McMinnville (Trent) photographs

Paul and Evelyn Trent said they saw a slow-moving metallic disc over their farm on the evening of 11 May 1950, and Paul took two photographs that were published by the local paper and Life magazine; the couple gave slightly different accounts to two newspapers in June 1950. For the Condon study (Case 46) astronomer William Hartmann found the photometry consistent with a large distant object and called it one of the few reports in which all factors appeared consistent with an extraordinary craft, while noting it might be a model hanging beneath the power lines. In the 1980s Philip Klass and Robert Sheaffer argued from shadows that the pictures were taken in the morning, not the evening, and that the object was a small model; Hartmann then withdrew his positive assessment. Bruce Maccabee defended the photographs, and a 2013 IPACO analysis reported a suspension thread.

Small model suspended from overhead wires (Klass, Sheaffer, IPACO 2013); disputed by Maccabee

• Condon Report, Case 46: McMinnville, Oregonfiles.ncas.org
• Wikipedia: McMinnville UFO photographsen.wikipedia.org