Montgomery, Alabama: USAF pilot sees silver parachute-like object with canister
On 9 April 1948 at 15:10 local time, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel from the Air Tactical School at Tyndall AFB, flying near Montgomery, Alabama, saw a silver object resembling a parachute with a suspended canister or ball at about 16,000 feet for five seconds.
Background
Project Sign incident #113 records a sighting by a USAF lieutenant colonel (pilot, Tactics Division, Air Tactical School, Tyndall AFB) from the air near Montgomery, Alabama, on 9 April 1948 at 15:10. The object appeared at ten o'clock off his left wing at roughly 16,000 feet, was silver, had a top part about eight feet in diameter resembling a parachute, with a dark cable about five feet long and a large silver canister or ball suspended beneath it. It flew away from him horizontally toward the northwest, faster than his own indicated 310 mph, with no sound or exhaust trail, in clear weather with unlimited visibility, and was in sight for about five seconds. The checklist notes a resemblance to a parachute and canister with photographic test equipment dropped from a V-2 rocket; a sketch is attached. The details are taken from the records released by the U.S. Department of War (record code 38_143685_box7 Incident Summaries 101-172 (Project Sign)) and do not represent an independent determination by From Beyond Space.