Akron, OhioMarch 1958

Insufficient Data

Summary

On March 5, 1958, near Akron, Ohio, a resident spotted material floating down from the sky around 5:30 p.m. The object landed about 100 yards south of Koons Road, roughly 1 mile west of State Route 241 and 7.3 miles south of Akron's city limits. The material appeared to be metallic foil in color and measured approximately 5 inches long and 5/8 inch thick.

The State Highway Patrol received a report of the incident at 10:34 p.m. that same day and arrived at the scene at 11:01 p.m. Officers collected samples of the material and forwarded them to Air Force Intelligence for analysis. The patrol also contacted the Weather Bureau and the control tower at Akron-Canton Airport as part of their initial investigation.

Air Force officials analyzed the material and identified it as chaff, a type of metallic foil used by the U.S. Air Force in radar countermeasure tests and training exercises. In a letter dated March 12, 1958, the Deputy Chief of the Air Intelligence Office concluded that the material "probably was dropped from Air Force aircraft during training exercises." The file lists the official evaluation as "probably balloon," though the actual analysis points to chaff from military operations rather than a weather balloon.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 9 pages of microfilm.

Reported location

Akron, Ohio

Date of incident

March 1958

State / country

OH / US

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 32

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 9

View transcribed text

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
5 | l. DATE | 2. LOCATION 112. CONCLUSIONS |
: Re 4 i ; ‘ {0 Woes Balloon |
: | yy. Marios | Vrach {QO Probably Balloon {
i a ——— I a A Poss 1 £ \
§ 3. DATE-TIME GROUP | 4. TYPE OF OBSERYATION I hhh |
4 820 DM | \ Sade {
E Genie ae 0 MIEN Bs HU CT Ground-VYisual 0 Ground-Radar | a Was Aircraft !
z iQ Probably Aircraft
a AEA rf : ie ¢
C CMT. 27 sont al 0 Air-VYisual 0 Air-lntercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS iE i 0. SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical
EYYies HRY SHC a {3 Probably Astronomical |
3 No Specimen Civilian li Possibly Astronomical |
/ | 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE l@ OtherChoff |
5 | {0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation |
& | a SI | : | O Unknown
# {ii NSA | \ \ i 4 yn
5 ep me mo
z 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING hE COMMENTS
hd | ac Lke rs TNT oil Light dn weight, blu Material was lyzed & found td
4 LT silver in color 5 inches in lenotih he stri Jag vii Libr ox tirsh ks ] |
PB 3 SR Re LR ore 12 3 528 10Weo Will . i 1 ) 2 d |
§ | pRnE eR posed To i zh: lnating down- radar © v ; Hale |
: ceived. 5 ost radar, |
§ | |
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: |
ji ! {
| |
: | {
5 { d ERC SE Tl Bl So SUR Se Ca hae SR Rp rant.
¥ ATIC "ORM 329 (REV 28 SEP 52)
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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28977323