UFO PHOTOS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79B00752A000300130001-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 40
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 1, 1956
• Content Type: PHOTO

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54.V.
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SPACE, GRAVITY AND THE FLYING SAUCER
the Norwich Astronomical Society and the British Astro-
nomical Association.
Norwich. F. W. Potter
In a later article which appeared in the Daily Mail, I I th
February 1954, written by J. Stubbs Walker, and headed
'Was it a "Saucer- they saw over Norwich?' Mr Walker
tells us . . .
'Now, here is a strange thing about what the Potters saw
and what Mr Potter drew. The whole of his description is
very much like the much-questioned photographs of a flying
saucer supposedly taken at short range by Mr George
Adamski and published in his book Flying Saucers Have
Landed, except for the vital fact that Mr Potter drew what
he saw in his refracting telescope, which reverses the image.
'His flying saucer was not flying the same way up as those
of Mr Adamski, and no amount of arguing will make him
change his mind. Mr Potter had previously seen a represen-
tation of the Adamski saucer and was consequently aware
Top dotne did
not rotate.
Hull shown
ur'toy egy:
c
ligitt rays
front aftrturts.
Dark?re3 huli
intense
Mad sky.
llery prom;acnt
band muck Ii5kte
ix. colour.
Red 910tu Front hollow
at du bottom.
Fig. 1 This drawing, reproduced by courtesy of the "Eastern
Evening News," was copied by a member of that paper's staff
from a sketch made by Mr. F. W. Potter immediately after he
had sighted the object he describes.
46
MIRAGE OR FACT
that what he saw might be expected to be flyin
way
At first hearing this description would seem to
the i sue, but it so happens that it strengthens t
the theory outlined in this book.
Is ? here any point in further argument'? Are w
that eight people independently of each other
places, suffered the same hallucination at the
Are re then to convince ourselves that the repo
or can we reason that most people who take ai
telescopes and astronomy are not the type to
hoaxes? Was this a case of misinterpretation of
phenomena? Is it not stretching the imagination
far fcr us to believe that at least eight people `th
saw the same vehicle with the same significant I
detal,? When are people going to climb down to
senseAttitude, because if they insist on star-gazi
it is oing to get very draughty for them when t
of th,,, flying saucer is made known.
As ,this little book goes to press, it would sec
has started to blow already, for information
been 7e1eased regarding the Canadian Govern mer
towaids flying saucers. They at least consider
real enough to spend money on, for they have c
saucer-detecting station at Shirleys Bay, ten
Ottowa, comprising a laboratory packed with
and team of experts engaged upon a twent
watcF.
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Fig. 151? Al alOr &MC/1.'4011r of flying saticer, obtained" hi analysis of the ,,klarnski photographs
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Plate 1 Author's impression of the A. V. Roe Project
AERODYNAMICS OF THE DISC
exhaust pc,rts. Air is drawn in the leading edge intakes
and a largt proportion of it is fed to the combustion system
in the usull way; the remainder by-passes the engine and
mixes with the exhaust, which leaves via guide or central
vanes in the exhaust ports.
It is said that the aircraft will be capable of speeds up to
1,500 miles per hour. while it is also claimed that 180 degree
turns will Ee possible 'without a change of attitude', though
what is mel.nt by the latter is not at all clear.
Neither i; it clear how the rotating power plant will give
gyroscopic ;tability in normal flight, yet fail to pull the air-
craft to pi( ces through gyroscopic couples in high speed
aerobatic n anoeuvres. In fact it is the ability of the real
flying sauce: to execute such acute manoeuvres while rotating
about its ads, that helps to put it outside the school of
aerodynami s and, for that matter, Newtonian mechanics.
It is extremely likely that we are not the only nation
interested in theflying disc design. Russia is no doubt doing
her share in :the mad race to get there first. Saucers recently
skimmed thc rooftops in Belgrade and it was suggested that
they were e:Terimental models made by the Yugoslav Air
Force. These miniature saucers are said to be forty inches in
diameter, to weigh about four pounds, with a top speed of
thirty-one miles per hour and to be radio controlled.
Doctor W, F. Hilton, Armstrong Whitworth's chief aero-
dynamist, when giving a lecture to the British Interplanetary
Society at Birmingham (1952-3 session), on the difficulties of
bringing a returning space ship down to earth, said: 'That a
space ship returning from an interplanetary flight would
enter the earth's upper atmosphere at a speed equivalent to
a Mach No. )f 35 and would be burned up in a few minutes
in those conditions'. One method to overcome this is for the
craft to apprpach the earth at an angle, thereby skimming
the upper atmosphere. In such a contact it would pick up
all the heat it could withstand and then fly off into outer
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.4 uthors impression of a sectional view of ( Scout Ship
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96 FLYING SAUCERS AND COMMON SE 4SE
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It was in view for nearly four minutes and in that time it
travelled from south-west to south-east. Mrs. Potter sup-
ported her husband's statements. When interviewed later
they both denied that what they had seen wi-s a meteor
or a weather-balloon. Mr. Potter is an experienced
amateur astronorner and a member of the British Astro-
nomical Association and of the Norwich AAronomical
Society. Other Norwich residents came forward with
statements corroborating Mr. Potter's report that some-
thing strange had been seen in the sky on that particular
night. Their descriptions, however, were not as detailed
as that of Mr. Potter who immediately drew wiat he had
seen and submitted it to the editor of the Easiern Evening
News. This drawing, with one of Adamski's pf otographs,
were reproduced in the paper side by side and the resem-
blance is very striking indeed. In fact, the siructure of
the two objects would appear to be identical except for the
fact that the three "globes" which hang from Adamski's
saucer appear to be missing. These "globes" wn-e said by
Adamski to be landing-gear and retractable: as Mr. Potter's
saucer was seen in flight the absence of these tree appen-
dages can, in the circumstances, be taken as further
confirmation of George Adamski's story.
The only major point of difference is curious. Mr. Potter
firmly holds to his opinion that as he was viewing the object
through a refracting telescope the image was reversed.
Mr. Potter therefore claims that he saw a sauctr like the
one photographed by Adamski, though upside-down.
When these facts were brought to my attentionl felt that
the sceptics would not be able to resist the weight of this
evidence. Apart, however, from the Observer, which
printed a letter from Mr. Potter and reprocuced his
drawing, this sighting was practically ignoreti by the
national Press. Some months later, the Daily Mail did
refer to the matter at length in a series of articles on flying
saucers, but, at the time, the significance of the Norwich
sighting was overlooked by the British public. lthough
the matter cannot be unknown to the Astronomer Royal
and other pundits, they chose to ignore this incident
altogether. At the risk of being repetitious, let it be stated
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The pictarev bdow show tialICCI\
gf171(liked Nittlihtlity. The UFO (IT
hol70111 WfIS" photTophed in 1950
it flew tt'f0
,10111 ..ye(lIS hirer III FralICC.
30
tl 0 IN FTW ("BS 1.,sieViS11)11 new;
nr4n4rant carried tItit, pietuitt, to a siitttrtttittrtl
onifiontified flying object ltt,,t night.
lit.' Deputy Slittrilf
ptitrick, Vtt,lithu
th,ttog 7vittortt. cat-nt.c: not
pod., with a
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A Flying Saucer, taken by Juan Coll and Jos?ntonio Baena near Malaga on znd
November, 1954, reproduced in the Spanish evening paper Madrid.
THE SAUCERS FLY AGAIN 97
once again that the Norwich saucer could not have been
a meteor, a balloon, a cobweb, ionised air, a soap bubble
oi any of the other conventionalisations which have been
trpttecl out over the years. That is, if the evidence of the
Potters is to be believed.
What if their evidence is not to be believed? That their
c1 aracter is good, I can myself testify, for I have personally
investigated the matter. Mr. Potter runs a window-
chaning business in the city and is well known locally.
N ,thing against his character is known, nor has it been
as;ailed even by those who are most reluctant to believe in
fl)ing saucers. However, let us assume, for the moment,
that the Potters fabricated their story. With what motive?
AI far as I can discover Mr. Potter has not made a penny
out of his sighting. He may, for all I know, have lectured
on his experience and I believe he has once or twice been
in'7 to broadcast. The rewards must have been trifling.
He has, I understand, received a number of letters abusing
him, so the notoriety he has achieved has not all been
pleasant. Besides, it was not until several months later that
hi story was taken up to any great extent. The evidence
in favour of Mr. Potter is quite considerable. He refuses
to call the object he saw a 'flying saucer" and he and his
wie now say somewhat petulantly, "We didn't want to see
a lying saucer anyway!" I think it incontestable that the
Po :ters believe that they saw what they claim to have seen.
Ttere is no evidence whatsoever of any ulterior motive.
An alternative possibility has been suggested and should
be considered carefully. In fact, two suggestions have been
made. One is that because Mr. Potter's brother had,
three weeks prior to the 7th October sighting, reported
un:dentified lights in the sky, the Potters would, therefore,
be on the look-out for something and were, in fact, pre-
disposed to see a something in the sky. The other sugges-
tion is that as Adamski's photograph had appeared in the
papers the week before the Norwich incident, the Potters
had been induced to see a similar object. To the unthink-
ing this may sound plausible, but do people really behave
lik( this in real life? And why pick on the Potters? The
Ad imski photograph had, in all conscience, been widely
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Flying Saucer photographed by Stephen Darbishire
oniston, Lancashire, at t a.m., on 15th February, 1954.
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78 FLYING SAUCERS AND COMMON SENSE
I timed the Saucer for seventeen minutes while the Lode-
star kept to its course. Twice it rose vertically to a final
height 0140,000 feet, then it moved east toward the coast
at a terrific speed.
"There was a large fin-like object attached tc the rear,
although it wasn't clearly defined. There was no
apparent propelling power when the Sauce: moved.
There were definitely no vapour trails."
Captain Bicknell immediately after landing at Mom-
basa prepared an affidavit, which Merrifield and his
seven men and two women passengers signed.
One passenger, Captain H. B. Fussell, a Newport,
Monmouthshire, sports dealer, who had a pair of power-
ful binoculars said: "Through the glasses tie object
appeared bullet-shaped. Its colour was whitish-silver
with three vertical black bands down the side. For ten
minutes it remained stationary, then it suddenly rose
vertically by 5,000 feet.
"Again it became stationary, and then a minute later
it rose again and moved laterally away at a great speed,
probably 400 m.p.h."
Captain Fussell said that Dr. Urner Liddel's balloon
theory did not fit what he saw. "Suppose it was a
balloon?how could a balloon both hover motiorless and
move at 400 m.p.h. in the same weather conditicns?" he
asked.
"I emphatically reject the theory. The okect was
definitely metallic."
A radio officer named Overstreet from the Anerican
freighter Robin Mowbray, who was another passenger,
said : "I wouldn't swear but through the binoculars I
thought I could identify a row of circular windows."
Charles J. Vernon, also American, and purse- of the
Robin Mowbray, said: "The object must have been
immense, two or three times the size of the largest
passenger plane."
Three separate attempts to photograph the object were
made from the plane. Captain Fussell snapped it with
his miniature camera. Mr. Overstreet shot 30 feet of
colour film with a telescopic lens on his eine camera, and
Mr. Vernon also tried to snap it.
After landing, Captain Fussell developed his film in
the presence of a newspaper reporter and a commercial
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THE LULL 79
photographer, who certify that the film was not faked or
retouched.
Three exposures were blank, but the fourth showed a
small black object.
Mr. Vernon's film showed nothing, and Mr. Over-
street's colour-film has not been developed.
During the night after the Saucer was reported, two
unexplained flashes lit Mombasa.
Captain Bicknell was born in Exeter and lived in
London before joining East Africa Airways in 1948.
Radio Operator Merrifield's parents live at Ellison
Gardens, Southall, Middlesex.
A week later, on 4th March, 1951, The Sunday Dispatch
referred again to this sighting and reproduced a sketch of
the mysterious object, as under:
The newspaper made the following comments:
Flying in a cloudless sky over Mount Kilimanjaro, in
Tanganyika, Captain Jack Bicknell, pilot of a passenger
plane bound for Mombasa, saw through binoculars "a
metallic, bullet-shaped object which must have been
more than 200 feet long", The Sunday Dispatch last week
gave a detailed report of this Flying Saucer sighting, the
most authentic so far recorded.
When he brought the plane down, Captain Bicknell
drew a sketch of what he had seen.
The diagram above was prepared from Captain Bick-
nell's sketch and shows the "large object attached to the
rear".
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FLYING SAUCERS AND COMMON SENSE
not very important in itself, perhaps, was the knowing
report that appeared in the Sheffield Telegraph of 24th
April, 1953, some five months before the Adamski photo-
graphs had been made public:
BOYS WATCHED "FLYING SAUCER" FOR
25 MINUTES
AND ONE COULDN'T SLEEP
What was it that three Sheffield youths, Terry Platts,
Brian Davies and Allan Green, all aged 16, saw in the
evening sky?
Allan's father's verdict was: "A reflection from a steel
furnace probably."
Terry's father looked at his boy's bicycle to see if he
had fallen off and cracked his head.
Brian's father wasn't so sure. He interviewed the boys
separately and then wrote to the Sheffield Telegraph,
Yes, a flying saucer! But their description wa:, "like
two plates put together".
The boys, who all live in Newman Road, Wincobank,
are not given to telling fanciful tales, according to their
parents.
It was Monday evening and they were watching some
pheasants in a field from Greasborough Road at about
7.30. They saw what they at first thought was an
aeroplane with the sun shining on it?until they naticed
there was no sun. It was a dull evening.
The boys say the object, over Rawmash way, grailually
came nearer. It moved at a fast speed but sometimes
would remain stationary for several seconds. On these
occasions, a reddish glow coming from behind it would
cease.
The boys agree the object was always a long way off,
but they say they got the impression it was very big.
They watched it, they say, for twenty-five minuus.
Said Brian's stepfather, Mr. George Moverley , last
night: "I'm convinced the boys aren't kidding. My son
was too full of it for that. One boy says he couldn't sleep
for thinking of it, although his father ridiculed him ,"
?rnt-1 nnrM/PCi
THE ADAMSKI PHOTOGRAPHS 85
I have seen a letter from Mr. George Moverley, Brian
Davies's stepfather who made the comment that the sketch
in the Sheffield Telegraph did not actually conform with the
boys' description. This was re-drawn as under:
It will be seen that in outline it resembles the object that
Adamski has photographed. Even stranger events were to
happen later when the book had been published, but the
cutting and the letter were in my possession before anybody
outside my office had seen the Adamski photographs. An
extract from Mr. Moverley's letter may prove of interest:
In regard to your letter received last Saturday, I am
sending cuttings to show the interest caused by my son's
and his friends' observation of the "flying saucer".
The "saucer" was observed for at least twenty-five
minutes in good light and, on close questioning, their
accounts coincided on every main point. The news-
paper account seems to have formed a wrong impression
as to the speed. The point that seemed to strike them
was how siow it could fly. It could dive and hang sus-
pended in the air! Stop and start at will! What power
of propulsion do we know of that could allow an object
of such shape to perform so.
For most of the time it appeared on edge, but towards
the end of the observation it banked and went away,
and they were able to observe its circular shape.
On moving, it left a long trail of flame ending in black
smoke that stopped when the aircraft stopped.
While the book was being printed, Mr. J. N. Mansour of
Jetex Limited, the firm that makes model aircraft and the
fuel for their propulsion, visited George Adamski and
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ti 0 T H ATT A 'K
make otic wonde- NIL Arnold himself has saiti: whether
there by a MV strange connection between these weird and
mysterious amphibious spheres and the vast dumps of furn-
ace. slag fon rid occan-Iloors. If there is, then ;hew flying
discs may dump and jettison metal elsewhere thin in unin-
hahited islands!
tl'hat \%as the line taken by the U.S. military ;aithorities?
A military intelligence ollfter called on Mr. Arno d and took
Wa V from him every piece of metal he had from Maury Isl-
and. Mr. Arnold had planned to make a cigarette ash-tray
from the metal. 'Hie military man took Mr. A:nold to a
\inclter'\ works anti pointed out tons of material that, he said,
s exactly like the fragments. It, is only smelter s slag that
vou foond in Maury Island,- said the officer, staling.
Ile did not explain how that could he when Caere is no
smelters works in this vet-s sparsely populated ishnd, nor is
it used as d ii nip ug-place. Further, no reference was made'
to the curious sixteen constituents of this metal frmi Maury
Island. If what the olliccr alleged had been true, taen smelt-
er's slag must be a 111(i-t amazing alloy, not to say shocking
waste of valuable metal on the part of any smeltc- knowing
his business.
The absurd 'subterfuge' of the officer was a pointer to the
official attitude higher up in the U.S. Air Force. Or. April 27,
1919?two years later, when the circumstances would not he so
fresh in people's Mind.;?Projcet Saucer's experts adunnistered
the knock-out blow:
"Chrisman and Dahl, under questioning. t roke and
admitted that the fragments were really unutual rock
formations lemiKl. on Maury Island, and Mad tip connec-
tion with the 'flying discs'. They admitted telling the
Chicago 'magazine that the fragments 'could lave been
remnants of the discs', in order to increase the :ale value
of their story. During the investigation, Dahl's wife con-
sistently urged him to admit that the entire :flair was
a hoax, and it is i:irried as such in Project Saucer's Ides.''
It is likely that Chrisman and Dahl had been hadl.? 'grilled'
by the investigators, and wto-ned that their johs ni the Coast
Hying Saucer [-dicta 'graphed ()\ ci 13r