Project 10073 Record Card and Investigation Report: Gray Goose Corporation

This report details an investigation by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) into two experimental aircraft models discovered in a tobacco shed on the Lipton Farm near Glen Burnie, Maryland. The investigation was initiated following a report from an informant, Stewart F. Smith, who believed these objects were related to the 'flying saucer' phenomena reported in the media. OSI agents, assisted by the Maryland State Police, located the models—a disk-shaped craft and a rotor-plane—and conducted extensive interviews with individuals associated with their creator, Jonathan E. Caldwell. The investigation revealed that Caldwell was an inventor who had operated the Gray Goose Corporation and the Rotor-Plane Company in the late 1930s. Caldwell had sold stock in these companies to numerous citizens in Maryland and other states, leading to legal action by the Attorneys General of New York and Maryland, who issued restrainer orders against him for fraudulent stock sales. The aircraft models were identified as failed experimental prototypes. The disk-shaped craft, referred to as the 'Gray Goose,' was constructed of plywood, aluminum, and aircraft fabric, and was powered by a 9-cylinder French engine. The second model, a rotor-plane, was in a state of disrepair. Interviews with former associates, including pilot Willard E. Driggers and Professor Louis Crooks of Catholic University, confirmed that Caldwell possessed no formal engineering knowledge and that his designs were based on outdated concepts. The Air Force concluded that these models had no connection to the contemporary reports of unidentified aerial phenomena. The investigation also determined that Caldwell had disappeared from the area around 1940 and was believed to be in California. The models were removed from the farm and placed in the custody of the Maryland State Police. The report includes extensive documentation, including copies of legal summons, correspondence, and newspaper articles, confirming the history of the Gray Goose Corporation as a failed commercial enterprise rather than a source of advanced aerial technology.