Glen Durnie, Md., August 1949August 1949

In the summer of 1949, a Maryland man named Jonathan E. Caldwell became the focus of an official Air Force investigation after two unusual experimental aircraft were discovered abandoned in a barn near Glen Burnie, Maryland.

Caldwell had spent years developing unconventional flying machines. One aircraft, which he called the "Gray Goose," resembled a primitive helicopter with a rotating disk about 14 feet in diameter mounted above a small fuselage. The other machine, the "Rotor-Plane," looked like a large wooden tub with rotating blades on top and bottom. Both devices reflected Caldwell's dreams of building a radical new kind of aircraft, though neither had achieved significant success.

When the Air Force learned about these discoveries in mid-August 1949, initial enthusiasm suggested they might be prototypes of the "flying saucers" that had been reported seeing across America. Some officials believed the disk-shaped rotor might explain sightings from the previous two years. The discovery prompted an immediate investigation and briefly made headlines.

Within hours, however, the Air Force reversed course. A formal statement declared the machines had "absolutely no connection" to flying saucer reports. The agency offered no public explanation for the sudden change in position, though internal files show investigators had located extensive documentation about Caldwell's actual background and intentions.

Caldwell's history revealed a man driven by inventive ideas but plagued by financial struggles and legal troubles. Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, he had raised money by selling stock to fund his aircraft projects across multiple states. Authorities in New York and New Jersey had enjoined (legally barred) him from further stock sales, and Maryland's Attorney General had issued a similar restraining order in 1940. Despite these setbacks, Caldwell continued experimenting on a farm near Glen Burnie until he disappeared abruptly around 1940, leaving his unfinished machines behind.

By late August 1949, investigators had located Caldwell himself in California, living in Manhattan Beach and reportedly attempting to promote new aviation projects in the Las Vegas area. Caldwell told reporters that he had abandoned his disk-rotor machine in 1939 and insisted it had "absolutely no relation whatever" to any flying saucers. He characterized the invention as a failed experiment from a decade past.

The investigation file eventually classified the matter as a "special inquiry" but did not render a formal conclusion as to whether the aircraft represented a genuine prototype or prototype of anything at all. The Air Force's final position simply held that the machines were old experimental models with no connection to ongoing flying saucer sightings. The file, containing 53 pages of internal reports, photographs, and historical documents, remains held by the National Archives.