Special Inquiry: Unconventional Aircraft - Kansas City, Missouri (6 January 1950)

This report details an investigation conducted by the 13th District Office of Special Investigation into a sighting of an unconventional aircraft on January 6, 1950, in Kansas City, Missouri. Two employees of the Bendix Aviation Corporation, having just finished their shift at 1926 hours, observed a bright, round object in the sky to the southwest. The witnesses described the object as brilliant white, flickering like a star, with intermittent red flashes appearing in the center and at the edges. They estimated the object's initial altitude at 8,000 to 10,000 feet, noting that it hovered for approximately ten minutes before descending to 3,000 to 4,000 feet and moving in a west-southwesterly direction. The witnesses drove to a higher vantage point to continue their observation, during which time they noted the object appeared to swirl or rotate. They explicitly stated that the object was not comparable to any known aircraft, dirigible, or balloon. The investigation included interviews with both witnesses, who were deemed reliable, intelligent, and of good character. The report also addresses a separate, unrelated incident involving a driver who crashed his vehicle after claiming to be blinded by a 'flying saucer' or 'ball of fire' on the same day, which police attributed to intoxication. Despite the witnesses' detailed descriptions and their insistence that the object was not a conventional aircraft, the document contains handwritten annotations identifying the object as 'Astro (Venus)'. The investigation was initiated in compliance with Flight Service Regulation 200-4 and was forwarded to the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.