphone to regional CAA facilities, which retained control of all
aircraft operating under instrument flight rule (IFR) conditions.
Flying under visual conditions, pilots reported their positions to the
military centers every 30 minutes and received necessary advisories;
under IFR conditions, they first reported to the CAA centers, then to
the military centers.
"By the end of 1947, the regional
centers were connected via interphone to every AAF facility and certain
Navy, Guard and Reserve stations within their regions a total of
190 stations. By the end of 1948, MFCSC assumed responsibility for VFR
flight plans and associated actions for 65 additional Navy, Marine and
Coast Guard airfields. However, upgraded equipment and revised
procedures allowed the Air Force to consolidate operations at several
bases, thereby removing many of these additional stations by the close
of 1950. Further equipment upgrades and procedural changes resulted in
AACS transferring responsibility for MFCSC to the Military Air
Transport Service (MATS) in September 1952 there is no mention of
MFCSC or Plan 62 in the histories after 1952." Tom DeMary: What about visibility,
brightness?
Note latest Airways Op report. Brad Sparks: We are all still compiling
data.
One place that had Orner's report was incomplete. Some of the
rest of his data was recorded at another air base listening in on
Godman's reporting of it, heard by Cpl Hudson on the "Plan 62"
intercom/interphone system though he was at Clinton Co. AFB.
Fran Ridge: This is not new, Brad, I know,
but I
keep going back to it. And it is one of the reasons I never "bought"
the Skyhook explanation in the first place, let alone alone Venus. (KY
State Police reports of object, circular in appearance
approximately 250 - 300' in diameter, moving westward at "a
pretty good clip."
MAXW-PBB3-710 Brad Sparks: Well we don't seem to have direct
witness names and
statements from Ky St Police. No one else reports "250-300 ft" or
"pretty rapid clip." We need that corroborated from others if we
can't get names and statements from Ky St Police. Everyone else
talks about slow moving until Pickering at Lockbourne that night. This
is not a tight case. It's a lot of loose ends which have to
be put together. The fact that private pilots tried to chase some
object besides Mantell is a surprising new turn of events to be finding
out about only in 2006. Dan Wilson:
Cpl. James Hudson At
Godman
Tower,
Jan. 7, 1948
Brad Sparks: This caption by Dan
is
wrong, he misreads Hudson's account as
Hudson being at Godman and doesn't understand that Hudson was in Ohio
at Clinton
County AFB listening in one Godman reporting
its
theodolite
readings. Hudson wasn't at Godman. Fran Ridge: Tom caught that, but
hell I
wasn't sure what the doc said either. So
Hudson wasn't a witnesss, just heard reports Brad Sparks: Hudson WAS a witness AT Clinton
Co.
AFB, Wilmington,
Ohio, along with at least 5 others at CC AFB, I think. He HEARD
over the intercom the details of Godman's theodolite trackings done by
Lt Orner. If it wasn't for Hudson we wouldn't have all those
exact figures (or else Orner's numbers are all somewhere we haven't
found yet). There is one place with a few of Orner's theodolite
numbers but not all of them Jean Waskiewicz: I just checked and this reference
is on
page 34 in the published version. In the copy of the (Ruppelt'
original) manuscript that I
have this section is on pages 8 & 9 and (Maj. Jerre) Boggs is not
lined through.
I have attached both original scans in jpg format to show Boggs has not
been lined out. Is it possible that there may be a different version of
the manuscript out there somewhere? (Page 8 & 9)
Fran Ridge: Here is the 19-page manuscript
version
of the Mantell incident,
highlighted for pertinent lines.
Normal version with no
highlighting
Brad Sparks: There are some errors here.
http://www.nicap.org/mantell/mantell_sparks_ruppmanuscript.htm Dan Wilson: SUBJECT: Report of Unusual
Circumstance, 1940 hours, January 7, 1948
Observation of strange light to
the
Southwest of Lockbourne. The
object was 15 degrees above the horizon. It then descended to the
horizon and then ascended to its original position. Its course was
elliptical, counter clock wise. The witness was Airways Operator CAF-7.
(Brad Sparks: This is the Lockbourne Control Tower operator
who was an amateur astronomer, Frank M. Eisele, whose unsanitized
report is elsewhere on BB Archives.)
http://nicap.org/docs/mantell/lockbourne480107Bdir.htm NARA-PBB2-511 ---------------------------------------- June 8, 2006 Mary Castner: Still working on the Mantell
files
for uploading. I am sure everyone will argue about that too. Was Venus
involved or wasn't it...seems a mute point as people definitely saw
a unusual balloon bulb shaped/cone/parachute/pear, with rope and
payload or without probably depending on distance away. Just for the
record a Skyhook automatically dropped it's payload by parachute if it
descended to 30,000 ft. Then again I suppose everyone will argue about
that too:)) There is enough errors in the reports that there is no 100%
certainty that a direction or other reading is accurate. I personally
go by the visual description which is clearly that of a Skyhook and one
was definitely launched from Camp Ripley, MN launching site, 1/6/48.
--------------------------------------- June 9, 2006
Tom DeMary: I look forward to more documents.
The
Sign/Blue Book documents do have errors, and seem to lack any precise
information about the
relative position in the sky of the object that Mantell pursued.
Articles
from local Kentucky newspapers might sort out some of the confusion.
The
visual descriptions of the Godman Field personnel and those of the
Elizabethtown police (Elizabethtown was the flight corridor) point to
"Skyhook"
- I agree. All of the reports of the night time sightings (from 1948)
are
consistent with misperceptions of Venus. (I consider the 1977
base-circling
revision of Pickering dubious, in conflict with his own 1948
testimony,
and in conflict with that of the three other witnesses at Lockbourne). Brad Sparks: Pickering's 1977 testimony does
not
conflict with his
1948 testimony -- in Jan 1948 he reported the object disappeared to the
EAST at 120 degs azimuth (about ESE). Venus was to the WSW (about
240 degs) at that time in the early evening. We've been over this
before.
I could have jumped on this
sooner if
my computer had not crashed,
but you can go back over my postings with the 215 degree azimuth
determined by Godman Tower and used to send Mantell and his two wingmen
after it. Complete with Godman Tower CORRECTING Mantell's heading
slightly, by 5 degs to get him exactly onto the 215 heading.
Sounds to me like a lot of very "precise" positional data from Godman
Field.
The BB files thus do have
"precise"
info on the position in the
sky of the object that Mantell pursued. Godman base commander Col
Guy F. Hix stated that it was at azimuth 215 degs (about SSW), and as I
said the BB files show that Godman Tower even corrected Mantell's
flight heading with it. News clips report that Col. Hix used a
bracket to align his sighting of the object, which helped him determine
that the object did not move for a long time, over an 1 hour.
Even Venus moved 17 degs in 1 hour and the Skyhook balloon was moving
at about 20-30 mph supposedly to the SE, so at 100+ miles away (when it
was too far away to be visible from Godman), when it was south of
Nashville, it would have moved about 10 degs in 1 hour. If it was
close enough to be visible, like within 50 miles depending on the size
of its visible sunlit area (parts not brightly sunlit are not visible
at great distances) then this movement in 1 hour is about 20 degs.
Venus was at 33-35 degs elevation
from
2:15 to 3 PM CST that day,
from Godman Tower's location (37 54.4 N, 85 58.0 W). The Skyhook
balloon at 80,000 ft (15 miles high) when south of Nashville, would
have been extremely low on the horizon from Godman Tower (and from
Mantell's plane too at first) at about 6 degs elevation. If the
UFO was at 45 degs elevation, no matter how much reasonable witness
error by Col Hix you postulate, you are not going to be able to make
the Skyhook fit. Venus is not even visible in bright sunlight to
the naked eye, and if it was just barely visible it is absurd that
anyone would take it seriously. Brad Sparks:
Yes the map records the 1-6-48
Skyhook
launch among a dozen
Skyhooks from late 1947 to early 1949. But they were NOT launched
from Camp Ripley, that's another Moore lie, but launched from Milaca,
Minn., 43 miles away. Moore was NOT personally present contrary
to his phony-baloney "strong memories" of launching the 1-6-48
Skyhook. The Skyhook went straight SOUTH on almost a straight
line, to azimuth 190 degs (slightly W of S), which is NOT the SE
heading needed to get to Kentucky. But since the tracking was
lost after only 3 hours when it got to max altitude 80,000 ft, 63 miles
from launch, it could have been blown by winds almost anywhere at some
time after 3 hours and we would only know by reported visual sightings
in newspapers since no one was getting weather data from higher than
about 30,000 ft on a routine daily basis so we can't just check the
upper winds.
The news reports from Nashville,
Tenn.,
are pretty clearly that of
a large Skyhook-like balloon headed SE, and many people sighted it with
telescopes, including a 100x telescope from a radio station,
descriptions include a "glassy" look which is like the translucent
plastic used, "pear" shape with a "lumpy" cable (the photos of the
1-6-48 launch show NO "basket" below but a long cable with "lumps" for
instruments). The clincher is the amateur astronomer in or near
Nashville who reported the exact times the balloon changed color from
white sunlight to yellow at 4:50 PM to red sunset lighting at 5:05 PM
to disappearance in earth's shadow at 5:12 PM. This fits a
balloon at 80,000 ft, and not 60,000 or 100,000 ft. And that was
the 1-6-48 Skyhook's altitude -- 80,000 ft. That would mean
astronomer Seyfert was wrong in estimating the balloon was at 25,000 ft
(also when the Skyhook descended below 30,000 ft the cable would detach
the instruments but that did not happen so it must not have gotten
below 30,000 ft yet).
However everyone sighted the
balloon to
the SOUTH of Nashville at
about 4:30 PM heading SE, "directly above the sun" (or higher than
about 15 degs elevation) while observers in Columbia, Tenn., sighted
the balloon to their NORTH at about 4 PM thus bracketing its location
as between Nashville and Columbia, and thus about 150 miles away from
Godman Field at the closest. At Columbia a local Navy spokesman
saw and identified the balloon as a special high-altitude "Naval
weather balloon" that tended to disintegrate at high altitudes.
So much for Skyhook being a top secret in 1948. ("Skyhook" itself
was not a classified codename but was the PR nickname used in publicity
releases.)
It simply defies the laws of
physics
for a 70-foot Skyhook only
partially lit by the sun to be visible by the naked eye from 150 miles
away from Godman Field. Even Ruppelt admitted that a 100 ft
Skyhook was visible only about 50-60 miles (one of the few bits of
technical data Ruppelt actually got right, among the laughable
blunders, probably because someone else did the research not
him). A 70 ft Skyhook could not have been visible farther than
about 45 miles away.
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