Incident #105 Sighting Report — Belmont, N.C., 8 March 1948

This document details the investigation of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) sighting that occurred on March 8, 1948, near Belmont, North Carolina. The primary witness, a first-grade engineer with 30 years of experience at Duke Power Company, observed a round, metallic-appearing object moving at an estimated speed of 600 miles per hour. The object was described as being bright or silver, reflecting sunlight without flickering, and moving in a straight, easterly line at a constant speed. The witness reported that the object disappeared behind a small cloud after approximately ten seconds of observation. No sound or exhaust trail was detected. The investigation was conducted by Lt. Col. James Y. Rogers, Jr., who interviewed the primary witness and two other individuals present at the time. Rogers characterized the primary witness as a conservative, technical individual whose account was sincere and not based on a misidentification of conventional aircraft. Subsequent correspondence between the 317th Composite Group, the Third Army, and the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base indicates that the incident was formally documented under Project SIGN. The Air Materiel Command evaluated the report, noting that the object's speed, lack of exhaust, and steady, non-flickering reflection made an astronomical explanation, such as a meteor, highly improbable. The document includes various administrative records, including teletype communications, internal memoranda, and a check-list for unidentified flying objects, all of which emphasize the lack of photographic evidence and the inability to determine the object's exact size or altitude. The file also contains later correspondence from 1949 regarding the potential for synoptic weather balloons to account for such sightings, though the specific details of this incident remained categorized as unexplained within the context of the project's ongoing investigations.