Project 10073 Record Card — Lakeland, Florida, 26 January 1955

This document is a Project 10073 record card and associated incident report concerning an unidentified aerial phenomenon observed over Lakeland, Florida, on 26 January 1955. At approximately 1815 EST, a civilian observer in downtown Lakeland reported seeing an object that produced a black smoke trail. According to the report, the smoke trail formed a large circle and terminated in an explosion, after which the object was observed to fall. The observer explicitly noted that the phenomenon was not a vapor trail. The incident was reported to the Airdrome Officer at McDill Air Force Base. The object was estimated to be at an altitude above 20,000 feet and was seen at an estimated distance of seven miles east-northeast of Lakeland. The report includes detailed weather data for the time of the sighting, noting a ceiling of 30,000 feet, broken cloud cover, and 12 miles of visibility. The official conclusion recorded on the project card is that there was insufficient data for evaluation. The documentation includes multiple copies of the record card and the teletype message sent from the Operations Office at Maxwell Flight Service Center to the Air Defense Command at Ent AFB, the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, and the 35th Air Division at Dobbins AFB.