Battle Creek, MichiganOctober 1951

Insufficient Data

Summary

On October 1, 1951, a civilian pilot flying a Navion aircraft near Battle Creek, Michigan, encountered a disk-shaped, highly polished object while cruising at approximately 4,000 feet. The pilot had fourteen years of flying experience and was heading roughly east-northeast, about seventeen miles northeast of Battle Creek. He saw the object approaching head-on at an extremely high rate of speed.

The pilot initially feared a collision. As the object drew closer, he realized it would pass below him at an estimated distance of 1,000 feet. The object appeared to have a rounded, dome-like crown on top, sloping sides, and an oval shape when viewed from certain angles. From above, it looked perfectly round. The pilot noted the object was highly polished, reflected no sound or exhaust, and left no vapor trail. He made one orbit to try to locate the object again but was unable to see it, likely because it had by then climbed well above his altitude.

The pilot landed at Austin Lake Airport shortly after the encounter and reported the incident. He was interviewed approximately four hours later at Detroit City Airport. The investigating officer found him to be a credible witness. The pilot stated he had frequently encountered aircraft in flight and was familiar with weather balloons, and he was certain this object was neither. He was particularly impressed by the extremely high polish of the object's surface and was confident about the dome-shaped indentation he observed on top.

Air Force investigators checked all available military and civilian flight records. They found one B-47 bomber that had been in the general area on a high-altitude patrol but determined that a drastic deviation from its flight plan would have been required for it to match the sighting. Radar stations covering the area observed no target that could be correlated with the reported object. The Air Force concluded the sighting most likely involved a balloon. The full case file, consisting of nine pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.

Reported location

Battle Creek, Michigan

Date of incident

October 1951

State / country

MI / US

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 8

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD 1. DATE { 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS 51 Cet 1971 SI Jor RENE DD Was Bolloon ’1 Oct 1951 Battle C; ek, Mic NnLEan 0 Probably Bolloon 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. YYPE OF C3SERVATION O Possibly Balloon 0 Was Aiveroft | I omissions O Ground- Visual O Ground-Roder QO Probably Aircraft | ae Va TTL “0 Air Visuol QO Air-Intorcopt Rodor | Possibly Aircraft 5. PHOTOS - SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical 0 Yes OD Probably Astronomicol 5. No Civilian Pilot 0 Possibly Astronomicol 7. LENGTH OF OGASERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE HT ERT IAC ——— 0 Insufficient Dato for Evaluation 3 « 5 Seconds 1 0 Unknown admis EE. SN 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SICHTING 11. COMMENTS Color was highly polished silver. Shaps was ovel Pilot stated that ns the object passed 4 = * 0) i 4 % . A : - p-. 4 yo OQ " i srg side, coma cent I" On top. Altitude was beneath him, he inmediate) \4 orbit. d ones 300( wv, ~ ~~ Y 1 4 . / . y ¢ | 2000 £6, No vapor ail, and no sound, Object | AE/A/ on course, but wnzble to see the approached head on but, before pi Lot, could tzke | object again, contimied on course, any action to prevent collison, pilot realizec Evaluated as balloon. Pilob assumed that the object would pass below him an estimatled object appraoching. Initial observatio 1,000 ft, Extresely high rate of speed. 1,000 ft below afc, Assunrd collision indicating object was rising, After pilot, passed object could not locate ; probably because object was now well above him, Description of sighting in accord with balloon observation. ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP $2) ]