Project 10073 Record Card and Air Intelligence Information Report — San Antonio, Texas, 20 August 1952

On 20 August 1952, at approximately 2100 hours CST, a civilian witness in San Antonio, Texas, reported observing an unidentified aerial object. The witness, who was in her backyard exercising her dogs, described the object as round, approximately the size of a bicycle wheel, and emitting a bright yellowish light. The object appeared to be suspended in the sky, hovering before performing erratic shifting maneuvers, moving from side to side in a pendulum-like fashion. The witness noted that the object appeared to have lights revolving inside it, while the center remained dark. After approximately five minutes, the object departed in an upward, slanting course at a very high rate of speed toward the northwest, eventually fading from view. The witness reported no sound, trail, or exhaust associated with the object. The report was forwarded by the San Antonio Air Materiel Area to the Director of Intelligence at USAF Headquarters in Washington, D.C., in compliance with AF Letter 200-5. The official evaluation of the report, conducted by the Air Technical Intelligence Center, concluded that there was insufficient data to determine the nature of the object. Internal notes on the project record card suggest that the report failed to account for local winds aloft, balloon releases, and local air traffic, and characterized the source as inexperienced. The witness, who was a civilian employee at Kelly Air Force Base, maintained that the object did not resemble any conventional aircraft she had previously seen.