Project Blue Book Case File
Cleveland, OhioApril 1961
Summary
On April 20, 1961, a man in Cleveland, Ohio, was talking with a designer by a window when he happened to glance outside and spotted an unusual object in the sky. He was looking roughly north and about 30 degrees above the horizon. The object appeared to be descending from the east, moving toward him. It looked oval shaped and was a little orange, somewhat transparent, and warmy tinted. He watched it for about five minutes as it moved across his field of view.
As the object continued, it passed behind a building to his right. When it emerged from behind the structure, something strange happened. The object looked distorted and unstable, and the air underneath it appeared to shimmer and wave, as if heat radiation were rising from it. The man described the effect like heat waves you might see rising off pavement on a hot day. He said he had never seen anything like it before and could not identify what it was.
The Air Force investigator noted in the file that several ordinary explanations were possible. A piece of debris or paper caught in air currents over the city could have created a similar appearance. Wind effects and the distance involved could account for why the man misjudged the object's size and thought it looked distorted as it moved behind the building. The file concluded that it was most likely a balloon, though this remained unconfirmed.
The full case file, comprising 11 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.
Reported location
Cleveland, Ohio
Date of incident
April 1961
State / country
OH / US
Page count
11 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unidentified
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 42