Air Intelligence Information Report — IR-130-52 — Tucson, Arizona, 6 August 1952

This document is an Air Intelligence Information Report (IR-130-52) produced by the 43rd Bomb Wing, Intelligence Division, regarding a sighting on 6 August 1952 in Tucson, Arizona. At approximately 2002 MST, two traffic control tower operators at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base observed a round, brilliant, yellowish-white object. The object was initially sighted three miles southeast of the base at an altitude of 5,000 feet. It appeared to climb at an unestimable speed to between 15,000 and 20,000 feet, where it hovered for approximately ten minutes. The object then moved in an irregular pattern, dimming its light intermittently, before departing on a northwest heading and disappearing at 2030 MST. The total duration of the sighting was 28 minutes. The tower operators used 7x50 power government-issue field glasses to observe the object. The report notes that the object was spherical, had no projections, and emitted no exhaust trail. A C-47 aircraft (AF-0298) from Williams Air Force Base was also involved in the incident; the pilot confirmed seeing an intensely brilliant white light, roughly the size of a C-47, traveling at 17,000 feet. The pilot attempted to pursue the object but lost sight of it. The pilot of the C-47 explicitly stated that the object was not an airplane. Despite the detailed observations and the witnesses' firm belief that the object was not a meteorological or astronomical phenomenon, the official conclusion of the 43rd Bomb Wing was that the object was a balloon, noting that it followed the course of the light as described by the tower operators, despite differences in size and intensity. The report includes various questionnaires and sketches provided by the witnesses, including a drawing of the object showing a spherical body surrounded by a misty halo.