Andrews Air Force Base unidentified aerial event — November 9, 1948

This object, reported has been independently identified as an air cosmic ray balloon cluster. In Reply Refer To: ATS DSS SUBJECT: Unidentified Flying Objects 11 May 1949 TO : Commanding General Air Materiel Comand Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Dayton, Ohio ATTN: MCIAO-XO-3 1. Reference is made to letter from your headquarters, AC/IAS, dated 9 March 1949, subject "Unidentified Flying Objects," and first indorsement thereto by this headquarters, dated 31 March 1949. M. on 3 Nov two Mustang fighters of the 82d Fighter Wing were dispatched to investigate the sighting reported by Lt Com Paina, a Coast Guard pilot, who reported the original sighting. The pilots upon reaching 22,000 feet sighted the unidentified object. Later it was definitely established that the craft sighted was a cluster of eight balloons used by MIT for cosmic ray research. There was Object (s) Sighted Near Andrews Fld., 4. Number of Object(s) Sighted 5 balloons in a cluster. At 1010 A.M. on November 3, 1948 the 22nd Fighter Wing dispatched two Mustang fighters to check on a reported sighting of an unidentified aircraft. The fighter pilots sighted the unidentified aircraft, when they reached 22,000 feet, and were able to keep it in sight until they reached 37,000 feet. Col Rabo, flying in Aircraft No. Since it has been definitely established that the craft sighted was a cluster of eight balloons used by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for cosmic ray research.