Project 10073 Record Card — Woodland Hills, California, 11 December 1952

This document contains a sighting report from 11 December 1952, involving an unidentified aerial phenomenon observed in Woodland Hills, California. The primary witness, an Engineering Planner at the Santa Suzanna Rocket Test Laboratory, reported observing a reddish-yellow spherical object at approximately 6:00 P.M. The object was described as having a long trail of fire and moving at a high velocity. According to the witness, the object appeared from the south, headed in a northeasterly direction, and then performed an abrupt reversal of course, moving in an erratic, up-and-down path before stabilizing and disappearing at high speed. The witness estimated the object's speed at 2,000 m.p.h. and its altitude at 25,000 feet. The witness, who had previous experience in the armed forces, explicitly stated that the object did not behave like an airplane, noting the absence of standard navigation lights and the extreme, instantaneous nature of its maneuvers. The report includes detailed questionnaires completed by the witness, which provide additional context regarding the observation conditions, including a clear, cold night. The witness also noted that the object's appearance was similar to rocket exhaust but emphasized its solid, spherical nature and its ability to change direction in a way that suggested it was under intelligent control. The official evaluation by the Air Technical Intelligence Center, as noted on the Project 10073 record card, concluded that while the source was considered good, there was insufficient detail in the report to reach a definitive conclusion. The documentation includes correspondence between the witness and the Air Force, as well as internal routing slips from the Western Air Procurement District to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.