CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIADecember 1952

On the morning of December 14, 1952, a commercial pilot and two other observers at the University of Virginia Airport near Charlottesville saw an unusual object in the sky. The pilot, a graduate aeronautical engineer with many years of experience in aviation, was the primary witness. The object was elliptical in shape and had a light orange color. It first hovered in place, then moved off toward the northeast at extremely high speed. As the object departed, trash and newspapers on the ground below were caught in updrafts beneath it.

An Air Force official at the airport sent an urgent message to headquarters. The official noted that the observer was exceptionally well qualified to make an unbiased observation, and for that reason he attached "considerable credence" to the sighting. The object displayed what the official called "many of the features attributed to flying saucers," along with secondary flashes of light that scintillated as it moved. The weather was perfect for observing: clear skies with unlimited visibility.

The Air Force requested detailed information from all three witnesses. A technical questionnaire was prepared and sent to them. The form asked about the object's appearance, motion, color, sound, size, altitude, direction of travel, and the witnesses' backgrounds. The questionnaire also requested sketches of the object and its path across the sky.

The OCR quality of the questionnaire responses is poor, making most of the handwritten replies difficult to read with confidence. However, the file shows that the primary witness estimated the object's speed at over 1,000 miles per hour, and placed it at approximately 12,000 feet in altitude. Other details remain too garbled to report accurately.

The Air Force classified the sighting as unidentified. The full case file, consisting of 25 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.