Dayton, OhioOctober 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of October 23, 1956, an observer in Dayton, Ohio reported seeing an unusual object in the night sky. The sighting occurred at 9:45 p.m. EST (21:45 in military time). The object was sharply outlined and glowed red. The witness described it as roughly the size of a nickel held at arm's length. It appeared in the southern part of the sky at an angle of about 210 degrees from true north and roughly 55 degrees above the horizon.

The object remained more or less stationary during the observation, though the witness noted it seemed to move quickly at times. It was still visible when the report was made. The witness was able to observe it for an extended period and provided detailed information to Air Force investigators on the standard questionnaire used by Project Blue Book.

The Air Force investigation concluded that the object was probably a balloon. This determination appears on the case card at the beginning of the file, though the OCR text is difficult to read in places and does not provide details about what evidence or analysis led to this conclusion.

The full case file, comprising 9 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Dayton, Ohio

Date of incident

October 1956

State / country

OH / US

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 26

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 9

View transcribed text

4 . HEIR ERE IEA TIIRRY AATRAeN OTERO Ps DFR AION OAT I 1 MH ULL eb Ti SRR TEE " 7 : aki 4
iA Sd PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD : : |
I. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS |
p : DO Was Balloon |
23 October 1955 Davton, Ohio 0 Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION @ Tossing Puen
2145 EST (N) Bl + 0 Was Aircraft
baad 2a Sol NJ 0 :Ground- Vi sual O Ground-Rodar Q Probably Aircraft
GMT. __24/02457 0 Air Visuol O Air-Intercept Rader | Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS . R 0 Was Astronomical MATS
: O Yes 0) Probably Astronomical
8 Ne Civilian 07 Possibly Astronomicol :
7. LENGTH OF OBSERYATION 8. NUMBER OF CBJECTS | 9. COURSE CE ———
stationnr: 0 Insufficient Date for Evaluation
; stationary BD Gkcous
20 ming/still in sight one in South
10, BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 3 : : 1. COMMENTS :
One object sharply outlined, size of Mars at 210dgr azimuth 55dgr
a nickel, Had a red glow. Chject was elevation approximating posi-
more or less stationary but seemed to tion of reported object.
move fast at time and was still in siglt
at time of rpt,.
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
Ee 00000 5 A 0 RBS bb as

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28968049