Project 10073 Record Card and Air Intelligence Information Report — Allentown, PA, 13 September 1952

On 13 September 1952, at approximately 1940 EDT, a civilian pilot and inactive Air Force reserve captain was flying a Beechcraft Bonanza at 10,000 feet, 15 to 20 miles northeast of Allentown, Pennsylvania. The pilot reported observing a flaming, orange-red, football-shaped object, approximately three feet in diameter, at a distance of 150 to 200 yards. The object appeared to be on a collision course with the pilot's aircraft. The pilot immediately pulled up into a steep climb to avoid the object, which then performed a rapid maneuver, pulling up at a 65-degree angle and passing over the pilot's windshield while moving in the opposite direction. The pilot estimated the object's speed at over 700 miles per hour. The entire observation lasted no more than two seconds. The pilot initially hesitated to report the incident, fearing the object might have been a light reflection on the windshield, but decided to file the report after seeing a newspaper article in the Newark Evening News dated 13 September 1952. This newspaper report described a separate sighting of a flaming object with a tail, seen by six people in Morris, New Jersey, who described it as a 'flying saucer' that hung motionless for 20 minutes. The official Air Intelligence Information Report, prepared by Special Agent Newton Hampfeldt of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), notes that while the description of the pilot's sighting initially suggests a meteor, the object's upward change of direction is inconsistent with that theory. The final evaluation on the Project 10073 record card lists the conclusion as 'Unknown'.