Fort Worth, TexasJuly 1949

On July 7, 1949, a military pilot standing on the horizontal stabilizer of a B-36 bomber at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, spotted an unusual object in the sky. The pilot was working on a control lock installation when he noticed the object flying from south to north at roughly 300 miles per hour. The sighting lasted about fifteen seconds.

The pilot described the object as roughly three inches in diameter, shaped like a soap bubble, and silver in color with a semi-transparent appearance. It flew in a straight, level path with no sound or exhaust trail. When the pilot first saw it, he thought his eyes might be playing tricks on him, so he closed and opened them again to confirm the object was really there. The pilot emphasized that the object could not have been a balloon, both because of its speed and because it maintained a horizontal flight path.

The investigation revealed that a rawinsonde (a weather balloon used to measure atmospheric conditions) had been released from the radar unit at Carswell Air Force Base at 1401 central time that same day. The balloon had drifted in a northeasterly direction and passed over the area where the pilot reported seeing the object. Based on this timing and the balloon's reported trajectory, the interrogating officer concluded that the pilot had likely observed the weather balloon. However, the officer also noted that "too much credence cannot be attached to this report," since the pilot's description did not perfectly match what a balloon would look like or how it would behave. The Air Force ultimately classified the case as unidentified, even while the balloon explanation remained the leading theory.

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