◆ SpookStack

rT. PORTLAND, OREGON 30,July'1947_- Kat C-E-H-T-1-!-I-C-A=Tos un 30 July 19n7 Mr kichard xankin, 634 N. s. Simpson Street, at hee Oregon was interviewed by this agent and stated in substance as follows: : My name is Richard Rankin, I aml? years old and have flow since I was nineteen years old, I first soloed in m air craft in 1919. I mve flow over all the western parts of the United States many times and have mapped all of the western part of the United States during the years before the late war for the US Forest Service. I am familiar with almost every part of the western United States, During a great part of my life I have done stunt flying for air shows and various other types of aeronautical exhibitions. ly brother was "Tex''Rankin who was quite well known in both civilian and Military flying circles for many years before his death and during the late war ran thousands of Flying Cadets through primary training schools owmed and oper= aedd by him, To date I mve accomplished 7000 hours in the air as pilot of both civilian and Military aircraft. I an well acquainted with most articles that one would see in the air and I feel that I am well qualified to say when I see articles flying through the air, although I would not attempt to say that I am infallable and state that I could definitely identify every - object that might be flying through thé air, The following is.an account of what I saw on 1 June 19h7 from the yard of my home at 14% South "Ll" St, Bakersfield, Calif ornia. At approximately 1200 noon on the ll: of June I was lying in the front yard of my home. There was a lad mowing the lawn at the time, I looked up into the sky and saw ten articles flying from tle South to th North at what T wild judge to be 8500 ft, Tle objects were flying at approximately what I would judge to be 350 miles per hoar. As ime stated before, I have done quite a lot of map work for the US Forest service. i Ustinctly remember that at the time I saw the articles I mentioned it to the lad who was mowing the lawn at the time, I told the lad that the objects were in all probability some sort of army or Navy test planes from the nearby test centers on the 4eserts of Southern California, Having quite a knowledge of aircraft in general I attempted to explain to the lad mowing the lavm that th objects were probebly on same sort of training mission for either the Arny or Navy. At that time I did not give the slightest’ thor ght to anything but that the objects were some sort of test tip for the Government services, The ofkects resembled the pictures that I have seen of the LFSU1, the so walled "Flying Flapjpck afickk that the llavy is testing. After the objects disap eared I roceeded into the house and had my noon meal, At approximately 1415 I went ck into the yard to sit and Mie in the shade. At this time the objects re- appeared going from Soeth to South, although this time there were only seven of the articles, When I first saw the ofigi nal ten objects they were flying ina "¥" formation with one obgct seemingly star_ gling in the rear of the formation. When the objects apperaed ‘le secon’ time they were still in the wy" formation although there was only seven @& the objects at this time. i remember 4 this time that I told the lad, who was still wrking on the army that pobably three of the objects had poceeded back t weir base on a diff- erent course. I acfually thought that thi was he case, that the other three objects hd@ probably cone hack to their base on the other side of th mountains } claiming from Bakersfield. A week or so later when I read of ur Kenneth Arnol a: Sen hh sSz a * ' : nN acrato Mountains 1 that he had seen articles flying through the air over the Casca‘e Mountains in -~ | -