"FLYING SAUCER" THEORIES AND EXPERIMENTS

This Central Intelligence Agency report, dated 27 May 1954, compiles information from foreign newspapers regarding "flying saucer" theories and alleged experimental aircraft. The report is divided into three sections. The first section discusses an article in the French periodical Forces Aeriennes Francaises, published by the Comite d'Etudes Aeronautiques Militaires. The article, written by Lieutenant Plantier, suggests that supersonic interstellar ships powered by cosmic energy are possible, noting that the French Air Force appears to acknowledge the existence of flying saucers. The second section details an interview with German engineer George Klein, who claimed to have participated in the construction of flying saucers between 1941 and 1945. Klein described three designs: one by Miethe, a disk-shaped aircraft 135 feet in diameter; and another by Habermohl and Schreiver, which featured a rotating ring and a stationary cabin. Klein alleged that the first piloted saucer reached 1,300 miles per hour within three minutes. He stated that the project was destroyed in Prague by the Germans before the Soviets arrived, though the Soviets reportedly captured one of Miethe's saucers in Breslau. The final section reports on a patent issued by the Genoa Chamber of Commerce to Scipione Mattolin, a Venetian naval fitter, for a flying disk. The invention, registered as No 165 of Patent Register 125, was estimated to cost over 500 million lire and reach speeds of 3,000 kilometers per hour. Reports from Le Courrier du Maroc and Stockholms-Tidningen indicate that the disk would be made of plastic and aluminum, and that Mattolin was in contact with US authorities after Italy rejected his invention.