Air-Visual Over So. Carolina And Virginia, May 1956May 1956

In May 1956, five U.S. Air Force pilots flying F-84F fighter jets from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida spotted something unusual in the sky near North Carolina. All three pilots who filed detailed reports that day said they saw a small, bright, silvery object that resembled a star held at arm's length. The pilots were flying at 30,000 feet when one of them noticed the object in a northeast direction, somewhere around thirty nautical miles southwest of Winston Salem.

The pilots watched the object for approximately thirty minutes as they flew toward Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, DC. During all that time, the object did not move or make any sound. It stayed in the same position relative to the pilots, gleaming brightly against the daytime sky. Each pilot described it differently in some small ways: one compared it to a pea held at arm's length, another to a dime, and a third to a pinhead. One pilot thought the object might be spherical and made of a reflective material, perhaps like a large metallic balloon. The pilots had no trouble seeing it through their sunglasses and aircraft windshields, and none of them could determine how far away it actually was.

The Air Force investigators who wrote the official report concluded that the pilots had most likely seen the planet Venus, which was visible in daylight in May 1956 and occupied roughly the same position in the sky at the time of the sighting. The investigators also noted that the stationary appearance of the object, as well as wind patterns that day, made it unlikely to have been a balloon. Major J. Broughton, the flight leader of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team, told the investigators by telephone that he did not believe the sighting was caused by a balloon based on his experience, though he felt it could have been a bright star or planet.

The full case file, containing 15 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.