ACUFO-1945-07-00-SELFRIDGEFIELD-1
The French author and ufologist Jean-Gabriel Greslé indicated in his 2004 book “Documents Interdits - Ce que savent les Etats-Majors” (“Forbidden Documents - What the Headquarters Know”), that he presents an unpublished testimony: in August 1945, in the State of Washington, Jean Kisling, French fighter pilot instructor, future captain at Air France, was sent on an interception mission in his Republic Thunderbolt P-47H, an improved version of this plane, equipped with an efficient compressor which allows it to fly at very high altitude for the protection of B-29 Super Fortress bombers.
Kisling took off, trying to intercept a grayish object that vaguely resembled a balloon but had very different performance. He had received orders to shoot it down and his six machine guns were loaded.
After a long pursuit which took him to an altitude greater than 13,000 meters, while the object was about to escape him, Kisling fired a burst in its direction then engaged in a dive to find a more comfortable level, a maneuver which allowed him to perhaps save his life.
Received in his commander's office, he was told that he had been “very lucky!” because “to this day all those who fired on these machines have been shot down.”
Jean-Gabriel Greslé also reproduces a letter signed by Commander Kisling.
He states that in 1945 he was based at Selfridge Field near Detroit, Michigan, and that at that time it was common to see “balloons” passing at high altitudes, and everyone thought that these “balloons” came from Japan to spy on the U.S.A.
The Colonel Commanding the base one day ordered him to take off with a P-47 Thunderbolt to shoot down these “balloons”. Kisling had taken off, gained altitude, while these “balloons” always seemed to be the same size and remained at the same distance.
Arriving at 55,000 feet, more than 16,000 meters, unable to continue to climb because of pain in the joints, from the unpressurized aircraft, he had fired his machine guns in the direction of these “balloons”, and immediately, he saw these “balloons” become “saucers” and disappear at exceptional speed, leaving behind traces similar to those of high-altitude jet planes. Kisling added that there had been hundreds of witnesses on the base witnessing the event that day.
British author and ufologist Timothy Good reported in his 2012 book “Need to Know: UFOs, the Military and Intelligence“, that in the summer of 1945, “numerous circular flying objects were sighted” by citizens and military personnel near the U.S. Army Air Forces base at Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens, near Detroit, Michigan, USA.
It had been assumed that they were Japanese “Fugo” balloons, but, says Tim Good, the last ones had arrived in June and very few of them had reached as far east as Michigan.
Good indicates that many American pilots as well as Canadian pilots had participated in the attack on these balloons, but relatively few of them were shot down.
It states that in July 1945, three or four balloon-like objects had appeared directly above Selfridge Airfield in July, and the base commander asked for a volunteer to attack them. Jean Kisling, serving in a detachment of the Free French Air Force as an instructor on the P-47D and P-47N Thunderbolt fighters, then took up the challenge.
Kisling told Tim Good:
“I was the only one to say yes! So I took off and climbed. It was impossible to judge the distance of these objects - they were very high. I climbed well beyond the P-47D's service ceiling - and finally got one in my sights.”
Kisling opened fire with the eight .50 caliber machine guns mounted on the wings of his P-47, but to his astonishment...
“As I fired, it suddenly flew off to the side - over the edge - after first appearing as a sphere. And it left a condensation trail. It wasn't a balloon!”
Tim Good says that upon landing, Kisling was celebrated as a hero. He also remembered the pain in his arms “from decompression - after flying so high.”
Kisling told Tim Good that a few days later, a fighter plane, which he believes may have been a jet plane, sent to intercept a similar object, exploded and crashed near Denver, Colorado, killing the pilot.
There is also an article in the June 2008 magazine of the “UAP” (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) committee “SIGMA” of the 3AF association, “Association Aéronautique et Astronautique de France”.
There, it is recalls that during the World War II, Jean Kisling initially found himself in Tunisia. Having had to flee a second time before the advance of the German forces, he embarked, after multiple adventures, via Morocco bound for the United States. There, his skills as a pilot earned him first distinction and then promotion to instructor pilot in the Army Air Forces at the Selfridge base in the state of Michigan, the very place where the aerial combat against UFOs he was to perform was to take place in the summer of 1945. That day, at the request of the commander of the Selfridge base, Jean Kisling agreed to make an attempt to intercept “observation balloons” regularly observed at that time in the skies of Michigan.
“At that time, the sky over the State of Michigan was regularly crossed by “balloons” of unknown origin. The trauma of Pearl Harbor being still very fresh in Yankee minds, they are considered by many as observation and espionage devices from Japan. At the request of the Selfridge base commander and in the absence of other candidates, given the tragic outcomes of certain recent attempts, I volunteered to intercept the “balloons” and took off urgently.”
“On board my P47, although I climb to reach my target, surprisingly, between my airplane and these balloons the distance remains unchanged! Arriving at nearly 55,000 feet, despite the piloting difficulties - cold and altitude - I managed to release a long burst from my 8 12.7 mm caliber machine guns towards the balloons. To my great surprise, these balloons then transform into flying saucers, move away and disappear at exceptional speed, leaving behind them traces similar to those of high-altitude jet planes.
“On the ground, the “air combat” was closely followed by more than 1,000 eyewitnesses, using high-magnification binoculars, telescopes (or what was used at the time) for some, and trails left in the sky by the protagonists. The soldiers at the Selfridge base were thus able to see that these were by no means simple observation balloons. When I landed, I was celebrated like a hero by the Colonel in command of the base. The debriefing report is sent to the Pentagon. There will be no response from the authorities regarding this “incident”.
The article adds that Jean Kisling died in 2017, that he was heard in 1998 by two members of COMETA and that his story was not included in their final report.
It is specified that it was thanks to the intermediation of Alain Boudier that his testimony was also collected on March 26, 2008 by Jean-Gabriel Greslé and Tim Good and recorded in their respective works.
The article adds that in 1947, Jean Kisling became a co-pilot with Air France on the “Constellation” airliners, and that he declared that in 1952 or 1953, during a stopover in New-York - Ildlewild, the Airport Director told them that their “Superconstellation” will be the subject of special attention from an escort of armed guards deployed on the tarmac, as part of a support a delegation of around ten people. Kisling sees that the escort is carefully monitoring the boarding, ensuring that no prying eyes can spy on the departing group. During the flight, Kisling said, a person in his 60s from that delegation curiously began talking to him about the UFO issue, and Kisling told him about his sighting.
The man then tells him that his delegation is going to Eastern Europe to discuss, among other things, the question of UFOs with the Soviets. He tells him that the Americans know perfectly well who he is, he adds that there is an office at the Pentagon dedicated to the study of “Flying discs”, and that they had “recovered a flying saucer a few years ago, which crashed near El Paso (Texas) and all the occupants were deceased.
When Kisling asked him why they don't inform the American citizens about this, the man explained to him that it is impossible to reveal the truth, “because it would lead to widespread panic across the entire planet!”
| Date: | July or August or the Summer of 1945 |
|---|---|
| Time: | ? |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | 1998 |
| Reporting delay: | 5 decades. |
| Country: | USA |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | Michigan |
| City or place: | Mount Clemens |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1000 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 1 |
| Reporting channel: | Witness report to ufologists. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | ? |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | No. |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes. |
| UFO action: | Flew away when fired at. |
| Witnesses action: | Fired with machine guns. |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | Japanese spy balloons, later extraterrestrial craft. |
| Sensors: |
[X] Visual: 1 to 1000.
[ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages: |
|---|---|
| Hynek: | ? |
| Armed / unarmed: | Armed, 8 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 2 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 2 |
| ACUFO: | Unidentified. |
[Ref. jge1:] JEAN-GABRIEL GRESLE:
This author and ufologist indicates that he presents an unpublished testimony: in August 1945, in the State of Washington, Jean Kisling, French fighter pilot instructor, future captain at Air France, was sent on an interception mission on its Republic Thunderbolt P-47H, an improved version of this aircraft, equipped with an efficient compressor which allows it to fly at very high altitudes to protect Super Fortress B-29 bombers.
Kisling took off, trying to intercept a grayish object that vaguely resembled a balloon but had very different performance. He had received orders to shoot it down and his six machine guns were loaded.
After a long chase which took him to an altitude greater than 13,000 meters, while the object was about to escape him, Kisling fired a burst in its direction then engaged in a dive to find a more comfortable level, a maneuver which allowed him to perhaps save his life.
Received in his commander's office, he was told that he was “very lucky!” because “to this day all those who fired at these craft have been shot down.”
The author also reproduces a letter signed by Commander Kisling.
He states that in 1945 he was based at Selfridge Field near Detroit, Michigan, and that at that time it was common to see “balloons” passing at high altitudes, and everyone thought that these “balloons” came from Japan to spy on the U.S.A.
The Colonel Commanding the base one day ordered him to take off with a P-47 Thunderbolt to shoot down these “balloons”. Kisling had taken off, gained altitude, while these “balloons” always seemed to be the same size and remained at the same distance.
Arriving at 55,000 feet, more than 16,000 meters, unable to continue to climb because of pain in the joints, from the unpressurized aircraft, he had discharged his machine guns in the direction of these “balloons”, and immediately, he saw these “balloons” become “saucers” and disappear at exceptional speed, leaving behind traces similar to those of high-altitude jet planes. Kisling added that he had hundreds of witnesses on base witnessing the event that day.
[Ref. tgd1:] TIMOTHY GOOD:
When numerous circular flying objects were seen in the summer of 1945 by citizens and military personnel in the vicinity of the USAAF base at Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens, near Detroit, Michigan, it was naturally assumed that the Japanese were responsible, though it later transpired that the last Fugos landed in June, and very few made it as far east as Michigan. Many American as well as Royal Canadian Air Force and Navy pilots had been involved in attacking the 33-foot-diameter balloons, with their suspended payload of five bombs, four incendiaries and a 33-pound anti-personnel bomb. Comparatively few had actually been shot down, however. So, when three or four balloon-like objects appeared directly over the airfield in July, the base commander asked for a volunteer to attack them. Jean Kisling, serving with a Free French Air Force detachment as an instructor on P-47D and P-47N Thunderbolt fighters, valiantly accepted the challenge.
“I was the only one to say yes!” Kisling told me. “So I took off and I climbed. It was impossible to judge the distance of these things - they were very high. I climbed to well beyond the service ceiling of the P-47D - and eventually got one of them in my gunsight.” Opening fire with the P-47's wing-mounted eight .50-calibre machine guns, he was astonished at what happened next. “The moment I fired, it suddenly shot off sideways - on edge - having at first appeared as a sphere. And it left a contrail. This was no balloon!”
On landing, Kisling was fêted like a hero. He also recalls the pain in his arms “from decompression - having flown so high”.
A Frenchman thus became the first pilot in America, as far as I know, to attempt to shoot down an unidentified flying object. Kisling was lucky to survive. Some days later, a fighter plane - he thinks it might have been a jet - sent to intercept a similar object, exploded and crashed near Denver, Colorado, killing the pilot.
[Ref. taf1:] "3AF - PAN":
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[Photo caption:] Jean KISLING during this interview
The 3AF-PAN information commission on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (PAN [=UAP]) will contribute, during the two years to three years to come, to inform members and the general public by organizing conferences on this subject in cooperation with the Ile de France regional group, and by regularly publishing articles in the 3AF Letter devoted to testimonies, analyzes of official PAN files, press reviews and book summaries... Here, to inaugurate this series of publications, is the account of an exceptional true life experience from a great direct witness.
TESTIMONY OF MR. JEAN KISLING 1
Mr. Jean KISLING, 86 years old, former fighter pilot, former Captain at Air France, has a total of 27,000 flight hours. He holds the Aeronautics medal and is a member of the discreet Tomato Club 2. His testimony concerns an attempt to intercept UFOs in 1945 in the USA.
One must remember that Jean KISLING has already testified on this matter in 1998 to two members of COMETA 3 and that his account was not published in the final report. Thanks to the intermediation of Alain BOUDIER, his testimony was also collected by Jean-Gabriel GRESLE 4 and Tim GOOD 5 and recorded in their respective books.
He gives us here new elements giving an interesting insight into the level of knowledge of the American military on the UFO phenomenon. During the World War II, Jean KISLING found himself initially in Tunisia. Having had to flee a second time because of the advance of the German forces, he embarked, after multiple adventures, via Morocco, destination of the United States.
On site, his skills as a pilot first earned him distinction; then he was promoted to instructor pilot in the Army Air Force at Selfridge base in Michigan, the very place where the aerial combat he led against UFOs was to take place in the summer 1945. That day, at at the request of the commander of the Selfridge base, Jean KISLING agrees to make an attempt to intercept “observation balloons” regularly observed at this time in the skies of Michigan.
This interception attempt was carried out with a P47, the most powerful fighter plane of the time, whose engine developed in 1945 a power approaching 3000 hp, capable of reaching altitudes higher than 10,000 m.
Here is his testimony.
“At this time, the sky over the state of Michigan is regularly crossed by «balloons» of unknown origin. The trauma of Pearl Harbor still very much alive in Yankee minds, they are considered by many as observation and espionage devices from Japan. At the request of the Selfridge base commander and in the absence of other candidates, given the tragic outcomes of some recent attempts, I volunteer to intercept the “balloons” and I take off urgently.
On board my P47 I climb to reach my target, surprisingly, between my aircraft and these balloons the distance remains unchanged!
Arrived at almost 55,000 feet 6, despite the piloting difficulties - cold and altitude - I managed to achieve to release a long burst from my 8 12.7 mm caliber machine guns towards the balloons. To my great surprise, these balloons then transform into flying saucers, move away and disappear at exceptional speed, leaving behind traces similar to those of
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[Photo caption:] Jean KISLING (second from left), instructor on P-47 Thunderbolt at Oscada, Michigan in October 1944
jet planes at high altitude. On the ground, the “air combat” was carefully watched by more than 1,000 eyewitnesses, with the help of high-magnification binoculars, telescopes (or what was in use at the time) for some, and trails left in the sky by the protagonists. The soldiers at the Selfridge base were thus able to see that these were by no means simple observation balloons. When I land, I am celebrated as a hero by Colonel commander of the base. The debriefing report was sent to the Pentagon. There will be no feedback from the authorities regarding this “incident”.
Shortly after the end of hostilities in 1947, Jean KISLING enters the Air France company where he serves as a young co-pilot on “Constellation” type airliners. He tells us:
At New York/Ildlewild, we are informed by the Airport Director that our Superconstellation will be the subject of special attention from an escort of armed guards deployed on the strip. He explains to us that we are going to take charge of a delegation of around ten people at the side of the track who will be the only passengers. And in fact, I notice that the escort carefully monitors the boarding, ensuring that they are safe, so that no prying eyes can spy on the departing group. The flight at that time is long (about 12 hours), I go to relax at the back of the airplane reserved for the delegation and found myself sitting at the table next to someone around sixty years old. The conversation curiously turning to the question of UFOs 8, I recount what I experienced in Michigan.
My interlocutor then tells me that the delegation he is leading, once it arrives at Orly, must take the connection towards Eastern Europe to discuss - among other things - this sulfurous question with their Soviet counterparts.
He also tells me that they - the Americans - know perfectly who I am. The CIA already... He then mentions that there is an office at the Pentagon dedicated to the study of “Flying discs” and reveals that they have recovered, a few years ago, a flying saucer, which crashed on the side of El Paso (Texas) and all the occupants were deceased.
To my question: “Why don’t you inform the American citizens?”, he replied that it's impossible for them to reveal the truth, because this would lead to widespread panic across the entire planet! Later, in the 1960s, I had to again the opportunity to be confronted with to the UFO phenomenon in Argentina where the observation of such aerial phenomena was not rare.»
More than 63 years after these events, what is Jean KISLING's feeling about this enigma? Here is his response.
«For me, there is not the slightest doubt, flying saucers exist and come from another solar system. I am extremely surprised; that so-called great scientists still stubbornly refuse to accept it. It is now time to accept the idea of the existence of intelligent ET 9 life across the cosmos and by definition extra-terrestrial. In face of the challenge posed by this to humankind, I believe that we are still at the time of Galileo!...»
ANALYSIS OF HIS TESTIMONY
Taking into account the personality and the career of Jean KISLING, it seems difficult to doubt the sincerity and authenticity of the testimony of Jean KISLING about an event that was also observed by a thousand eyewitnesses.
This testimony, exceptional in its own right, in more than one way, raises a number of questions concerning the official position of the American authorities regarding the UFO phenomenon on the one hand, and their unofficial actions in this area on the other hand:
1. Flight over American territory by unidentified objects during the summer 45 was not a real surprise for the American authorities: air defense operations had been committed, justified by the war situation with Japan and the trauma of Pearl Harbor and a certain number of planes lost for causes not entirely elucidated;
2. Unlike the classic official position of the authorities consisting of claiming the non-existence of the UFO phenomenon, the American authorities had perfectly identified Jean KISLING as a former fighter pilot in the USA and co-pilot at the time at Air France;
3. They could therefore not ignore his aerial commitment against the “balloons” of Michigan. The fact that no RETEX 10 was released returned from the Pentagon to the Colonel running the Selfridge base poses a real question. It can also constitute a real answer in itself...;
4. It is surprising that the head of the delegation started this conversation so easily with Jean KISLING. He mentions that the American authorities recovered a material object with deceased EBEs (Extraterrestrial Biological Entities) 11; to what purpose? He also mentions - still for what purpose? - as the objective of the delegation's trip, discussions between Russian and American authorities on the UFO question, which would testify to a certain tacit understanding at that time between the two superpowers.
Alain BOUDIER, Pierre BESCOND,
Khoa DANG-TRAN, members
of the 3AF-PAN [=UAP] Commission
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[Photo caption:] Jean KISLING at Oscada, Michigan in December 1944
ENGAGEMENT IN NORTH AFRICA
Engaged volunteer at Salon-de-Provence on March 19, 1941, Jean KISLNG was assigned to to the Bombardment Group 1/25 at El-Aouina (Tunisia), until November 1942, then in November 1942, in Blida, Algiers, Rabat and Marrakech.
He left on September 3, 1943, for Casablanca, at the CFPNA (the Flight Personnel Training Centers in America were open from 1943 to 1946). He embarked on October 15 on the Empress of Scotland in London, destination the United States with the 5th detachment of the CFPNA: departure on the 16th, arrival on the 23rd at Newport (USA), disembarkation on the 24th.
THE TRAINING PERIOD IN THE UNITED STATES
Arrived at Craig Field, Selma (Al), on October 26, 1943, he joined the Primary School of Van de Graaf Field at Tuscaloosa until January 16, 1944. He made his first flight there on November 8, 1943. He then attended the Basic School at Gunter Field in Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, until March 24, 1944, then the Advanced School of Craig Field at Selma, where he is certified; Pilot on May 23 of the same year with 244 flight hours (License No. 30,457).
Arrived at Oscoda Air Base in Michigan on July 20, 1944, he began training on the P-47 Thunderbolt. After qualification on this aircraft, he is named instructor (575 flight hours on P-47) then assigned to Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens, from April 1945 to 1945 January 1946.
BACK IN FRANCE
He is assigned to the Tours Air Base as an Instructor at the Tours Air Base the Tours Patrol under the command of Cdt PERRIER.
Demobilized in July 1946, he piloted a Junker 52 at «Alpes Provence» in June and July 1947. After training as an airline pilot, he joined the Air France airline in August 1947; he is also a pilot instructor at the Air France Aero-Club in Paris Melun.
Jean KISLING was then co-pilot until 1952, Captain then airline pilot instructor at 1952 at the SFP of Le Bourget and Cormeilles-en-Vexin. Captain on B747 since 1971, he has a total of 5,900 flight hours on this type of aircraft.
He retired from Air France on July 1, 1982. Jean KISLING has a Gold Medal of Honor for Aeronautics, and still active at the Air France Aero-Club and the Touring Aero-Club de France.
QUALIFICATIONS:
[Photo caption:] Jean KISLING at Dayton, Ohio in May 1986
(Source CFPNA - http://pagespersoorange.fr/patrice.laverdet/html/cfpna_vol5.htm)
[Ref. jkh1:] JEROME A. KROTH:
Quite unrelated to Corso's text is a report by author Timothy Good, the author of Need to Know: UFOs and the Military. Good spends most of his time in this book reviewing declassified military documents, but he reports a rather uncanny interview he had with Jean Kisling, a French pilot. Kisling had previously had an encounter with a UFO over Selfridge field in Michigan in 1945. Good wanted to interview Jilin about that episode since Kisling is alleged to have actually fired on that UFO but in the course of their interview a far more dramatic tale emerged:
In the early 1950s Kisling, a commercial pilot, was flying the New York-Paris route. “One day when the crew arrived at ldelwild Airport,” he began, “we were told that the regular schedule had been changed. The chief of security at the airport asked me to accompany him to his office. I was warned not to disclose the information he was about co reveal to me... He explained that chis would now be a “special security” VIP flight to take a delegation of about twenty or thirty military officers from the Pentagon to Paris on a classified mission. Our Super Constellation had been parked away from the terminal with a military guard. We had a double or “heavy” crew on board. When I took my rest period during the flight across the Atlantic, I chatted to an elderly man with a beard. He revealed that he was a UFO specialist and that a very important unit in the Pentagon dealt exclusively with the subject. He said that a flying saucer had crashed at El Paso, Texas some time previously and that “small people” not from Earth had been recovered. I asked him why all this was kept secret. He replied that everyone would panic.
The elderly gentleman on that flight likely was referring to the Roswell episode and the alleged recovery of alien bodies from the crash site.
[Ref. ekc1:] EGON KRAGEL ANDT YVES COUPRIE:
These authors indicate that in November 2009, they met with Alain Bouclier, president of the 3Af-SIGMA commission within the Aeronautical and Astronautical Association of France, and he told them that among all the testimonies of French pilots that he knows, that of Jean Kisling was dear to him. He had met Jean Kisling at his home on March 26, 2008, and he told them that in 1945, he was promoted as an instructor in the Air Force Army at Selfridge Base, Michigan, at a time when a large number of “balloons” of unknown origin were reported in the American sky. One summer day in 1945, aboard his P47 and at the request of the Selfridge base commander, Kisling volunteered to intercept these “balloons” and took off urgently. Kisling testified:
“Despite my climb to reach my targets, surprisingly, between my aircraft and these balloons, the distance remains unchanged! Arriving at nearly 55,000 feet, despite the piloting difficulties - cold and altitude, I succeed to release a long burst from my eight machine guns in the direction of the balloons. To my great surprise, these balloons transformed into flying saucers, moved away and disappeared at an exceptional speed, leaving behind them traces similar to those of high altitude jet planes. On the ground, the 'air combat' was carefully followed by more than 1,000 eyewitnesses, using high-magnification binoculars, telescopes, etc. The soldiers from the Selfridge base were able to see that these were in no way simple observation balloons. There will be no response from the authorities regarding this 'incident'.”
[Ref. nes2:] "NEXUS" MAGAZINE:
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Jean Kisling, interviewed by 3AF-Sigma 1 in 2008, former US pilot/instructor, testified about his attempted interception aboard his P47 of a discoidal device on the Selfridge base (Michigan) in the summer of 1945 (see NEXUS no. 58).
[Ref. yvh1:] "YVES H.":
yvesh By yvesh
On 02/28/2019
In OVNI/UFO
UFOs: Recalling the testimony of the pilot Jean Kisling
UFOs and fighter pilots 5
Uap interview jkisling1
[Photo caption:] Mr. Jean KISLING, 86 years old at the time of this photo
I already spoke several times about the numerous testimonies from pilots about their encounters in the sky (see the links at the bottom of this article), and I can never emphasize enough the obvious reliability of these testimonies from professionals who cannot be accused of being permanent dreamers or deluded people. I have just found in my archives that of Mr. Jean Kisling which I therefore add to those already posted.
[Photo caption:] Jean KISLING in Oscada, Michigan in December 1944
Mr. Jean KISLING, 86 years old at the time of this article, died in September 2017, all my respects. Former fighter pilot, former captain at Air France, he has a total of 27,000 flight hours. He holds the Aeronautics medal and is a member of the discreet Tomato Club. His testimony concerns an attempted UFO interception in 1945 in the USA.
It should be remembered that Jean KISLING was already interviewed on this subject in 1998 by two members of COMETA and that his story was not included in the final report. Thanks to the intermediation of Alain BOUDIER, his testimony was also collected by Jean-Gabriel GRESLE and Tim GOOD and recorded in their respective books.
He gives us here unpublished elements giving an interesting insight into the level of knowledge of the American military on the UFO phenomenon.
During the Second World War, Jean KISLING initially found himself in Tunisia. Having had to flee in a second phase before the advance of the German forces, he embarked, after multiple adventures, via Morocco bound for the United States. There, his skills as a pilot earned him first distinction and then promotion to instructor pilot in the Air Force Army at the Selfridge base in the state of Michigan, the very place where the aerial combat that he led against UFOs in the summer of 1945 was to take place. That day, at the request of the commander of the Selfridge base, Jean KISLING agreed to make an attempt to intercept “observation balloons” regularly observed at that time in the skies of Michigan.
This interception attempt was carried out with a P47, the most powerful fighter plane of the time, whose engine in 1945 developed power approaching 3,000 hp, capable of reaching altitudes above 10,000 m.
Here is his testimony below:
“At this time, the sky over the State of Michigan was regularly crossed by “balloons” of unknown origin. The trauma of Pearl Harbor being still very fresh in Yankee minds, they were considered by many as observation and espionage devices from Japan. At the request of the commander of the Selfridge base and in the absence of other candidates, given the tragic results of certain recent attempts, I volunteered to intercept the “balloons” and take off in emergency.”
“On board my P47, although I climb to reach my objective, surprisingly, between my aircraft and these balloons the distance remains unchanged! Arrived at nearly 55,000 feet, despite the piloting difficulties - the cold and the altitude - I managed to release a long burst from my 8 12.7 mm caliber machine guns in the direction of the balloons. To my great surprise, these balloons then transformed into flying saucers, moved away and disappeared at an exceptional speed, leaving behind them traces similar to those of jet planes at high altitude.”
“On the ground, the “air combat” was closely followed by more than 1,000 eyewitnesses, using high-magnification binoculars, telescopes (or whatever took their place at the time) for some, and the trails left in the sky by the protagonists. The soldiers at the Selfridge base were able to see that they were in no way simple observation balloons. On my return to earth, I am celebrated as a hero by the Colonel commander of the base. The debriefing report is sent to the Pentagon. There will be no feedback from the authorities regarding this “incident”.
Shortly after the end of hostilities in 1947, Jean KISLING joined Air France where he served as a young co-pilot on “Constellation” type airliners. He tells us.
“In 1952 or 1953, during a stopover in New York/Ildlewild, we were informed by the Airport Director that our Superconstellation would be the subject of very special attention from an escort of armed guards deployed on the tarmac. He explains to us that we are going to take charge of a delegation of around ten people at the edge of the runway who will be the only passengers on board. And in fact, I notice that the escort is watching the boarding carefully, ensuring that no prying eyes could spy on the departing group. The flight at this time was long (around 12 hours), I was going to relax at some point in the back of the plane reserved for the delegation and found myself seated next to a person of around sixty years old. The conversation curiously turned to the question of UFOs, I recounted what I experienced in Michigan.”
My interlocutor then tells me that the delegation he is leading, once arriving at Orly, must take the connection towards Eastern Europe to discuss - among other things - this sulfurous question with its Soviet counterparts. He also tells me that they - the Americans - know perfectly who I am. The CIA also... He immediately mentions that there is an office at the Pentagon dedicated to the study of “Flying discs” and reveals that they recovered a flying saucer a few years previously, which crashed near El Paso (Texas) and all occupants were deceased.
To my question: “Why don't you inform American citizens?”, he replied that it is impossible for them to reveal the truth, because it would cause widespread panic across the entire planet! Later, in the 1960s, I again had the opportunity to be confronted with the UFO phenomenon in Argentina where the observation of such aerial phenomena was not rare.”
More than 63 years after these events, what is Jean KISLING's feeling about this enigma?
Here is his response. “For me, there is not the slightest doubt that flying saucers exist and come from another solar system. I am extremely surprised that so-called great scientists still stubbornly refuse to accept the idea of the existence of intelligent ET life throughout the cosmos and thus of extra-terrestrials. Faced with this challenge posed to our humanity, I believe that we are still in the time of Galileo!...”
Jean KISLING (second from left), instructor on P-47 Thunderbolt at Oscada, Michigan in October 1944
Given the personality and career of Jean KISLING, it seems difficult to doubt the sincerity and authenticity of Jean KISLING's testimony concerning an event also observed by a thousand eyewitnesses. This testimony, exceptional in more than one way, raises a certain number of questions concerning the official position of the American authorities regarding the UFO phenomenon on the one hand, and their unofficial actions in this area on the other hand:
Alain BOUDIER, Pierre BESCOND, Khoa DANG-TRAN, members of the 3AF-PAN Commission
This interview was carried out on March 26, 2008 by Pierre BESCOND, Alain BOUDIER and Khoa DANG-TRAN at the home of Mr. Jean KISLING.
The whole interview with events after the war:
pan-interview-j-kisling-juin08-1.pdf
PS: this pdf is widely in the September and October 2008 issue of Nexus n°58 pages 80 to 82
[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBERHART:
1944
[... other cases...]
July - When several balloon-shaped objects appear above Selfridge Field (now Selfridge Air National Guard Base) near Mount Clemens, Michigan, the base commander asks for a volunteer to attack them as possible Japanese balloon bombs. Jean Kisling, serving with a Free French Air Force detachment as an instructor on P-47 Thunderbolts, accepts the challenge. He chases one “well beyond the service ceiling of the P-47D” and opens fire with 8 machine guns. The object shoots away sideways on edge, leaving a contrail. (Good Need, p. 24)
[... other cases...]
[Ref. jbu1:] JEROME BEAU:
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Kisling was born in 1929.
2nd world war
North Africa
On Wednesday 19 he volunteered in Salon-de-Provence, assigned to Bombardment Group 1/25 in El-Aouina (Tunisia), until November 1942 when, faced with the advance of German forces, he was forced to flee via Blida, Algiers, Rabat, Marrakech, and finally Casablanca on Friday September 3, 1943, where he entered CFPNA 1. (“The album of Jean KISLING (5th detachment)”, CFPNA, 2015.)
USA
On Sunday October 15 he boarded for the USA with the 5th detachment of the CFPNA, on the Empress of Scotland, which left the next day. On the evening of Monday 23, he arrived at Newport, disembarking the next day. On Thursday the 26th, he arrived at Craig Field, in Selma (Alabama). There he goes through a medical check-up, clothing etc.
[Photo caption:] Kisling
He then entered the Primary Aviation School at Van de Graaf Field in Tuscaloosa, until Sunday January 16, 1944. He made his first flight on Monday November 8, 1943. He then entered the Basic School of aviation at Gunter Field in Montgomery, until Friday March 24, 1944. Finally the advanced school at Craig Field in Selma. It was on Tuesday May 23 that he obtained pilot rank, with 244 hours of flight time (patent No. 30,457).
On Thursday, July 20, he arrived at Oscoda Air Force Base (Michigan) to train on the P-47 Thunderbolt. Once qualified on this aircraft, he was designated as an instructor until January 1946, after 575 flights on the P-47.
Observation
From April 1945 on, he was at Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens. One summer day, circumstances will lead him to make an in-flight observation:
At that time, the sky over the State of Michigan was regularly crossed by balloons of unknown origin. The trauma of Pearl Harbor being still very fresh in Yankee minds, they are considered by many as observation and espionage machines from Japan. At the request of the Selfridge base commander and in the absence of other candidates, given the tragic outcomes of certain recent attempts, I volunteered to intercept the balloons and took off urgently.
Aboard my P-47 a (the most powerful fighter plane of the time, whose engine that year developed a power approaching 3000 horsepower, capable of reaching altitudes above 10,000 m) I climb to reach my objective, surprisingly, between my device and these balloons the distance remains unchanged! Arriving at nearly 55,000 feet, despite the piloting difficulties - cold and altitude - I managed to release a long shoot from my 8 12.7 mm caliber machine guns in the direction of the balloons. To my great surprise, these balloons then transform into flying saucers, move away and disappear at exceptional speed, leaving behind them traces similar to those of high-altitude jet planes.
On the ground, the aerial combat was carefully followed by more than 1000 eyewitnesses, using high-magnification binoculars, telescopes (or what took their place at the time) for some, and trails left in the sky by the protagonists. The soldiers at the Selfridge base were thus able to see that these were by no means simple observation balloons. When I returned to earth, I was celebrated as a hero by the colonel commanding the base. The debriefing report is sent to the Pentagon. There will be no response from the authorities regarding this incident.
Returning to France in January 1946, he was assigned to the Tours air base, where he was an instructor for the Patrouille de Tours under the orders of Commander Perrier.
He was demobilized in July. In June 1947 he became a pilot on Junker 52 at “Alpes Provence”, until the following month.
Air France
He then began an airline pilot course, before joining Air France the following month, as a pilot instructor at the Air France Aero Club in Melun.
He will be co-pilot until 1952. At this time he has the opportunity to relate his observation to an interested person:
In 1952 or the following year, during a stopover in New York/Ildlewild, we were informed by the Airport Director that our Superconstellation would be the subject of special attention from an escort of armed guards deployed on the tarmac. He explains to us that we are going to take charge of a delegation of around ten people at the edge of the runway who will be the only passengers on board. And in fact, I notice that the escort carefully monitors boarding, ensuring that no prying eyes can spy on the departing group. The flight at that time was long (around December 575), I went to relax at one point in the back of the aircraft reserved for the delegation and found myself seated next to a person in his sixties. The conversation curiously turned to the question of UFOs (7), I recount what I experienced in Michigan.
My interlocutor then tells me that the delegation he is leading, once arriving at Orly, must take the connection towards Eastern Europe to discuss - among other things - this sulfurous question with its Soviet counterparts. He also tells me that they - the Americans - know perfectly who I am. The CIA already... He immediately mentions that there is an office at the Pentagon dedicated to the study of flying discs and reveals that they recovered a flying saucer a few years previously, which crashed near El Paso (Texas) and all the occupants were deceased. To my question: Why don't you inform American citizens?, he replied that it is impossible for them to reveal the truth, because it would cause widespread panic across the entire planet!
Later, in the 1960s, I again had the opportunity to be confronted with the UFO phenomenon in Argentina where the observation of such aerial phenomena was not rare.
airline pilot no. 242 on Friday the 14th, then Captain on Boeing 747 from 1971 (5,900 flights on this type of aircraft), and finally Airline Pilot instructor at the SFP of Le Bourget and Cormeilles-en-Vexin.
On Thursday 1, he retired from Air France.
At the end of his career, he will have acquired French and American airline pilot qualifications (American commercial single and multi-engine airplane and seaplane pilot) - French, Canadian, Japanese and Kenyan PP. In total more than 26,300 flights including 9,500 at night and 400 by seaplanes. 12,051 landings and water landings in October 2002. He has flown more than 70 types of aircraft.
Still active at the Air France Aeroclub and Touring Aéro Club de France, member of the Tomato Club b (Private meeting for pilots and former pilots, 6 rue Galilée 75006 Paris), he holds the gold medal honor of Aeronautics.
[Photo caption:] Kisling today
In 1998, Kisling was questioned about his UFO sighting by 2 members of COMETA, but his story was not included in the final report. Thanks to the intermediation of Alain Boudier, however, his testimony was also collected by Jean-Gabriel Greslé and Timothy Good, Timothy, who recorded it in their respective works.
In fact, Kisling has a strong opinion on UFOs:
For me, there is not the slightest doubt, flying saucers exist and come from another solar system. I am extremely surprised that so-called great scientists still stubbornly refuse to accept the idea of the existence of intelligent ET life throughout the cosmos and thus of extra-terrestrials. Faced with this challenge posed to our humanity, I believe that we are still in the era of Galilee!... 2 (Bescond, Pierre & Boudier, Alain & Dang-Tran Khoa: Interview with Mr. Jean Kisling at home of the latter, 2008-03-26.)
He died on Sunday the 17th.
[Ref. mse1:] MARCELLO SOAVE:
Chronology of sightings drawn up by Dr. Domenico Pasquariello of CEIFAN (Centre for Investigation of Anomalous Phenomena).
[... other cases...]
- The Astronomical Association of French Astronautics has collected the testimony of a former fighter pilot, Jean Kisling regarding an attempted interception of a UFO in 1945 in the USA. His duty at the time was US Air Force instructor based in Selfridge, Michigan.
During the summer of 1945 the base commander ordered the military to intercept a UFO, which was flying nearby of the base. Here is his testimony: “At this moment the sky of the State of Michigan is regularly crossed by 'balls' of unknown origin. At the request of the Selfridge base commander I took off aboard my P47 and I reached the altitude to intercept 'the ball'.
Surprisingly I can't reach the targets, the distance between the camera and the objects remains unchanged! I got to 55,000 feet despite the difficulty of flying, the cold and the altitude, I manage to release a burst of fire from my 8 12.7 mm caliber machine guns in the direction of the spheres. To my great surprise these balls have transformed into flying saucers and at an incredible speed they move away and disappear at an exceptional speed, leaving traces similar to those of high-altitude jets.”
From the ground, the air combat was observed by more than a thousand witnesses using binoculars and telescopes (or other observation equipment). The military was able to certify that they were not balloons or similar, but were very high-performance aircraft driven intelligently. Upon returning to base, the protagonist pilot was treated like a hero by the Colonel Commander of the Base.
[... other cases...]
[Ref. rie1:] "RICHEGE1999":
(PUBLIC DOMAIN) - 29 June 2002 - Commandant Jean Kisling tells Jacques Vallée that in the early 1950s he met “an older man with a long beard” on a private flight from New York to Paris. The man told Kisling he was with several colleagues to travel to Eastern European countries including the USSR to discuss UFOs. The man then allegedly told Kisling he was from a “secret Pentagon office” that had recovered “out of this world” material from a crash near the Mexican border close to El Paso. No other details were given.
https://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Science-Pacific-Heights-2000-2009/dp/1949501248
The Republic P-47 “Thunderbolt” was a powerful single-seat, single-engine fighter plane used to defend the bombers of the US Army Air Forces during their daytime raids over the Germany.
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I found this information in the database of US Army Air Forces accident reports, in the May 1945 section, at
www.aviationarchaeology.com/listPages/airforce/asp/AF_Monthly_1945May_S.asp
| Crash Date YYMMDD | Pilot | Aircraft Type | Aircraft S/N | Squadron | Group | AF | Station | Action Code | Damage Code | Country | State | Location |
| 450530 | Kisling, Jean M | P-47D | 42-27836 | - | 146AAFBU | 1AF | Selfridge Fld | SF [= Structural Failure] | BL [= Blank (or column left blank), exact amount of damage not given in report] | USA | MI | Yale / 2 mi E |
In clear text this means that on May 30, 1945, Kisling was at the Selfridge base in group “146AAFBU”, under the 1st Air Force, and had a plane accident in a P-47D, serial number 42-27836, caused by structural failure of the plane. He crash landed 2 miles east of Yale, Michigan.
During World War II, the Japanese Army constructed paper balloons filled with hydrogen and equipped with incendiary and antipersonnel bombs, intended for use against the United States. These free balloons (pictured below), called “Fugo” or “FuGo” or “Fu-Go”, were carried over the Pacific Ocean from Japan to North America by rapid and high-altitude air currents, the “jet streams”, and used a sophisticated sandbag ballast system to maintain their altitude. The bombs were intended to start large-scale forest fires and cause panic.
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Between November 1944 and April 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army launched approximately 9,300 ot those balloons from sites on the coast of Honshu, of which approximately 300 were found or observed in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The bombs proved ineffective as incendiary weapons due to the humid seasonal conditions, with no forest fires attributed to this offensive. A campaign of censorship by the American media prevented the Imperial Japanese Army from knowing the results of the offensive. On May 5, 1945, six civilians were killed by one of the bombs near Bly, Oregon, becoming the only casualties of the war in the continental United States.
The first Fugo balloons were launched on November 3, 1944. In July 1945, 14 were found or spotted (“Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America”, Robert C. Mikesh, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973).
Some did indeed reach Michigan, as evidenced by the document below:
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This being said, one of the versions of Kisling's story tells us that there were three or four objects to intercept; if this was correct, they were not balloons, unlikely to remain grouped for thousands of kilometers.
The balloons obviously didn't have a contrail either, nor could they have been shaped like “saucers”.
From various newspapers, local history websites and History sources, I can list:
This means that from the approximately 300 balloons known to have made it to the United States, at least 3 ended their trip in Michigan.
As soon as the Japanese free balloons were identified as a potential threat, the United States military was continually on the alert to commit aircraft to intercept and shoot down any sighted balloons. Only two were shot down over the American continent by aircraft. One was by a P-38 on 23 February 1945 and another by a P-63 on 22 March 1945. In an effort to enhance detection and interception capabilities, “Sunset Project” was activated in early April 1945. A radar site test area was established with search radars located at six sites in northwest Washington. The sites were designed to detect the balloons by skin paint or radio signal as they approached the Washington coast. The results of the project were nearly zero because the last balloon was launched from Japan on 20 April 1945 and the radar sites had no targets. The project was abandoned on 11 July 1945. Thus, United States military operations against the balloon bomb came to an end. (1:36)
Source: “Analysis of Japanese balloons bombing of North America”, by Major Gary R. Brown, U.S. Air Force, Maxwell A.F.B., 1988, at
apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA195038.pdf
It must be noted that the first shooting down of a FuGo ballon on 23 February 1945 was no the actual first. The first was on January 10, 1945, by the commanding officer of Fighting Squadron 36 at Naval Air Station Klamath Falls, Oregon, flying a Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat. Others were shot down, but in the Pacific, and other were intercepted by the Canadians over Canada. I also found mentions that First Lt. Clinton Bergen in a P-38 pilot shot down a balloon over California.
So far, I found no official record that a FuGo balloon intercept resulted in casualty or death. Of course it does not prove it never happened.
Historical records show Japanese balloons intercepts as:
For Selfridge Field, during the World War II, I have so far found no official written record of interception of balloons, nor of unidentified objects. Of course, this is not proof that this did not happen. Official documents on the “Foo-Fighters” did not appear spontaneously; one had to had to wait for their declassification, then go find them in the paper archives sites among the enormous military archives that have survived time, and of which no one has read the entirety.
The “Superconstallation” was put into service in the USA in December 1951; the first one put into service with Air France was on July 16, 1953. As there is no sign that Kisling flew with an American company, but it is clear that he was a pilot with Air France, the episode must therefore be dated after July 16, 1953. Kisling said it was in 1952 or 1953, so there is nothing dubious here.
Kisling says he heard things. They are such that it makes him join the UFO “whistleblowers” crowd, which continues to grow. Many people who seem credible, report “recoveries” by the American military of “crashed saucers” or bodies of extraterrestrial beings, and so on. For some, it was revealed that they had lied, usurped their titles or invented their careers. Others have not been caught in this way, but the “revelations” they make are so meager that it seems impossible to verify anything. Such is the case with Jean Kisling.
If I only look at what Jean Kisling said, I struggle to find credibility in it. On the one hand, I pointed out that, as is often the case, there is nothing that we can try to verify. On the other hand, what deeply bothers me is the contrast between the utterly strange precautionary measures surrounding the boarding of the strange committee in the Superconstellation, and the ease with which the elderly, bearded man, confides extraordinary secrets to Jean Kisling. How to explain such a privilege? How can we explain Kisling waited decades before telling about it? As a French citizen, he was not bound by any commitment to American secrecy.
And how can we think that the Americans would have gone to discuss UFOs with the Soviets? Unless I'm mistaken, this information is completely new and uncorroborated. Hundreds of diverse and more or less credible people have spoken of “recoveries” of extraterrestrial spacecraft by the American military, but it seems to me that none have ever claimed that the Americans had approached the Soviets to discuss this, or even just to discuss UFOs with the Soviets.
Kisling does not give a specific date for the “crash” he allegedly heard about; he says “a few years ago”, meaning a few years before 1953, which may or may not be in 1947.
Kisling said the recovered saucer had fallen “on the side of El Paso.” El Paso, Texas, is located 150 miles southwest of Roswell, New Mexico. El Paso was the home of the Fort Bliss base. The base dealt with missiles, at the end of 1945, Wernher von Braun, father of the V-2 rockets and father of the Apollo program, worked there, until 1950. Thefore it would not be absurd that the remains of a “flying saucer” that fell in the area were brought there.
We also know (“The Roswell Report” of the U.S. Air Force in 1995 page 33) that C.B. Moore, of the “Project Mogul” of high altitude balloon clusters said that on July 4, 1945, a C-54 went to El Paso to collect a unique Smith balloon and a cluster of Mogul balloons from “Flight 8”. And there had been two reports of UFO sightings (not quite detailed) in El Paso on June 27, 1947, and a large number of others in the area between June 1947 and subsequent years.
Kisling was referring to the CIA: “The CIA already...”. In fact, it was in 1952 that the CIA became seriously involved in the UFO issue, following the wave of sightings of that year, and the work on this subject of the U.S. Air Force's “Project Blue Book”. It was in 1952 and 1953 that the CIA “Robertson Panel” decided that UFOs were nothing more than various misinterpretations and hoaxes, and recommended that the Air Force should only report on “explained” cases, and that generally speaking, the public should be “educated” to understand that there are no such things as extraterrestrial visiors in the American skies.
The CIA had also scoured the Soviet press and decided that there were no reported UFOs there, and that the UFOs reported in the USA were perhaps a psychological warfare maneuver carried out by the Soviets against the USA - something easy to debunk.
I endeavored to consider the main bigwigs of the CIA who in 1952 - 1953 dealt with the UFO question: Howard P. Robertson, Samuel A. Gouldsmit, Luis Alvarez, Thornton Page, and Lloyd V. Berkner. And on the Air Force side, H. Marshall Chadwell, A. Ray Gordon, Walter Bedell Smith.
My idea was to find the old bearded man Kisling was talking about. Neither old nor bearded: H.P. Roberston, Samuel Gouldsmit, Luis Alvarez, H. Marshall Chadwell, Walter Bedell Smith. Aged but beardless: Lloyd V. Berkner. In fact, the only bearded man who could have been a member of a CIA UFO committee or on the fringes of the CIA UFO concerns was Thornton Leigh Page, but he was only 40 years old in 1953. So, no success in this attempt.
There are elements in the testimony that seem “suspicious”.
Kisling initially reportedly thought they were Japanese spy balloons; or else, Kisling reports that military authorities thought they were Japanese spy balloons.
But what was then thought of these balloons was not that they were spy balloons, but balloons equipped with incendiary and anti-personnel bombs (the Fugo balloons). It is unlikely that the military authorities spoke of spy balloons, because there was no chance that balloons leaving Japan would return there, or that they could be “recovered” by Japanese spies in the United States. On the other hand, the military authorities were perfectly aware of the nature of the Japanese balloons, they knew very well that they were not spy balloons.
I do not think this is “fatal” for the testimony; but I think it may indicate a disturbed memory. When he testified, Kisling was elderly.
More embarrassingly, Kisling tells us that at that time “the sky over the State of Michigan was regularly crossed by 'balloons' of unknown origin.”
This origin was nothing unknown. This is not “fatal” either since the authorities had censored the existence of the Fugo balloons, not to avoid “panic”, but in effect that the Japanese Army would not know whether their weapon was effective or not - it was not, but the Japanese, not knowing this, continued to waste resources on these useless operations.
Kisling assures that his interception was followed “attentively by more than 1,000 eyewitnesses” from the ground. This is a lot of witnesses, so it is quite astonishing that nothing leaked out from any of these people, as far as I know.
Even the number seemed high to me. In 1945, the Selfridge ground, commanded by Colonel Bradford A. Shaw, housed several units including the 477th Bombardment Group (Medium). Such a group includes approximately 1400 men, so, adding the other units and ground personnel, it is not impossible that there was a thousand eyewitnesses on the ground.
Sources tell us that Kisling's plane was a Republic Thunderbolt P-47H, equipped with a supercharger to raise the ceiling.
But there was never any Republic Thunderbolt P-47H. There was a Republic Thunderbolt XP-47H, the “X” indicating that it was a prototype. Only two of them were built, these were two P-47Ds fitted with the new Chrysler XI-2220-11 engine, a liquid-cooled 16-cylinder in-line engine. The test was not conclusive.
Virtually all P-47s were turbocharged; the supercharger had been replaced from version to version each time by more efficient ones. The ceiling nonetheless remained given as 12,500 meters or 12,800 meters.
The problem of protecting B-29 bombers was not a question of altitude, but much more of range. Most B-29 raids were operated at altitudes between 7,000 and 12,500 feet.
There is nothing suspicious in the indication that Kisling reached 13,000 meters; on the other hand, the version indicating that he had reached 16,000 meters is possibly a bit exaggerated.
We also find that one of the versions says he was armed with six machine guns and the other version talk of eight machine guns. The error probably did not come from Kisling, but the P-47's armament was indeed eight 12.7 mm Browning M2 machine guns.
Six machine guns are only found on the XP-47J, a prototype abandoned in 1944. On the other hand, I cannot exclude that Kisling flew precisely on this prototype equipped with the General Electric CH-5 turbocharger, with which the aircraft reached 813 km/h in August 1944. (The prototypes were not necessarily “discarded”, they could find a use “off the front”, precisely.
Among the items I checked I have:
The fact that there were indeed French airmen at Selfridge Field in July 1945. On August 27, 1945, General de Gaulle visited them. (Mount Clemens Monitor-Leader, page 1, August 28, 1945.)
The fact that Selfridge Field was commanded by a colonel: it was Colonel Bradford A. Shaw.
The fact that Jean Kisling was there - he appears in a photograph taken during de Gaulle's visit:
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After qualifying on the P-47 Thunderbolt with 575 flight hours, he was named instructor and based at Selfridge Field from April 1945 to January 1946 (www.cfpna.fr/html/cfpna_kisling.htm).
He joined Air France in August 1947 as a pilot instructor at the Air France Aero Club in Melun; he was an Air France co-pilot until 1952, then Captain, then airline pilot instructor on Boeing 717 in 1971, retiring in 1982.
Was it jet planes?
Kisling said he saw the saucers “disappear at exceptional speed, leaving behind traces similar to those of high-altitude jet planes.”
In the “popular” view of World War II aviation, the only jets that participated were German. In fact, the U.S. Army Air Forces had flown their first jet aircraft, the Lockheed P-80 “Shooting Star” during the war. Certainly, their use had been very limited: two “Shooting Stars” had operated in Italy. But in the USA, this plane made its first flight on January 8, 1944, at least a year before the observation reported by Kisling.
By the end of July 1945, there were 83 P-80s assigned to Muroc Base (now Edwards Air Force Base) in the Mojave Desert, California. I could not find any clear trace of any P-80 in Michigan in 1945, but in the press of 1945, we see it photographed almost everywhere in the USA. Granting that the Colonel commanding Selfridge Field was not familiar with the aircraft and had thought he was dealing with Japanese balloons, it cannot not be completely ruled out that Kisling had attempted to intercept P-80 roaming aroun Selfridge Field.
Unidentified.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
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| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | June 18, 2024 | Creation, [jge1], [tgd1], [taf1], [lkh1], [ekc1], [nes2], [yvh1], [get1], [jbu1], [mse1], [rie1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | June 18, 2024 | First published. |
