Project 10073 Record Card — Olmsted AFB, 18 June 1954

On 18 June 1954, at 0742 hours, personnel at Olmsted Air Force Base in Middletown, Pennsylvania, observed a round, silver object hovering in the sky. The sighting lasted for approximately three hours. The witnesses, including the Chief Aircraft Dispatcher and a Security Indoctrination Officer, described the object as round, silver, and appearing to have a string hanging from its bottom. The object was observed to be hovering and then moving very slowly in a westerly direction before eventually fading away into the distance to the southwest. The observers noted that the object was below the cloud layer, which was estimated at 31,000 feet. No sound was reported, and the object was described as having sharp edges and a transparent appearance. The witnesses used binoculars to observe the object and also captured photographs using a vidion camera. Base operations were notified, and two fighter aircraft were scrambled to investigate the sighting. However, the consensus among the observers and the reporting personnel was that the object was a balloon, possibly an astronomical balloon. The report includes a technical information sheet, a summary of the event, and a formal record card. The documentation confirms that no physical evidence was recovered and that there was no radar contact associated with the object. The report was forwarded to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for further evaluation, along with the exposed film taken during the incident.