ENGINEER CLAIMS "SAUCER" PLANS ARE IN SOVIET HANDS; SIGHTINGS IN AFRICA, IRAN, SYRIA

This Central Intelligence Agency report, dated August 18, 1953, synthesizes various international press reports concerning 'flying saucers.' The document begins by detailing claims made by a German engineer named Georg Klein, who asserts that flying saucers were a viable technology developed by German engineers toward the end of World War II. Klein claims to have been an engineer in the Ministry of Albert Speer and describes witnessing a test flight in Prague in February 1945, where a craft reached an altitude of 12,400 meters and a speed of 2,200 kilometers per hour. Klein further alleges that two experimental models were developed: a disc-shaped craft and a ring-shaped craft, both capable of vertical takeoff and landing. According to the report, these plans and the associated personnel were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of the war. The document also provides a detailed account of a sighting on November 22, 1952, near Bocaranga, French Equatorial Africa. Father Carlos Maria and a companion named Lasimone reported observing four silvery, moon-colored objects that hovered, moved in circular patterns, and climbed vertically over a period of 20 minutes. The report concludes with brief mentions of sightings in Syria, reported by the Damascus newspaper Al Ahaya, and a luminous object observed in the sky over Abadan, Iran, as reported by the Tehran newspaper Etela'at.