In 'Flying Saucers Are Hostile', by Brad Steiger and Joan
Whritenour, the authors mention an incident involving "Ten-year-
old Sharon Stull of Albuquerque".

They write:

"Her case did, however, provoke an official response. Police
Chief A. B. Martinez issued an unprecedented warning to
Albuquerque residents, asking them to stay away from mysterious
objects. The law-enforcement official declined to state his views
on what the UFOs might be, but he strongly emphasized his warning
that "they should be treated with respect and caution".

Little Sharon Stull's doctor stated that he had found membrane
inflammation of both eyes and first-degree burns under the eyes
and on the nose. The physician had asked the girl to draw a
picture of the strange thing which had burned her with the
painful ray emanations. Sharon, and some playmates who had
witnessed the incident on April 28, 1964, told authorities that
the object had been shaped like an egg and was slightly smaller
than an airplane. They had seen no windows of any kind".

This was only four days after Lonnie Zamora's pivotal 'UFO'
encounter with an egg-shaped object, near Socorro.

Steiger and Whritenour make no allusions to any connection with
the Socorro event, possibly because of the time and distance
factors.

However, we now know there were some classified hot-air balloon
flights which had taken place in 1963 and extended into 1964,
launched from a site on the banks of the Rio Grande, north of
Albuquerque.

Although probably all merely coincidental and difficult to see
how the above reported injuries could have been caused by a hot-
air balloon, unless at extreme close proximity to its burner,
I've never come across the Sharon Stull story before now.

This must surely have generated publicity, perhaps even
investigation by APRO/NICAP and if any subscribers know more
about the background, I would be interested to hear from them.


As an aside, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request in
search of the documents relating to those classified New Mexico
flights and any others which might be associated. I requested:

Any records pertaining to Office of Naval Research operations
involving experimental aircraft or balloon flights during the
years 1957-1964 inclusive. Specifically, those operations which
were carried out in conjunction with 'Raven Industries', of Sioux
Falls, South Dakota.

Instrumental in these flights was Ed Yost, one of the company's
founders and the foremost pioneer of ballooning. From an
authorised, brief biography:

"Leaving General Mills, Yost and 3 others moved to Sioux Falls,
South Dakota and formed Raven Industries. One of Raven's first
projects was a commission from the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval
Research (ONR) to create an aircraft that would carry one man and
enough fuel to fly for three hours, carry a load to 10,000 feet,
and be reusable. Additionally, the system was required to be of
small size and weight and have a fast inflation and launching
system that required a minimum of personnel".

On October 22, 1960, Yost made the first free flight of a modern
hot-air balloon from Bruning, Nebraska. By then Yost had switched
to nylon for the envelope, and had created a propane heater. The
gross weight of the balloon, including Yost and fuel, was 404
pounds. He was in the air 25 minutes and landed 3 miles from his
takeoff point.

The next flight was made November 12, 1960 from the Stratobowl,
situated at 4500' MSL. Yost had increased the burner power,
reinforced the envelope at the equator to add handling lines, and
increased the opening at the top from 9 to 13 feet, doubling the
deflation port size. The inflation took 6 minutes and he lifted
off at 8:40 a.m. with a gross weight of 465 pounds. At 9:12 a.m.
he made an ascent at 300 feet per minute to 9000', then made a
600 feet per minute descent which he successfully halted with the
new burner. He landed at 10:30 after a flight of 1 hour and 50
minutes covering 39 miles.

In October 1961 Yost concluded his report to the ONR as follows:

'At the completion of this program in October 1961, all of the
basic requirements had been met. A low-weight, manned flight
system capable of safely carrying one man for three hours, at
altitudes of up to 10,000 feet had been repeatedly flown'.

'Inflations and launchings in winds of more than 10 mph and
temperatures as low as +5 degrees F had been successfully
accomplished. Operations at altitudes of 4,500 feet MSL (above
mean sea level) had been demonstrated. Ground support equipment
had been developed so that inflation, under light wind
conditions, could be carried out in less than ten minutes.
Controls, burners and instrumentation adequate to operate the
system had been developed'.

'As a result of the work done under this contract, the
feasibility of using hot air balloons for sustained flight was
demonstrated. By the application of modern materials, design
techniques and instrumentation, an aerostat which had been known
for more than 175 years was resurrected and shown to have
substantial value in modern research and operations. The limits
of duration and lifting capacity appear to far exceed that
developed under this contract; the low cost, simplicity of
operation, and logistic advantage which hot air balloons provide,
when compared with light-gas balloons, are most impressive.
Within the altitude limits where hot air balloons may be used,
these modern Montgolfier systems may become an important tool for
atmospheric and low-level lifting and transport tasks'."
[END]


I am particularly interested in a project which took place during
1963 and 1964, known as 'the Albuquerque flights'. These involved
some of the earliest hot-air balloon flights made and the
balloons were launched north of Albuquerque, close to the Rio
Grande.
[END OF LETTER]


I was advised:

Department of the Navy
Office of Naval Research
800 North Quincy Street
Arlington
VA 22217-5660

[...]

I contacted the head of the Information, Electronics and
Surveillance S&T Department; the head of the Ocean, Atmosphere,
and Space S&T Department; the head of the Engineering, Materials
and Physical S&T; the head of the Human Systems Science and
Technology S&T Department; and the head of the ONR Industrial and
Corporate Programs Department. Our search has failed to reveal
any information relating to the subject of your request
[END]


Despite the negative results from what seems to have been an
exhaustive search, there are some other leads being pursued in an
attempt to locate this documentation.

I don't recall previously mentioning publicly how it was
confirmed to myself, by a former Vice-President of Raven
Industries, that he had seen a film of those 1963/64 'Albuquerque
flights', which utilised all-white hot-air balloons.

However, Ed Yost was also involved with this project, as we would
expect, and has refuted that the flights travelled anywhere near
Socorro.

That accepted, whilst the 'Albuquerque flights' may ultimately
have no bearing on Zamora's close encounter or any other UFO
incident, this would all be interesting 1957-1964 historical
material if it was released. So far as I'm aware, it never has
been.


To recap; the most likely source of any hot-air balloon, which
had so perplexed Zamora, remains a private flight and list
subscriber Larry Robinson has cited an anecdote he recorded:

I saw the article ONCE sometime in 1965 or 1966. At the time, I
had thought it was an amusing anecdote. I wrote a synopsis of the
text because I thought it was funny. I hadn't heard of the
Socorro case yet from any other source, and I had not yet become
interested in UFOs (1967).

Unfortunately, the magazine was borrowed, or the solution would
have been complete a long time ago. It was one of the following
kinds of magazines (which were what I normally read at the time):

- aviation
- ham or CB Radio
- electronics
- science
- design or engineering trade

These are titles I know I read at that time:

- Marathon World
- Life
- Time
- Popular Science
- Popular Electronics
- Science Experimenter

[...]

I recently found what I had written down, filed in my file on
funny real-life incidents (like the time a train was stuck in a
Milan Italy station for 4 hours because they couldn't find the
engine). The file has been packed in a moving box since 1993. I
didn't even know my note still existed until I found it.

Hindsight is 20/20. I wish I had thought to write down the name
and date of the publication at the time, or to Xerox it ($1 a
page back then). But at the time I didn't think it was important.

Here is what I wrote down. It is NOT a verbatim copy of the
magazine account (teenagers tend to abbr.) excepting the quoted
parts:

A hot air balloon landed, a cop drove up, the pilots thought
they'd get jailed for trespassing. Then the cop started hiding
behind things. "Our balloon freaked him out." The pilots thought
he might shoot it out with them, so they beat it into the sky.
"Later, we found out he thought he was seeing some sort of space
ship."

The quote marks are not present in what I originally wrote. I
added them here to show which parts were accurate.

When I first heard of the Socorro case, I thought of this
article, but dismissed it. I didn't know how noisy hot-air
balloons are. I had imagined that they would be quiet like a gas
stove. That changed in 1976 when I had my first close encounter
with one.
[END]


It certainly does sound like Zamora's exploits, yet, where's the
documented evidence.

According to an index, complied by hot-air balloon enthusiasts,
between 1963 and 1967, these are the only known and related
articles published:

Popular Mechanics, April 1963, 'Ride Silent, Ride High in a New
Hot-Air Sports Balloon: Vulcoon'

Forbes, January 1965, 'Here Comes Skyhook Logging!'

LIFE, 11 June 1965, 'Fine But Farcical British Balloon Race'

Popular Mechanics, Oct 1965, 'Old Time Balloon Race'

Popular Science, July 1966, 'Daffy Ride in a Hot Air Balloon'

LIFE, 18 November 1966, 'Riding the Wind in a Balloon'

Fortune, February 1967, 'Airlift for Logs'

Forbes, June 1967, 'Highways in the Sky'

Newsweek, 6 March 1967, 'Pop Goes the Balloon: Fire-propelled
Balloons'

Travel, April 1967, 'Balloonacy!'
[END]


Given that Larry read 'LIFE' magazine, a prime, contemporary
candidate for that anecdote was:

LIFE, 18 November 1966, 'Riding the Wind in a Balloon'

I have, eventually and after considerable endeavours, obtained a
copy of this.

It's a feature about gas-filled ballooning in Europe...

Some of the others were also already available and there's been
no relevant connection.

However, the 'Forbes', 'Fortune', 'Newsweek' and 'Travel'
articles are still elusive.

As is the whereabouts of Ed Yost's stated 1961 report to the ONR,
etc.

The 'truth' is of course, 'out there', albeit tantalisingly,
'somewhere'.

[And a 'break' really wouldn't go amiss...]

Meanwhile, does the Sharon Stull report [reminiscent of Cash-
Landrum?] have any other documented substance?


James Easton.
E-mail: voyager@...
www.ufoworld.co.uk