Project 10073 Record Card — 31 March 1950, Reims, France

On March 31, 1950, at 1530Z, a group of military personnel aboard a C-47 aircraft observed an unidentified object while flying 5-6 miles south of Reims, France. The witnesses, including Colonel Kyle Riddle and several other officers and airmen, described the object as resembling a spool of thread, standing 10-12 feet tall with a 6-foot middle section and 8-10 foot ends. The top disk was reported as red, the center cylinder as white, and the bottom disk as blue-green. The center cylinder was noted as being round, though possibly hexagonal or octagonal. The object appeared to be stationary or moving very slowly, maintaining its position and altitude relative to the aircraft for approximately 60 seconds. The aircraft was flying at 6,000 feet and had just cleared a storm area when the sighting occurred. The observers, who were in a C-47, noted that a C-119 aircraft was also in the vicinity at the same time. An attempt to verify the object's position using radar from Laon Air Base was unsuccessful. The official conclusion reached by Air Force investigators, as documented on the Project 10073 record card and analysis sheet, was that the object was likely a 'sub-sun,' a meteorological phenomenon caused by the reflection of sunlight off ice crystals in the atmosphere. The report explicitly rules out aircraft or balloons and notes that the observers themselves felt the object was a tangible structure rather than an astronomical or meteorological phenomenon. Despite the observers' conviction, the final assessment remained that it was a sub-sun.