PROJECT10073 RECORD 1. DATE TIME GROUP !. LOCATION 10. CONCLUSION c Civilian i 4. NUMBER OF OBJECTS ~ S. LEN.GTH OF OBSERVATION BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS Not Reporter\ Observer si[;hted a meto.1 1 ic-looki."'lg object. There \-tGs 6, TYPE OF OBSERVATION sunli@'lt glintine on it and it a ppeared to be round. Observer at first believed it to be an airliner, but it se ed to Air-Visual 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE be moving too fast. He thoutht it to ba too large to be jet. The object \-tas heading llest. It vanished into the FTn ~F P fa 3 0-329 {TOE) Prevloue edlUone o( thle (orm may be ueed. .-ft#-fN-f Cow~anding General Air Materiel Command Wright Field Dayton, Ohio Project Saucer January 14, 1950 On lf.ey 12, 1949 at approximately _5 .:_0_Q p.r~1. Central Daylisht time I was rryifig on course fron1 South Bend, Ind inna to Sky Harbor Airport, Indianapolis and was at a position approximately halfway between VJestfield and Cicero, I:nd.iona, marked "C" on the accompanying chart. As I rerne~ber it, there Nere light widely scattered clouds between 5000 and 6000 feet. I was flying at l<jOOO feet, approximately due south heading, by myself in a Cessna 120, t~C7714, owned by Sky Harbor, Inc. At that time, I had 155 hours of solo, 28 h ours dual, 56 hours cross country, and 2 hours of night flyine logeed; a t present, I have 208 hours solo and 82 h ours cress c ountry lo~ged. I am a photorapher, and have been for the past 13 years; was a photographe r durine most of my five years of army experience At the above mentioned time and place I saw at a heading of approximately 130 what I thought to be an airliner. Upon watching it further as our course seemed to be conve r ging I saw it was moving at a speed more rapid than an airliner normally travels. It was l a r ger than a jet, so when it crossed over ~lcCordsville ( r.la rked "A" on the accompanying chart) , I started my chronograph and kept the object in sight until a degree heading of 3pproximately 250 was reached. At that time it vanished into the sunlip~t at a point I plotted on the map, marked at approximately "B". I definitely saw the object cross on a westerly course from "A" to "D", approximately crossine over Cnstleton and Nora, which are two prominent land ~arks in that area. ~Then it approached McCordsville I tripped my chronograph just to see how fast it v1as going and kepti t in sight from position "A" accurate to approximate position "B" for a period of one minute and twenty seconds. I immediately tried to raise Indianapolis radio, but the transmitter was not strong enough to raise them. On arriving back at the airport I waited until my instructor, Gordon Schwartz, C.FI ~74980, who resides at Lawrence, In diana, employed by Sky IIarbor, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana, returned from an instructl.onal hop, and discussed the incident with him. He suggested tha t I forget abcut the incident AS the papers and ffiagazines had carried it as a hoax, hallucination, publicity, etc. I proceeded t o for ge~ a bout the incident. Upon reading the article in the curren t issue of True 1:aeazine, I discussed the incident again with n1y instructor and other people. So I have decided to mnke this report in s pite of . denials in the papers and the fact that t here is no evidence but my own to substantiate it. - ''-"' ~ ~ ~could not have been an aluminum barn roof or a lake, and, in my opinion, it was the approximate size, or p erhaps a little smaller, than the Graf Zeppelin, shaped in the same general ~shape as the Graf Zeppelin, m1ich I ~aw some years back from a pproximately the same distance in South Bend, Indiana when it passed over or just south of Niles, ~:ichigan on its (I believe) around the world flight Referring back to point "B~ on the chart, this is only approximate due to the fact that I saw it cross 1'1cCordsville, Castleton, r~ora, continuing tha t line and estimating the degree heading tha t it disappeared into the sunlight of the near-setting sun; and where the two lines intersected I marked the point "B" as shov-1n on the chart. There was sunlight glinting on the entire length o f it, and it showed roundness and a seemi-ngly bright finish, such as polished aluminum. There is no further information tha t I have on it. I would ap- p~ect_at~ no public~ ty or mention. of rr!y nsm~ in connection vvitrC t is. At tlie --time, in the plane , I P.lade notes on the tack of an envelope , Gxact time and oll the fit;ures which I have either rr,islaid or has gotten throvm away. All the a bove is accurate as I remembe r it. I have t:J.e oriBinal chart, which I marked at the time of the incident. If I may be of further s srvice t c y ou in t hi s matter, please Indianapolis 11w ' Ill" " uon~J IN REPLY ADDRESS lOTH COMMUNICATION AND EN- VELOPE TO COMMANDING GENERAL, A I R MATERIEL COMMAND, ATTENTION FOL- LOWING OFFICE SYMBOL: UNCl .. ASS\F\ED. HEADQUARTERS AIR MATERIEL COMMAND WIIGHT.PAnERSON AIR FORCE BASE DAYTON, OHIO COORDINATION Rece!pt of your letter dated 14 January 1950 hereby ~cknawledged. Your letter will ~e forwarded to the office interested tn these matters. If further information is desired you will be contacted. Your aotion in wri tir\g this Canmand is appreciated .. ANALYSIS OIVrSIOrl FilE IL( NUMBER .. INITIALS DATE Hq AMC fo"" No. t (ltv I Felt 4t) Yours truly, ffiYAN L. D.A VIS Colone 1, USAF Air Adjutant General UNCLASS\F\ED