1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,380 This is Edward R. Murrell. We're going to talk about flying saucers. 2 00:00:04,380 --> 00:00:07,560 We're going to talk about them from the standpoint of reporters, 3 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:10,380 not as comedians, not as sensationists. 4 00:00:10,380 --> 00:00:15,860 For the past three years, a large number of perfectly sane and reliable people 5 00:00:15,860 --> 00:00:18,300 have been involved in this flying saucer business. 6 00:00:18,300 --> 00:00:21,740 Even those of us who have never seen one have become involved. 7 00:00:21,740 --> 00:00:27,740 We read about them, talk about them, wonder about these reports of strange phenomena in the skies. 8 00:00:28,700 --> 00:00:32,460 So almost from the start, CBS has been following this story. 9 00:00:32,460 --> 00:00:36,620 We have been collecting material on flying saucer observations for many months. 10 00:00:36,620 --> 00:00:42,700 Checking, cross-checking, trying to track down leads, no matter how far afield they took us. 11 00:00:42,700 --> 00:00:45,340 This tonight is our report. 12 00:00:45,340 --> 00:00:49,660 We frankly admit that we don't know whether flying saucers actually exist. 13 00:00:49,660 --> 00:00:51,740 We've never seen one. 14 00:00:51,740 --> 00:00:54,620 We are going to bring you the facts at hand. 15 00:00:54,620 --> 00:00:57,580 What they add up to? Well, that's for you to decide. 16 00:00:57,740 --> 00:00:59,660 That's up to you. 17 00:00:59,660 --> 00:01:03,500 It all began just a little less than three full years ago. 18 00:01:03,500 --> 00:01:08,380 It began in the sky over western Washington, up there in the hip pocket of the country. 19 00:01:08,380 --> 00:01:14,940 Early one June morning in 1947, a C-46 Marine transport with 32 Marines aboard 20 00:01:14,940 --> 00:01:17,580 crashed in the vicinity of Montranier. 21 00:01:17,580 --> 00:01:21,820 An air search was immediately organized to locate the downed plane. 22 00:01:21,820 --> 00:01:25,740 Among the many service and private flyers who participated in this search 23 00:01:25,740 --> 00:01:29,580 was Mr. Kenneth Arnold, a businessman of Boise, Idaho, 24 00:01:29,580 --> 00:01:32,300 a veteran pilot in forest fire control work, 25 00:01:32,300 --> 00:01:38,300 a man with six years experience flying over the rugged terrain in and around Montranier. 26 00:01:38,300 --> 00:01:41,660 Yesterday morning, we spoke to Mr. Arnold over the phone. 27 00:01:41,660 --> 00:01:44,540 We asked him to repeat for us, in his own words, 28 00:01:44,540 --> 00:01:49,260 what he saw in the sky over Montranier on June 24th, 1947. 29 00:01:49,260 --> 00:01:52,780 We recorded what he said, and we're going to play it for you now. 30 00:01:52,860 --> 00:01:57,180 The slight beep that you will hear intermittently is required by law 31 00:01:57,180 --> 00:02:00,540 to let both parties of a phone conversation know they are being recorded. 32 00:02:01,260 --> 00:02:02,780 Here now is Mr. Kenneth Arnold. 33 00:02:03,820 --> 00:02:10,300 It was while I was searching for this crash that I noticed a terrific blue flight path 34 00:02:10,300 --> 00:02:11,420 nose of my airplane. 35 00:02:12,620 --> 00:02:18,940 I noticed that the flight turned from a turn of very peculiar looking objects 36 00:02:19,420 --> 00:02:23,900 that were rapidly approaching Montranier at about 107 degrees. 37 00:02:25,100 --> 00:02:30,460 This train of objects were 9 in numbers. 38 00:02:31,980 --> 00:02:36,540 I assumed at the time they were a new formation or a new type of jet. 39 00:02:37,260 --> 00:02:40,300 Though I was baffled by the fact that they did not have any tails, 40 00:02:41,180 --> 00:02:45,020 the path almost directly in front of me, 41 00:02:45,660 --> 00:02:50,220 but at a distance of about 23 miles, which is not very great in repair, 42 00:02:51,340 --> 00:02:55,660 I touched their wingspan to be at least 100 through the cross. 43 00:02:56,620 --> 00:02:59,900 Their sighting did not particularly disturb me at the time, 44 00:03:00,780 --> 00:03:03,900 except that I had never seen planes of that type. 45 00:03:04,540 --> 00:03:09,340 Mr. Arnold, after landing, made a routine report of what he had seen to a civil aeronautics 46 00:03:09,340 --> 00:03:11,900 administration representative. Promptly forgot the matter. 47 00:03:12,460 --> 00:03:16,380 Until the wheels of publicity began to turn, the floodgates opened. 48 00:03:17,900 --> 00:03:23,580 I never could understand at that time why the world got so upset about this. 49 00:03:23,580 --> 00:03:25,500 These things didn't seem to be a minute. 50 00:03:26,060 --> 00:03:28,940 I believe they had something to do with our army and airport. 51 00:03:29,580 --> 00:03:33,340 On three different occasions, Mr. Arnold was questioned by military intelligence. 52 00:03:34,140 --> 00:03:37,900 They expressed doubt as to the accuracy of some of his reported observations. 53 00:03:38,540 --> 00:03:42,540 That's right. Now, of course, some of the reports they did take from newspapers, 54 00:03:42,540 --> 00:03:48,940 which did not quote me properly. Now, when I told the press, they misquoted me, 55 00:03:48,940 --> 00:03:54,380 and in the excitement of it all, one newspaper and another one got it so and smiled up that 56 00:03:54,940 --> 00:03:57,900 nobody knew just exactly what they were talking about, I guess. 57 00:03:58,700 --> 00:04:01,820 Here's how the name Flying Saucer was born. 58 00:04:02,620 --> 00:04:08,780 These objects are more or less fluttered like they were, oh, I'd say boats on very rough water or 59 00:04:09,340 --> 00:04:15,980 very rough air of some type. And when I described how they flew, I said that they flew like 60 00:04:15,980 --> 00:04:21,820 we take a saucer and go it across the water. Most of the newspapers misunderstood and misquoted 61 00:04:21,820 --> 00:04:28,460 that too. They said that I said that they were saucer-like. I said they flew in a saucer-like 62 00:04:29,420 --> 00:04:35,180 That was an historic misquote. While Mr. Arnold's original explanation has been forgotten, 63 00:04:35,180 --> 00:04:40,620 the term Flying Saucer has become a household word. Few people realize that Mr. Arnold has 64 00:04:40,620 --> 00:04:46,300 reported seeing these same strange objects in the sky on three other occasions. He says that 65 00:04:46,300 --> 00:04:51,660 some pilots in the Northwest have reported seeing them on eight separate occasions. We asked for 66 00:04:51,660 --> 00:04:57,580 his own personal opinion on the nature of what he and the others had seen. I don't know how best 67 00:04:57,580 --> 00:05:04,060 to explain that. I more or less have reserved an opinion as to what I think. It's actually been 68 00:05:04,060 --> 00:05:10,700 a natural born American. If it's not made by our science or our army airporters, 69 00:05:11,660 --> 00:05:15,020 I am inclined to believe that it's of an extraterrestrial origin. 70 00:05:15,580 --> 00:05:19,660 Extra-terrestrial origin? You mean you think there's a possibility they may be coming out of 71 00:05:19,660 --> 00:05:24,060 space from other planets? I suppose that's pretty hard for people to take seriously. 72 00:05:24,780 --> 00:05:31,660 Well, I'll tell you this much. All the airline pilots, none of us have appreciated this last 73 00:05:31,660 --> 00:05:37,340 act. We made our report, essentially, to begin with because we thought that if our government 74 00:05:37,340 --> 00:05:43,900 didn't know what it was, it was only our duty to report it to our nation and to our airport, 75 00:05:43,900 --> 00:05:49,660 thought of it. I think it's something that is of concern to every person in the country. And I 76 00:05:49,660 --> 00:05:54,300 don't think it's anything for people to get hysterical about. Now that's just my frank opinion of it. 77 00:05:54,940 --> 00:05:57,740 So that's how it all began. That was the trigger action. 78 00:05:58,620 --> 00:06:03,580 Kenneth Arnold's story went scudding over the news wires, radio and newspapers picked it up, 79 00:06:03,580 --> 00:06:07,980 and then within days, the country broke out into a flood of flying saucer observations. 80 00:06:09,420 --> 00:06:14,940 Many of these reports, a great many of them, obviously could be discounted. Others, reports 81 00:06:14,940 --> 00:06:20,700 from perfectly competent, sober and reliable observers, found no easy answer. In the face of 82 00:06:20,700 --> 00:06:27,260 this, late in 1947, the chief of staff of the Air Forces, at that time, General Carl Tuei Spatz, 83 00:06:27,260 --> 00:06:32,780 sent a directive to the Air Materiel Command located at Wright Field, Ohio. The Air Materiel 84 00:06:32,780 --> 00:06:38,860 Command is directed to set up a project whose purpose is to collect, collate, evaluate, and 85 00:06:38,860 --> 00:06:44,220 distribute to interested government agencies and contractors all pertinent information concerning 86 00:06:44,220 --> 00:06:49,500 sightings of phenomena in the atmosphere, which can be construed to be of concern to the national 87 00:06:49,500 --> 00:06:57,660 security. So was born between 300 and 400 miles per hour. Remember, these were trained observers, 88 00:06:57,660 --> 00:07:04,380 Air Force men. The objects reportedly traveled in a straight line, taking the mean reported speed 89 00:07:04,380 --> 00:07:12,940 350 miles per hour, and the time in sight, one half hour. The objects must then have traveled 175 90 00:07:13,020 --> 00:07:19,020 miles while in sight. If the objects were of such proportions as to be seen at that distance, 91 00:07:19,020 --> 00:07:24,780 it is believed that more details could have been observed at the first sighting. The Air Materiel 92 00:07:24,780 --> 00:07:30,620 Command opinion on the Murroc airbase sightings was this. This report is a result of misinterpretation 93 00:07:30,620 --> 00:07:38,540 of the nature of real stimuli, probably research balloons. Another report on January 7th, 1948. 94 00:07:39,100 --> 00:07:43,820 Tech Sergeant Quintanae Blackwell, chief operator of the control tower at Godman Field, 95 00:07:43,820 --> 00:07:48,540 an air force base at Fort Knox, Kentucky, spotted a strange object hovering over the 96 00:07:48,540 --> 00:07:54,060 south portion of the field. In a matter of minutes, a flight of four P-51 fighter planes 97 00:07:54,060 --> 00:07:59,820 approaching the field were contacted by radio and asked to chase the object. Leader of the flight 98 00:07:59,820 --> 00:08:05,420 was Captain Thomas F. Mantell Jr., veteran of the Normandy invasion with some 3,000 flying 99 00:08:05,420 --> 00:08:12,220 hours to his credit. At 245, Mantell reported by radio. Object directly ahead and above, 100 00:08:12,220 --> 00:08:19,420 and moving about half my speed, going up to take a look. At 315, Mantell reported again. 101 00:08:19,420 --> 00:08:26,780 Objects still ahead and above, moving at about my speed or faster, 360 miles per hour. The thing 102 00:08:26,780 --> 00:08:32,860 looks metallic and is of tremendous size. I'm trying to close in for a better look. By now, 103 00:08:32,860 --> 00:08:38,860 Mantell and his flight were at about 15,000 feet. They had no oxygen equipment. At 18,000 feet, 104 00:08:38,860 --> 00:08:44,780 the escorting planes turned back, but Mantell kept climbing. His next report came from 20,000 feet. 105 00:08:45,340 --> 00:08:52,300 Going to 25,000. If no closer, we'll abandon search. That was the last report from Captain 106 00:08:52,300 --> 00:08:59,020 Thomas Mantell. At approximately 25,000 feet, it is believed he blacked out for want of oxygen. 107 00:08:59,820 --> 00:09:04,700 His plane climbed another 5,000 feet and then went into a dive. When it crashed, 108 00:09:04,700 --> 00:09:11,180 parts of it were scattered around an area covering 1-6th of a mile. Project Saucer's conclusion. 109 00:09:11,180 --> 00:09:17,260 It seems probable that the object observed was the planet Venus. Later, in a report dated April 110 00:09:17,260 --> 00:09:23,900 27, 1949, this conclusion was reversed. Further investigation showed the elevation and azimuth 111 00:09:23,900 --> 00:09:28,860 readings of Venus and the object as reported at specified time intervals just didn't jibe. 112 00:09:29,900 --> 00:09:35,740 The object Captain Mantell chased to his tragic death is now officially marked unidentified. 113 00:09:36,540 --> 00:09:44,860 In all, Project Saucer investigated 375 cases. The report takes in 244 different observations. 114 00:09:45,660 --> 00:09:51,100 Just yesterday, we asked Major General William F. McKee, Assistant Vice Chief of Staff, 115 00:09:51,100 --> 00:09:56,620 United States Air Forces, to summarize the conclusions reached by Project Saucer. He said, 116 00:09:57,900 --> 00:10:03,500 During two years of thorough investigation, no evidence was found which would indicate that 117 00:10:03,500 --> 00:10:10,780 the reported flying saucers were anything but the result of natural phenomena. On the other hand, 118 00:10:10,780 --> 00:10:15,740 all the evidence indicated that the reports of unidentified flying objects could be accounted 119 00:10:15,740 --> 00:10:25,100 for under three major headings. One, misinterpretation of various conventional objects. Two, a mile form 120 00:10:25,100 --> 00:10:33,180 of hysteria. Three, or simple hoaxes. It has been suggested that what people actually have been 121 00:10:33,180 --> 00:10:38,860 seeing is the result of some of our own secret experiments, guided missiles or new types of 122 00:10:38,860 --> 00:10:46,460 planes or flying weapons. This is emphatically not the case. None of the three military departments, 123 00:10:47,020 --> 00:10:52,460 nor any other agency and government, is conducting experiments classified or otherwise, 124 00:10:52,460 --> 00:10:57,180 with disc shaped flying objects which could be a basis for the reported phenomena. 125 00:10:57,900 --> 00:11:03,900 On December 27th, 1949, Project Saucer went out of existence. The flying saucers, however, 126 00:11:03,900 --> 00:11:08,460 refused to follow the project into Limbo. Just possibly one of the reasons behind the 127 00:11:08,460 --> 00:11:13,100 stubbornness of the saucers to accept the mantle of oblivion was an article that appeared in True 128 00:11:13,100 --> 00:11:18,540 Magazine, just about the time Project Saucer was abandoned. It had previously been shown pretty 129 00:11:18,540 --> 00:11:23,580 conclusively that the number of sighting reports over a period of months usually followed closely 130 00:11:23,580 --> 00:11:29,580 the amount of publicity given to flying saucer observations. A lot of stories, a lot of sightings, 131 00:11:29,580 --> 00:11:37,180 few stories, few sightings. Psychologists call this mass suggestion. But to return to the 132 00:11:37,180 --> 00:11:42,620 True Magazine article, printed in December of 1949, the some percentage of the new wave of 133 00:11:42,620 --> 00:11:48,620 flying saucer reports can certainly be chalked off to mass suggestion. But again, as in the first 134 00:11:48,620 --> 00:11:53,420 reports, there remain that same unexplained percentage of reliable trained observers who 135 00:11:53,420 --> 00:11:58,620 claim to have seen some object or objects, wheeling, whirling, zooming, slicing or hovering in the 136 00:11:58,620 --> 00:12:03,820 sky. Douglas Gurley of Laguna Beach, California is an example. Here's his story. 137 00:12:04,780 --> 00:12:21,820 I was driving north March 21st on 101 Highway at about three o'clock in the afternoon when my 138 00:12:21,820 --> 00:12:27,580 attention was distracted by the sunlight reflecting off some objects. I counted eight of them, 139 00:12:27,580 --> 00:12:32,860 proceeding directly out to sea at 2,000 feet altitude. They gave the appearance of being 140 00:12:32,860 --> 00:12:39,740 made out of aluminum and I could observe a perfect circle outline of these craft. They were 141 00:12:40,780 --> 00:12:47,020 going, I would say, approximately 150 miles an hour. They were definitely a powered craft of some 142 00:12:47,020 --> 00:12:54,140 sort. Here's a report from Selma, Alabama. We were riding along the open country and had been 143 00:12:54,780 --> 00:13:01,740 observing a very beautiful sunset. And as the sun dipped over the western horizon, 144 00:13:03,180 --> 00:13:11,580 I looked to my right and there in the sky were three small lights, which to me appeared to be 145 00:13:11,580 --> 00:13:19,660 three very small clouds. I looked steadily and I said, no, they are not clouds. They are airplanes. 146 00:13:20,140 --> 00:13:25,580 Then I called my husband's attention to it and he said, no, those are not airplanes, 147 00:13:25,580 --> 00:13:32,860 they are lights. And we observed them very closely. But being in motion ourselves, to us, 148 00:13:32,860 --> 00:13:41,980 they were motionless because we didn't stop. But as we rode along for something over a mile, 149 00:13:42,060 --> 00:13:51,020 they hung there in the sky and they were, to us, had the appearance of tubes of fluorescent light, 150 00:13:51,020 --> 00:14:02,540 a beautiful, silvery, pink-tinged moonlight. And I said to my husband, that gives me a feeling 151 00:14:02,540 --> 00:14:10,860 that God is trying to say something to us. And we have had that feeling within us since. 152 00:14:11,740 --> 00:14:15,900 By mid-March of this year, the flood of flying saucer sightings had hit a new peak. 153 00:14:16,780 --> 00:14:19,980 Into many of these reports, there now kept a new and somewhat eerie tone. 154 00:14:20,700 --> 00:14:25,820 The feeling that these flying saucers were something out of this world, possibly interplanetary 155 00:14:25,820 --> 00:14:30,220 aircraft, sent from some distant celestial sphere to investigate what manner of life 156 00:14:30,220 --> 00:14:35,820 managed to exist here on Earth. In line with this, we went to Dr. Donald Menzel, 157 00:14:35,820 --> 00:14:40,220 Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University and Associate Director of the famous Harvard 158 00:14:40,220 --> 00:14:46,540 Observatory, to find out just how feasible any such idea might be. Dr. Menzel had this to say, 159 00:14:47,420 --> 00:14:51,500 Well, I suppose that anything is possible, but I consider it extremely unlikely. 160 00:14:52,460 --> 00:14:55,740 Well, what could these flying bodies actually be, Dr. Menzel? 161 00:14:56,540 --> 00:15:04,300 Sun shining from a very distant plane, shining so that you could see that there was an object there, 162 00:15:04,300 --> 00:15:08,700 but the plane so far away that you couldn't hear it. Weather balloon. You have the bright 163 00:15:09,580 --> 00:15:15,100 round patch at a fairly high altitude, sometimes three or four of them attached together. 164 00:15:15,660 --> 00:15:23,260 And then again, just pieces of paper carried aloft. When it gets up to 200, 300 feet, 165 00:15:23,260 --> 00:15:27,980 you can't tell whether it's 100 feet or a thousand or 10,000 feet away. 166 00:15:28,540 --> 00:15:33,580 And prior to the middle of March, most observations, certainly all those which could be credited to 167 00:15:33,580 --> 00:15:39,100 reliable, sober sources, stated that the object seems a good distance away, a distance that 168 00:15:39,100 --> 00:15:45,020 ranged from a few miles to 10 and 20. But on March 16th, a physician, a man who holds a private 169 00:15:45,020 --> 00:15:49,980 pilot's license, reported that he had seen some strange, unidentifiable type of flying body at 170 00:15:49,980 --> 00:15:54,860 close range. Dr. Craig Hunter of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia had this experience. 171 00:15:55,340 --> 00:16:01,660 I'm going north on Route 153 from Clearfield, Pennsylvania, towards Penfield, Pennsylvania. 172 00:16:02,220 --> 00:16:09,020 And about nine miles out of Clearfield, and I begin to hear a hissling, whistling sort of a sound, 173 00:16:09,020 --> 00:16:16,620 something that I was completely strange to me. And then I looked up into the sky and coming from a 174 00:16:16,700 --> 00:16:24,700 southeaster, easterly direction to a northwestern direction, was this flying disc, or for the 175 00:16:24,700 --> 00:16:33,100 one of a better name, a flying saucer. It was, I would say, around 150 feet around in circumference. 176 00:16:33,900 --> 00:16:39,340 And there was three distinct parts of it. There was an inner circle, a metal circle, which rotated 177 00:16:39,340 --> 00:16:47,740 around this inner circle, and an outside circle, which are about one third of the area on each side, 178 00:16:47,740 --> 00:16:56,220 was covered with openings somewhat similar to an airliner opening. Now, this inner circle rotated 179 00:16:56,220 --> 00:17:03,820 and a clockwise very slowly, and it went over me practically right over my head. And I would say it 180 00:17:03,820 --> 00:17:10,300 was traveling at a speed approximately 60 to 70 miles per hour. I would say that the plane was 181 00:17:10,300 --> 00:17:17,500 approximately 250 to 300 feet above me, not over 400 feet. It was of a dirty aluminum color, 182 00:17:18,220 --> 00:17:25,820 and I got a tendency to indicate the southern edge as sloping up, which would indicate to me that it 183 00:17:25,820 --> 00:17:33,500 was about 15 to 20 feet thick at the center. It would give you the idea that it was a rocket type 184 00:17:33,500 --> 00:17:40,780 of combustion, rather. It didn't give you the indication of a make and break, like a motor or 185 00:17:40,780 --> 00:17:46,380 anything like that. It was a continuous hissing, whistling sound. Conditions were very, very fine 186 00:17:46,380 --> 00:17:52,380 for observing it. I mean that it was just as clear as a bell, and I could distinctly see each and 187 00:17:52,380 --> 00:17:58,540 every detail to the outline of it. In order to check the whole question of design, to find out 188 00:17:58,540 --> 00:18:02,860 whether or not a saucer-like object such as the one described by Dr. Hunter could maintain itself 189 00:18:02,860 --> 00:18:07,660 in flight, according to the basic laws of aerodynamics, we call for the opinion of one of the nation's 190 00:18:07,660 --> 00:18:13,100 outstanding aeronautical engineers. Hall Hibbard is vice president and chief engineer of Lockheed 191 00:18:13,100 --> 00:18:19,020 aircraft, and here is what he has to say over the beep recording telephone. Well, my feeling is that 192 00:18:21,100 --> 00:18:28,540 that it is possible to build and fly something that looks like a saucer 193 00:18:29,500 --> 00:18:37,820 just from a technical standpoint, but I do not believe that there is such a thing 194 00:18:38,860 --> 00:18:46,700 at this time. I do not know of anything that would be considered in that category. 195 00:18:47,820 --> 00:18:55,100 I'm very familiar with pretty much what's going on in the way of research and development, 196 00:18:55,100 --> 00:19:04,220 and I know of nothing that would be considered as flying saucers or flying saucer material. 197 00:19:04,220 --> 00:19:12,220 You can make something that looks like a saucer fly if anybody would ever want to do it, but I do 198 00:19:12,220 --> 00:19:17,820 not believe that what's possible with our president's knowledge to have them make the 199 00:19:18,140 --> 00:19:22,140 food and everything that everybody has been talking about. 200 00:19:22,940 --> 00:19:26,940 The Flying Saucers story came back into sharp focus on Monday of the present week. 201 00:19:27,740 --> 00:19:32,300 On that day, the United States News and World Report, a national news magazine, 202 00:19:32,300 --> 00:19:37,420 and Henry J. Taylor, a radio commentator, both came out with flat statements that flying saucers 203 00:19:37,420 --> 00:19:42,860 actually exist. Mr. Taylor said that there are two or more different objects that have been cited 204 00:19:42,860 --> 00:19:48,300 and labeled flying saucers. One of these objects, the true flying saucer, according to Mr. Taylor, 205 00:19:48,300 --> 00:19:53,740 is a missile round in shape varying in size from 20 inches to 250 feet in diameter. 206 00:19:53,740 --> 00:19:58,700 Some are guided, others are not. The U.S. News and World Report article mentions nothing about 207 00:19:58,700 --> 00:20:04,460 these objects. The magazine, however, describes a jet-propelled aircraft of revolutionary design 208 00:20:04,460 --> 00:20:10,300 that agrees in some details with Mr. Taylor's second secret aircraft, a piloted plane capable 209 00:20:10,300 --> 00:20:15,420 of high speeds and high maneuverability. Both accounts agree that the present model stemmed 210 00:20:15,420 --> 00:20:22,380 directly from the XF-5U-1, the so-called Flying Pancake, a small edition of which was built and 211 00:20:22,380 --> 00:20:29,580 flown in 1942. Last night, we put a special recording line into the home of Mr. Charles H. Zimmerman 212 00:20:29,580 --> 00:20:35,500 of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, the man who originally designed the XF-5U-1. 213 00:20:36,300 --> 00:20:39,420 We asked him about the plane, whether it ever actually flew. 214 00:20:40,860 --> 00:20:50,460 This aircraft never flew. The official designation of the aircraft was the XF-5U-1, 215 00:20:51,020 --> 00:20:56,860 which was to be a high-performance Navy fighter. However, a low-powered, 216 00:20:57,740 --> 00:21:05,900 lightly loaded version of this craft, called a V-173, made a large number of successful flights. 217 00:21:06,780 --> 00:21:12,940 I conceived the original idea for this craft back in 1933. 218 00:21:13,820 --> 00:21:19,660 As a top plane designer, we asked Mr. Zimmerman to give us his opinion as to whether or not a plane 219 00:21:19,660 --> 00:21:26,140 could be built that could hover like a helicopter, then take off at almost supersonic speeds. He said, 220 00:21:27,180 --> 00:21:34,700 it would be possible, using modern turboprop engines, to build a machine of this type, 221 00:21:35,340 --> 00:21:42,380 which would be capable of hovering and of also flying at all forward speeds up to 222 00:21:43,100 --> 00:21:51,180 possibly 550 or 600 miles per hour. To follow through on the problem of whether or not disc-shaped 223 00:21:51,180 --> 00:21:56,860 objects could actually fly, we got in touch with Mr. David C. Prince, Vice President of the 224 00:21:56,860 --> 00:22:01,420 General Electric Company, and Chief of its General Engineering and Consulting Laboratory. 225 00:22:02,140 --> 00:22:05,100 Mr. Prince was having no part of flying saucers. 226 00:22:06,540 --> 00:22:11,020 My thought is simply that the ability of some people to kid themselves is extraordinary. 227 00:22:11,580 --> 00:22:16,140 For instance, the effect the searchlights on clouds has been taken to be flying discs. 228 00:22:16,780 --> 00:22:23,260 Even radar evidence is not conclusive here because rain in the clouds would show up on a radar screen. 229 00:22:23,900 --> 00:22:29,580 The only saucer-shaped aircraft which we know has flown, and that only a few times, 230 00:22:29,580 --> 00:22:36,060 is a propeller-powered disc developed by NACA. As a matter of fact, a cigar-shaped craft 231 00:22:36,060 --> 00:22:42,700 with a single revolving wing jet-powered could be faster and certainly would be much more maneuverable. 232 00:22:43,260 --> 00:22:48,780 In flight, this plane might look like a disc because of the halo created by its rapidly 233 00:22:48,780 --> 00:22:53,580 revolving wing. Such a craft would have flight characteristics similar to hummingbirds. 234 00:22:55,100 --> 00:23:01,580 Late this afternoon, we tried to tote up the score. On one desk, we had a pile of clippings, news 235 00:23:01,580 --> 00:23:07,020 reports, recordings of eyewitness accounts of flying saucer observations. We had the Taylor 236 00:23:07,020 --> 00:23:12,940 broadcast, the U.S. News and World Report article. On another desk, we had our Project 237 00:23:12,940 --> 00:23:18,380 Saucer Report, the transcripts of our conversations with leading scientists and engineers. Who, 238 00:23:18,380 --> 00:23:24,780 to use a gentle phrase, discounted the possibility of any such thing as a flying saucer. On that desk, 239 00:23:24,780 --> 00:23:29,580 too, was the news ticker dispatch from the United States Submarine Base at Key West, Florida, 240 00:23:30,140 --> 00:23:35,260 a dispatch that quoted President Truman's press secretary, Charles Ross, as saying that President 241 00:23:35,260 --> 00:23:40,700 Truman has no knowledge of any secret project by this government that would give substance to the 242 00:23:40,700 --> 00:23:47,260 existence of such objects. Ross also said that both the Air Force and the Navy deny that such objects 243 00:23:47,260 --> 00:23:54,940 exist. We tried to add it all up. We admit that now, as before we started our case, we have no 244 00:23:54,940 --> 00:24:01,100 opinion. The figures just don't add up. So we went to the public. We went to the man and the woman 245 00:24:01,100 --> 00:24:06,060 on the street to see how they were reacting to this barrage of positive sightings and just as 246 00:24:06,060 --> 00:24:12,860 positive denials. We wondered how they felt. They told us. Well, I think there's more to it than meets 247 00:24:12,860 --> 00:24:17,340 the eye, and I think it's more to it than what they're writing about. First, now, I don't think 248 00:24:17,340 --> 00:24:23,020 such things exist. I don't see how it could exist. I have a confidence that something on that order 249 00:24:23,020 --> 00:24:31,820 may exist. I lived in North Carolina in 1903 when the reporter for the New York world was fired 250 00:24:31,820 --> 00:24:38,060 for reporting that the Wright Brothers flew. Some say they're stars. Some say they're enemy 251 00:24:38,060 --> 00:24:42,540 action and all kinds of things, but I really don't know. There might be something to it. 252 00:24:42,540 --> 00:24:46,380 Clearly imagination. I didn't believe it at first, but now I'm beginning to believe it. 253 00:24:46,380 --> 00:24:51,020 Most of the thing is a flying saucer. Well, I believe President Truman, like the rest of us, 254 00:24:51,020 --> 00:24:57,980 has a right to his own opinion. And now, just in case all this has added to the celestial confusion 255 00:24:57,980 --> 00:25:02,940 about your heads, we've summarized the data we've been able to gather, sorted out the points of 256 00:25:02,940 --> 00:25:09,020 agreement and disagreement among those who claim to have seen flying saucers. Here is what we found. 257 00:25:09,980 --> 00:25:14,460 Nearly all these observers are in agreement on the color of the objects. It's a metallic color, 258 00:25:14,460 --> 00:25:19,980 they say, something like aluminum or silver. Almost everybody agrees the objects are generally 259 00:25:19,980 --> 00:25:25,420 disc-shaped, but with wide variations, sometimes balloon-like or resembling a giant rubber ball. 260 00:25:26,300 --> 00:25:33,260 Still others describe them as elongated cigar-shaped things. Speed of the saucers has been estimated 261 00:25:33,260 --> 00:25:39,820 at from zero to 1200 miles an hour. And when we get into the question of maneuverability, 262 00:25:39,820 --> 00:25:44,060 the observers seem not to be able to find the precise or adequate words. 263 00:25:45,020 --> 00:25:51,500 They say that the saucers hover, accelerate, and decelerate rapidly. They say that some of the 264 00:25:51,500 --> 00:25:59,660 objects flutter, oscillate, drift, hurl, or float. There seems to be no fixed pattern of flight 265 00:25:59,660 --> 00:26:05,340 in cases where more than one or two discs have been reported. But several persons have said 266 00:26:05,340 --> 00:26:11,420 that in group flights, one of the discs seems to be of a distinct color, indicating, possibly, 267 00:26:11,500 --> 00:26:16,300 that this off-colored disc was the monitor or the controlled disc for the others. 268 00:26:17,660 --> 00:26:23,020 A small percentage of the observers has said the discs bore light, and in five cases, 269 00:26:23,580 --> 00:26:29,580 at points as far apart as Alabama and California, the viewers said the discs suddenly disappeared in 270 00:26:29,580 --> 00:26:35,180 flight. But when we get around to estimating altitudes at which the objects were sighted, 271 00:26:35,180 --> 00:26:41,100 we find that some observers say they saw them at 250 feet. Others guessed the discs were at 40,000 272 00:26:41,100 --> 00:26:47,420 feet in the sky. While one observer estimated the number of discs seen at 100, nearly all thought 273 00:26:47,420 --> 00:26:52,700 the number was less than 10. And about half those who claimed to have seen the objects said they 274 00:26:52,700 --> 00:26:59,900 saw only single saucers. Well, these are the things men and women in various parts of the 275 00:26:59,900 --> 00:27:07,980 United States say they have seen in the sky. Men of science and high government officials cast a 276 00:27:07,980 --> 00:27:15,260 skeptical eye at these reported sightings of celestial phenomena. So far in the course of 277 00:27:15,260 --> 00:27:20,540 this broadcast, there have been no reliable reports of the sighting of any new flying saucers. 278 00:27:22,380 --> 00:27:28,380 Frankly, we don't know the answer. We wonder, do you believe in flying saucers? 279 00:27:31,580 --> 00:27:36,060 You'll be listening to the case of the flying saucer, a special report narrated by Edward R. 280 00:27:36,140 --> 00:27:41,180 Murrow. The case of the flying saucer was based on extensive research collected with the aid of 281 00:27:41,180 --> 00:27:47,340 CBS-affiliated stations and CBS Newsmen across the country. Portions of this broadcast were 282 00:27:47,340 --> 00:27:52,860 transcribed. This program was written by Irv Tunick, directed by John Deets and produced by Robert 283 00:27:52,860 --> 00:27:53,820 Bendick and Irving Getty.