Swinging in behind the mystery ship, they attempted to follow. But at
their speed of 170 m.p.h. they were quickly outdistanced. Careful
checking showed there were no

{p. 72}

other planes nearby that could have been mistaken for this strange
craft.

On New Year's Day, 1948, a similar rocket-shaped object was sighted at
Jackson, Mississippi. It was first seen by a former Air Force pilot
and his passenger, and later by witnesses on the ground. Before the
pilot could begin to close in, the odd wingless ship pulled away.
Speeding up from 200 to 500 m.p.h., it swiftly disappeared.

Besides these two cases, already on record, I had the tips Purdy had
given me. One wingless ship was supposed to have been seen three or
four days before the Chiles-Whitted sighting; like the thing they
reported, the unidentified craft was a double-decked "space ship" but
moving at even higher speed. At first I ran into a stone wall trying
to check this story. Then I found a lead conforming that this was a
foreign report. It finally proved to be from The Hague.

The tip had been right. This double-decked, wingless ship had been
sighted on July 20, 1948--four days before the Eastern case. Witnesses
had reported it at a high altitude, moving at fantastic speed.

While working on this report, I verified another tip. We had heard a
rumor of a space-ship sighting at Clark Field, in the Philippine
Islands. Although I didn't learn the date, I found that there was such