U.S. Air Force Analysis of Flying Objects in the United States, 101-172

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CONFIDENTIAL

STATEMENT OF JOHN B. WHITTED

I was flying co-pilot for Capt. C. S. Chiles on Trip 576 which left Houston, Texas at 8:40 PM Eastern Standard Time, Friday night. July 22, 1948. At 0245 EST, we sighted a strange object caging toward us at a high rate of speed. We were at 5000 feet and our position was 25 miles southwest of Montgomery, Ala. The strange object had a stream of red fire coming from its tail. I assumed that it was a jet type airplane of the Army or Navy but as it came nearer I could see that it was much larger than any Army or Navy jet that I have ever seen or read about. It passed us on the right side of our DC-3. I estimate its speed in the neighborhood of 700 MPH but this is purely a rough estimate. We were holding a compass heading of 50 degrees and the object passed us going in the opposite direction. To me, the object seemed about a half-mile from us, flying straight and level. I could not see no wings supporting the object.

The object was cigar shaped and seemed to be about a hundred feet in length. The fuselage appeared to be about three times the circumference of a B-29 fuselage. It had two rows of windows, an upper and a lower. The windows were very large and seemed square. They were white with light which seemed to be caused by some type of combustion. I estimate that we watched the object at least 5 seconds and not more than 10 seconds. We heard no noise nor did we feel any turbulence from the object. It seemed to be at about 5500 feet.

I asked Capt. Chiles what we had just seen and he said that he didn't know. Capt Chiles then contacted the company radio operator at Columbus, Ga., and asked him to contact Lawson Fld at Ft Benning, Ga., and find out if the Army had any jet or experimental planes in the vicinity. The company operator called us a few minutes later and stated that Lawson Field reported that they had no planes flying in our area. Capt Chiles then reported back to the company radio operator saying that a strange aircraft just passed us and it looked like some type of rocket ship.

We passed up Columbus because of ground fog and continued on to Atlanta

CONFIDENTIAL

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