Project 10073 Record Card and Correspondence — Topeka, Kansas, February 1958

This document contains a Project 10073 record card and subsequent correspondence regarding a UFO sighting that occurred on February 19, 1958, in Topeka, Kansas. The sighting involved a single, comet-like object with an orange flame and a tail four times the diameter of the object, which appeared to fall downward. A military officer from the 90th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, described as highly reliable, reported the object, as did a civilian who observed it for approximately 15 seconds while driving. The military report initially suggested the object might have been a tiptank or door lost from a high-altitude aircraft, though a check with the Air Route Traffic Control in Kansas City yielded no corresponding aircraft tracks. The official conclusion on the record card was that there was insufficient data for evaluation. The file includes a letter dated May 23, 1958, from Dr. J. Allen Hynek of the Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory to Captain George T. Gregory at the Air Technical Intelligence Center. In this letter, Dr. Hynek discusses the 'daylight meteor' report, noting its ambiguity. He suggests that while a daylight fireball cannot be ruled out, the description of an 'orange flame' and the trailing material could also be explained by a burst weather or cosmic ray balloon, especially given the proximity to a municipal airport where such balloons are launched. Dr. Hynek concludes that the incident is likely harmless and expresses a preference for the balloon explanation over the meteor or aircraft debris theories.