Project 10073 Record: Incident 387 - Dayton, Ohio, 10 July 1949

This report details the investigation into an aerial sighting that occurred on 10 July 1949 in Dayton, Ohio. The primary witness, a civilian employee of the Guided Missile Section at Air Materiel Command, reported observing a yellowish object in the northeast sky at approximately 1915 hours. The witness, who observed the object through binoculars for 15 minutes, described it as a diamond-shaped object with a black spot in the center, connected by a cable or rope to a whitish-yellow disc in the rear. The witness estimated the object might have been slightly larger than an F-80 aircraft at an altitude of 1000 feet and a distance of three miles. The object remained stationary throughout the observation. The witness reported the sighting to the Airdrome Office at Area B, but a check with the control tower yielded no corroborating reports. Subsequent investigation by the Office of Special Investigations involved interviewing several other witnesses in the vicinity. These individuals, who also observed the object through high-powered binoculars, confirmed that the object was a box kite, noting that the string and tail were visible. One witness mentioned observing the same object on 9 July 1949. Despite the initial uncertainty and the detailed description provided by the primary witness, the consensus among all interviewed parties was that the object was a box kite. The report concludes that the investigation, conducted under Project Grudge, resulted in the identification of the object as a kite, though the initial routing document noted that the project was unable to offer a logical explanation based on the information available at that time.