Birmingham, Ala., August 1952August 1952

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the night of August 27, 1952, two Air Force officers flying in an F-51 aircraft west of Birmingham Airport spotted an unidentified pale blue light moving toward the northwest at about 5,000 feet altitude. The light had no visible trail, exhaust, or sound. It flickered on and off irregularly, and no propulsion system could be seen.

The object first moved in a wide counterclockwise circle around Birmingham. As it climbed, its course became elliptical, changing direction slightly each time the light blinked. It eventually disappeared to the northeast of the city at an altitude of about 15,700 feet. The entire sighting lasted ten minutes. The pilots estimated the object was traveling between 1,000 and 1,050 miles per hour, making it roughly four times faster than their own aircraft.

A second officer who was flying in another F-51 behind them also observed the object visually. That pilot described the light as flickering in a manner comparable to rocket propulsion operating intermittently, and believed the object was under intelligent control. The light appeared to change direction suddenly by two or three degrees each time it flickered intensely. The weather was clear with slight haze over Birmingham and light winds.

The Air Force file notes that students in F-51 aircraft were conducting routine training flights over Birmingham at frequent intervals that night, and other aircraft were sighted. However, the report states that the sighting cannot be explained by any known activity or condition, and there was no photographic or physical evidence of the object's nature. The OCR text of some portions is difficult to read with certainty, but the core observations are clear.

The complete case file, consisting of 7 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Birmingham, Ala., August 1952

Date of incident

August 1952

State / country

? / XX

Page count

7 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 14

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD : er — TS TN TLR LAR ——p— ER EE ER ATE 5 12. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS | ! 7 Pare 8D : 04 yor d 1 +4 A aw 14 5 : ' - ey HUY Da : “a NANT, Ala. {0 Woes Beilcon fo rR Reels Wp OT ' Ss Probau. y Satioon Ys DATE-TIME SROUP 4 TYPE OF CSSERVATION Ere Ln hd LL [ : : 4 1 = . a Ade Fy yo) HT TSRONRATAS 5 | Y EHR 0 Ground-Visua! 0 Ground-reder Boy aaa she ¢ | i ‘ Re Provcriy Aircraft BY inn p—— LER ‘ EZ Al Vissol GO Air-lntercept Rodor = Possibly Aircrsin | : 5. PCTS Le SOURCE 10 Was Aztronom: col i H J Yes 12 Probelly Astronomical H : i = Loree | : | 2 Na | ALAIN 1a Possibly Astronomical { SE a i —————— ———ar sea ee et. 4 en en i 7. LENGTH OF CSSERVATION i 8. NUMBER OF O3JECTS ' 9. COURSE ERE AE a 1 | | O Insufficient D for Evaluati { i -~ .m- o on Gta tor Uvaiuchon | 10 nin. ES i aval 5 Unknown Jd ! - 5 : i | | 5 ES SS St 1 PCG MRR SSS MANS! SERRA i ——————————————— a tareama | 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING {ie COMMENTS | . i A T } RY Ln%2. + ones «Yee < Ya As Fd SY Jale vlve. Licht. | 3linkiag pale blue light - similar | + | object sizhtad samo night bud earilor | el ee SS mn : MeV dims miia yas. H i ! ; : : i | | | | : \ : i ' i 1 d : ’ adsense | ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SE 52) ro ————— 3 Es + AN I i we 3 eT a Se mem . a RDI Wf ry re STL VERE ET SRA — ’ -