Project 10073 Record Card and Incident Report — Phoenix, Arizona, 1 August 1961

This document consists of a Project 10073 record card and a formal report from the 4510th Combat Crew Training Wing at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, regarding a sighting of an unidentified flying object on 1 August 1961. Three separate sightings were reported by civilian witnesses in Phoenix, Arizona, occurring between 0230Z and 0428Z. The witnesses described a single object that was oblong, elliptical, or barrel-shaped, with a size estimated to be roughly 10 by 15 feet, or similar to a 55-gallon oil drum. The object was observed at an altitude of 1000 to 1200 feet, appearing to drift in a northeasterly direction. Notable features reported included a black to gray color, a lack of windows, indentations around the bottom circumference, and a slight reddish glow accompanied by smoke emanating from the bottom center of the object. No sound was reported. The observers included a school teacher, an unemployed individual, and a technician from Allison Steel, all of whom were deemed to have unknown reliability. The investigating officer, 1st Lt. J. J. McKenna, noted that the weather conditions included scattered clouds and lightning. While the report suggests the object might have been a weather balloon released from Fort Huachuca or the Yuma Marine Corps Test Station—noting that such balloons can expand to 40 feet and reach high altitudes—the officer explicitly stated that the report of fire and smoke coming from the object remained unexplainable. The document includes a diagram of the object and detailed meteorological data for the time of the sighting.