Alexandria, VADecember 1951

Insufficient Data

Summary

On December 28, 1951, two Air Force pilots flying a C-45 transport plane near Alexandria, Virginia saw an unusual object in the sky. The pilots, Captain Hersberger and Major Tart, were at 7,000 feet when they spotted what looked like a glowing white sphere with a faint yellowish tint. The object was roughly three feet across and had fuzzy, poorly defined edges. It gave off soft light but made no sound and left no trail or exhaust behind it.

The object first appeared stationary, then began to move. It descended from about 7,000 feet down to 1,000 feet and traveled roughly ten miles in an arcing path. It moved in directions to the southwest, west, and then curved from the southeast through north to the northwest. The pilots described the object as maneuvering much like a helicopter, with the ability to hover in place and move in different directions. Captain Hersberger slowed his aircraft to 110 miles per hour and was able to follow the object for about two minutes. The pilots lost sight of it while switching fuel tanks.

The Air Force quickly investigated. They checked with the Weather Bureau, which confirmed no illuminated weather balloons had been released in the area. They also contacted local police and Washington newspapers, which reported no similar sightings. However, investigators soon discovered that a helicopter with an experimental lighting system had been flying in the area at the time, based out of Patuxent Naval Air Station. The Air Force concluded the sighting was "very probably" this helicopter testing its new lighting equipment. The case file notes the evaluation as "probably helicopter."

The full case file, comprising 8 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.

Reported location

Alexandria, VA

Date of incident

December 1951

State / country

VA / US

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 9

y PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD : ‘ - Coa ey , - & . A I. DATE - 5 Bp BE kira i 12. CONCLUSIONS | » 0 Wes Bolloan 28 Decemher 1951 Alexandria, Va C Probably haan EE ——————————— —————— — FETE IIIIINIIIIRI——N., .) . 3. DATE-TIME GROUP i TYPE OF OBSERVATION rn Rae TB Was Averell © Loceol hor ——— 0 Ground-Visvel DO Ground-Roder 0 Probably Airerofs CMT 28/23352 & Air Visvel O Air-Intercept Roder |0 Possibly Airereit 5. PHOTOS . BY re he ot ke 0 Was Astroniemicel . 0 Yeas OU Probably Astreromicol 0 Ne Militar iE 0 Possibly Astroromicol 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE JR | TR p———— 0 Insufficient Deote for Eveluction : 0 Unknown 15 minutes 1 Re Ee Le R ) 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SICHTING 11. COMMENTS Shape=Genrally round with a hazy inverted Evaluated as a/c (helo) in view of manuve}s truncated cons on top. Size 3 ft diameter, = and description of cbject Confirmed as | Se Biue vhite soft light, No trail or exhausp. helo testing new lighiing system, | 9peed was stationary to 110 knots, Nc sound, | ST first reported stationary 7,000 ft moved | SSW reducing altitude one thousand ft, then { moved IW for 10 mi. and moved in arc SE to B | to NE to N to NW, Lost from view while switching fuel tanks, i H i WE CAE LD SL SINTER STO AU SUA, WAS Ce + ATIC PORM 229 (RPV 26 3KP 82)