7 Mi W of Cedar Falls, IowaDecember 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

On December 12, 1956, a civilian found a balloon in a roadside ditch about 7 miles west of Cedar Falls, Iowa. The case was logged under Project 10073, the Air Force's official record for unidentified flying object reports. The man said the balloon had not been in the ditch before that date.

The envelope was in shreds 14 to 15 feet long, and the man said it may have been of cellular construction. He found no identifying marks. The remains were sent to a nearby Air Force station for identification, then forwarded to the Air Technical Intelligence Center in Ohio. Several Air Force commands first tried and failed to identify it, and one launch site in California was ruled out as the source.

After examination, the Air Technical Intelligence Center concluded the balloon was not of foreign origin. It was found to be a constant-altitude type made by a known manufacturer and released by an Air Force research contractor, likely launched from the Sioux City or Minneapolis area. The card carried the object as a balloon.

Reported location

7 Mi W of Cedar Falls, Iowa

Date of incident

December 1956

State / country

IA / US

Page count

5 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 27

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 5

View transcribed text

Wee PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD po
3 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
4 | XXWos Balloon
1 ! 12 December 1956 7 Mi W of Cedar Falls,lowa OQ Probably Balloon |
f 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION Gi. Fossibly Ballaon
i Local _not given RXGround- Visual 0 Ground-Radar 8 Henaireralt oii
: GMT ; 0 Air-Visual O Air-Intercept Radar |O Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS . SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical
{ O Yes Physical O Probably Astronomical
i ¥¥o Specimen Civilian D Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE Oneness
= edtigt ent Doto for Evaluation
N/A one N/A
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS :
, Object was a balloon found. Remains Although positively identified
: sent 788th ACW, Waverly, Iowa for as some type of balloon, a |
positive identifieation, then rather extensive check of
forwarded to ATIC, | applicable facilities thruout
: ; U.S. disclosed that it was
Xo apparently not of U.S. origin,
po Action being taken by ATIC to
go determine origin,type,purpose,etc.
7 Made a matter of UFO record in
event sightings later rptd fm
same general area,which 1
: relats to hid balloan, g
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28968628