Champaign, IllinoisSeptember 1960

Unidentified

Summary

On September 22, 1960, two young civilians near Champaign, Illinois, reported an object northwest of the city at about 0007 (just after midnight, local). They described a yellowish-white object, oval in shape, about four times the size of the Echo I satellite. It had no sound, no tail, and no exhaust, and it appeared to wobble. The object followed a straight path, then stopped, appeared to grow smaller, and faded from sight after about 10 minutes. The sky was clear and calm. The investigating officer noted the witnesses were young and their estimates of time and angles seemed inaccurate. The Air Force listed the case as a probable high-altitude jet aircraft reflecting sunlight after sunset.

Reported location

Champaign, Illinois

Date of incident

September 1960

State / country

IL / US

Page count

5 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 40

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 5

View transcribed text

| aN PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD |
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
; 22 Zep 60 Champaign, Illinois 0 Vos Balloon
3 os 0 Probobly Bollson
3. DATE-TIME GROUP A. TYPE OF OBSERVATION O Possibly Balloon
; ST A A RRR A A el HH Ground: Visvel OD Ground-Radar a Was Aircraft
4 fa Fd: ny ‘ 3 Probobly Aircraft
BEE SRR E Tl CORA 0 Ain Visual O Air-Interzept Radar | DO Possibly Airereit
5 PHOTOS . SOURCE "| Was Astronomicol
C Yes band Xi 0 Probably Astronomicol
; 0 No» Civilian 0 Possibly Astronomical
: 7. LENGTH OF 08SZRVATION "| 9. HUMBER OF OBJECTS | 7. COURSE ERS SS RP AR
: "pr . ns 0 Insulficient Date for Evaluation
§ JU min one won 0 Unknown
§ RE A RE er Sl SS PET Sin SSI IE i ott LN RN SARIS [Sa IIS SPT JOSS ARS [EECA SR SE A ROSE
E 10. BRIEX SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
i Yellowish-white object, oval in share, four A jet aircraft at high altitude would
E times size of Echo I. Object appeared to be high enough to reflect the sun even
4 wobble, nad straight flight rath, stopped, though the sun had previously set. This
{ appeared to grow smaller, and faded from sight.| is probably what the two witnesses saw.
i
A
2 ATIC PORM 329 (REV 25 SPP 52)
: ‘
[ 4
I

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28989247