reported to the Kentucky State Police. It is not unusual to be able
to see a large balloon for 50 to 60 miles. The balloon could have
traveled west for a while, climbing as it moved with the strong east
winds that were blowing that day and picking up speed as the winds
got stronger at altitude. In twenty minutes it could have been in a
position where it could be seen from Owensboro and Irvington,
Kentucky, the two towns west of Godman. The second reports to the
state police had come from these two towns. Still climbing, the
balloon would have reached a level where a strong wind was blowing in
a southerly direction. The jet-stream winds were not being plotted in
1948 but the weather chart shows strong indications of a southerly
bend in the jet stream for this day. Jet stream or not, the balloon
would have moved rapidly south, still climbing. At a point somewhere
south or southwest of Godman it would have climbed through the
southerly-moving winds to a calm belt at about 60,000 feet. At this
level it would slowly drift south or southeast. A skyhook balloon can
be seen at 60,000.

When first seen by the people in Godman Tower, the UFO was south of
the air base. It was relatively close and looked "like a parachute,"
which a balloon does. During the two hours that it was in sight, the
observers reported that it seemed to hover, yet each observer
estimated the time he looked at the object through the binoculars and
timewise the descriptions ran "huge," "small," "one fourth the size
of a full moon," "one tenth the size of a full moon." Whatever the
UFO was, it was slowly moving away. As the balloon continued to drift
in a southerly direction it would have picked up stronger winds, and
could have easily been seen by the astronomers in Madisonville,
Kentucky, and north of Nashville an hour after it disappeared from
view at Godman.