Project 10073 Record Card and Investigation Reports — Edwards AFB, June 1957

This document details a UFO sighting report and subsequent investigation conducted by the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base in June 1957. On June 26, 1957, two Air Police observers, T/Sgt. Charles B. Fisher and T/Sgt. M. C. Jackson, reported seeing a rectangular, red-orange object while observing a bomb drop mission from a B-52 aircraft. The object was described as being the size of a fighter aircraft, initially standing still before moving southwest and eventually disappearing. The observers noted that the object appeared to oscillate.

Following the initial report, a follow-up investigation was ordered by the 1006th AISS. Lt. Sauter, assisted by A/2C Hart, interviewed the original reporting officer, Captain Davis, and personnel from the Edwards Air Force Base Ballistic Test Facility. It was discovered that Captain Davis had not consulted the personnel responsible for the drop operation when filing his initial report. Further investigation revealed that a 3-foot radiosonde balloon had been released from the Edwards weather station at approximately 1030 PDT on the same day. The investigators concluded that this balloon was the object in question. They posited that a mild temperature inversion layer at 40,000 feet, combined with the balloon's trajectory, accounted for the reported reddish color and the perceived motion of the object. The report notes that the flight crews involved in the mission were debriefed and reported no unusual observations, and that film from the operation showed no anomalies. The final conclusion of the investigation was that the sighting was caused by the weather balloon.