Project 10073 Record Card and Correspondence Regarding Unconventional Aircraft Sightings at Stewart AFB

This document consists of a Project 10073 Record Card and associated correspondence from the Headquarters Eastern Air Defense Force at Stewart Air Force Base, New York, dated February 5, 1951. The file documents a sighting of an unconventional aircraft that occurred on January 12, 1951, at approximately 2200 and 2205 EST. The witness, a 2nd Lieutenant with no prior aerial observer experience, reported observing a single, unusually bright, white object that appeared three to four times the size of a star. As the object ascended, it changed color from white to a hazy yellow and then red, leaving a tail of light behind it. The observer noted that the object moved at a tremendous rate of speed in a vertical, erratic, and zig-zagging pattern. The witness explicitly stated that the object did not appear to be a conventional aircraft and displayed maneuverability that led him to discount the theory that it was a balloon. Despite this, the official Project 10073 Record Card concludes with the evaluation: 'Evaluated as a balloon.' The documentation also includes a separate, brief mention of a sighting over Fort Benning, Georgia, on the same date, January 12, 1951, which was forwarded to the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB in accordance with established reporting procedures for unconventional aircraft.