Project Blue Book Sighting Report — Lynchburg, Virginia, June 1952

This collection of documents details the investigation into an unidentified aerial object sighted near Lynchburg, Virginia, on June 19, 1952. The primary witness, an ordnance man with World War II anti-aircraft experience, observed a round, silver object traveling at a very high altitude and speed in an easterly direction from Reusens, Virginia, toward Madison Heights, Virginia. The object reportedly left no exhaust trail. The sighting occurred at 1444Z under clear weather conditions with 30 miles of visibility and few cirro-cumulus clouds. The Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base initiated an investigation under Project Blue Book. Military authorities at Langley Air Force Base were contacted and dispatched a fighter-type aircraft to the vicinity for reconnaissance, but the pilot reported finding nothing. Additionally, the Air Technical Intelligence Center communicated with the US Weather Bureau in Roanoke to determine if a weather balloon release in the area could account for the sighting. The documents include internal teletype communications between military units, including the 4430th Air Base Wing at Langley and the Flight Service Center at Olmstead Air Force Base, as well as correspondence from Major Robert E. Kennedy to the witness requesting that he complete a questionnaire to assist in the study of aerial phenomena. The reports consistently note that there were no meteorological or other conditions that might have accounted for the sighting.