Project 10073 Record Card and Related Correspondence — 28 August 1954

This document collection centers on a UFO sighting report from 28 August 1954, involving a C-47 aircraft over England. The primary sighting report, filed under Project 10073, describes a football-shaped, white object with streamers observed by a military pilot, Captain Robert Dueolsky, while flying at 7,500 feet. The object was reported to have a westerly flight path and was visible for approximately four seconds before disappearing. The official conclusion reached by the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) was that the phenomenon was likely a meteor, specifically referencing the Perseids or Leonides meteor showers. The collection also includes correspondence from 1960 between James Maney of 'Interplanetary Intelligence' and Lt. Colonel Lawrence J. Tacker of the USAF. Maney sought information regarding a separate, alleged 1954 sighting over Oklahoma City, as well as general inquiries about Air Force policy on firing at UFOs and the exchange of UFO information with friendly nations. Colonel Tacker and Colonel Philip G. Evans responded by clarifying that ATIC had no record of the Oklahoma City incident and that there was no official order authorizing pilots to fire on unidentified flying objects, though they acknowledged that misinterpretations by pilots had occurred in the past. The documents illustrate the administrative process for handling UFO reports and the Air Force's efforts to address public inquiries during the late 1950s and early 1960s.