The article below was published in the newspaper The Medford Mail-Tribune, Medford, Oregon, USA, on page 1, on December 23, 1947.
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Portland, Ore., Dec 23 (U.P.) Rep. Harris Ellsworth, R. Ore., today expected U. S. military authorities to question him about his assertion that "flying saucers" reported over the U. S. last spring and summer may have been Russian military rocket experiments.
Ellsworth said the flying saucers could have been the result of American experiments but that it was more likely that any disc actually seen came from Russian military proving grounds.
The congressman said he had been given a description of Russian rockets by a "reliable" informant whose identofty he could not disclose.
"Strangely enough," Ellsworth said, "this development might be the solution of the now almost forgotten mystery of the flying saucers. The Russian rockets have "almost unlimited range and amazing speed," he said.
In describing the rockets Ellsworth said, "each successive explosion shoots the missile forward at increased speed. Apparently the charges are packed separately and are helf apart by metal discs. As each charge is fired, the metal disc is discharged as an empty cartridge shell is discharged from an automatic rifle," the legislator added.
The first report of flying discs came last spring from Kenneth Arnold at Boise, Idaho, private pilot. Arnold said he viewed the objects hurtling through space at a speed of approximately 1200 miles an hour on a flight over southern Washington.
Thereafter hundreds of similar reports came from various parts of this country and Europe.
It was recalled here that the Boise, Ida., Statesman, recently obtained a statement by Gen. Carl Spaatz, air force chief, that his command was still investigating the flying saucers reports.
To: Kenneth Arnold or Newspapers 1940-1949.
