23857122-0457-180273-0380

Oe Be es pt BY tas al. gn ee ae & Bngineering Division Memorandum Report Ho. MCREXD=69] 14D 26 April 1919 manouvering or not maneuvering, It is quite possible that it was simply climbing steeply on a relat ively straight course, such as wold be taken by a lighted weather balloon, As a matter of fact, a lighted weather balloon wes released by the Fargo Weather Station within 10 minutes of the time the light was first sighted by the Fe51 pilot.e It is the opinion of the wkiter that this lighted beloon easily could have accounted for alll of the pilot's observations, (It should be noted that the standard 30 inoh and 65 inch weather balloons have a vertical speed of about GOO and 1100 ft.f/min. respectively.) General Discussion and Summary oe SEENON. in the preceding section the hypothesis has been advanced that nost reports of unidentified flying objects have been the result of persons failing to identify femiliar phenomena, such as reflections from bright surfaces in the day or lights in a night sky. It is believed that this explanation will account for many of the reports, However, same reports unioubtedly have other explanation, Vertigo, The term vertigo covers a large group of misce] laneas phenomena including air sickness, disbelief in one's instruments, and partial loss of orientation. The conditions under which some of the observations of flying objects were made were such that they could have produced loss of orientation on the pert of an observer. This is especially true for thase experiences ocourring at night and those in which attempts were made to "chase" the object. Movement is always relative, If the only outside reference is a point of light, and both the observer and the object observed are moving, it would be practically impossible under certain conditions to tell which was m ing and which was not, or to separate out the two motions, It is hard enough CONV FD 2:82 1 AL Declassification Authority: NND 57565