- Pilot Recalls Seeing Discs
-
- The Oregonian
Thursday, July 3rd, 1947
-
-
- More reports of "flying flapjacks" turned up
Wednesday, one from no less than Dick Rankin, the brother of the late Tex
Rankin, and himself an experienced pilot of more then 7000 hours flying
time.
-
- Rankin, who is recovering from an old back injury received
in an automobile accident, came to Portland over the week end to spend
the summer. He saw the silver saucers over Bakersfield, California June
23rd, while lying on the lawn sun bathing, he told the Oregonian.
-
- "I hesitated to say much about them," Rankin
said, "until I noticed all the hullaballoo in the papers. I puzzled
over their strange shape for a while and finally concluded that they were
the navy's new XFSU-1 flying flapjacks, which are thin and round, with
twin propellers and a stubby tail.
-
- Only One XFSU-1 Built
-
- The navy and the manufacturer have announced that there
was only one such machine built and that it never left Connecticut.
-
- "These planes were flying high, maybe 9000 feet,
and fairly fast, about 300 or 400 miles per hour. I first counted ten of
them in formation, going north. About 2:15pm they returned on the reverse
course, headed south. But there were only seven in the formation."
-
- "They were not weaving or bobbing in formation,
I couldn't make out the number or location of their propellers, and couldn't
distinguish any wings or tail. They appeared almost round. They looked
like the navy's flying flapjack," Rankin said.
-
- Rankin, who plans to spend the summer here at 834 N.
E. Simpson street is now able to resume a little flying for fun, but not
commercially, he said. He now operates a string of auto courts, spending
his winters at Palm Springs.
|
|
 |
