Arlington, VirginiaJune 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

The OCR quality of the case file is severely degraded, particularly in the witness narrative sections (pages 11 and 12), making it impossible to reliably extract the detailed witness account that would form the core of this summary. While the cover sheet and questionnaire structure are legible, the handwritten responses and narrative text are too corrupted to transcribe with confidence.

On June 14, 1956, an observer in Arlington, Virginia reported seeing a golden, flickering sphere that resembled a roman candle just before it explodes. The object traveled across a 90 degree arc from west to north, descending from 60 degrees elevation to 30 degrees elevation, with no changes in speed or brightness and no maneuvering. The sighting lasted about 20 seconds. The Air Force concluded the object was probably a balloon, though this determination cannot be fully verified from the legible portions of this file.

The full case file, as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below across 12 pages.

Reported location

Arlington, Virginia

Date of incident

June 1956

State / country

VA / US

Page count

12 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 25

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 12

Transcribed text

a a a LL a AER l. Jha a Bh ads Jin diode Lda adh La Lan Loo Lo ad de
NR — . a RAL Sw Pp HON pee Te y
| 4 |
FE Eg PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD : g |
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
§ {Ean 0 Wos Balloon |
14 June 1956 Arlington, Virginia DO Probably Balloon
: 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION (Possibly Balicon
x ; OD Was Aircraft
1 - Ld
: toeel — no ———————————— XX Ground-Visuel 0 Ground-Radar 0 Probably Aircraft
GMT ) 5404302 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar D Possibly Aircroft
4 5. PHOTOS . SOURCE (Xx XWas Astronomical Meteor
0 Yes O Probably Astronomical
XB No Civi lian OD Possibly Astronomical i
i 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 5. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE TG SM
0 ' Insufficient Data for Evaluation
0 Unknown
20 seconds one NE :
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS 5 ATR SHER |
: Golden sphere, flickering. No change Sighting characteristic of
in speed or brightness. Looked like meteors. Duration rather long; |
roman candle just before it explodes. however, object traveled throug
<8 | Level flight. Observed in West and 90 dgr arc while giving the
| disappeared in North descending slightly// impression of going away fm
i | from 60 dgr elevation to 30 dgr ele- observer,
vation, NO maneuvering.
;
i ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
/

/ 12

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28965867

Connected across the archive

Installations

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

Programs and code names

Project Blue Book

Places

Arlington Arlington, VA Virginia

Agencies

United States Air Force