Project 10073 Record Card and Correspondence — Observation of Unidentified Aircraft, 2 February 1955

This document collection details the report of an unidentified aerial object sighted on 2 February 1955 at 1150 hours near Miramar Naval Air Station, California. The witness, a Navy Commander with 26 years of experience in Naval Aviation, was driving a vehicle when he observed the object. Initially, he noticed two FJ3 aircraft in the landing pattern. He then spotted a third object below one of the aircraft, which he initially thought might be an ejected canopy. However, the object's behavior—descending at a steady rate, then coming to a complete stand-still for 5 to 10 seconds, and finally accelerating to a speed estimated between 1000 and 1500 miles per hour—convinced him it was not a part of an airplane. The witness described the object as spherical or near-spherical, off-white in color with a highly polished surface that reflected sunlight. It left a short brown vapor trail. The witness estimated the object's size to be between 25 and 35 feet in diameter, though he noted it could conceivably have been 100 feet. He explicitly stated that the object was not an aircraft in the normal sense, nor was it a reflection or an optical illusion. The report was processed through the Office of Naval Intelligence and forwarded to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Multiple military offices, including the 13th District Office of Special Investigations and the Eleventh Naval District, handled the documentation. The Air Technical Intelligence Center requested that the witness complete a formal U.S. Air Force Technical Information Sheet to facilitate further analysis, though the witness had already provided a comprehensive narrative report. The final conclusion recorded on the Project 10073 record card is 'UNIDENTIFIED'.