Grand Rapids, MichiganApril 1952

Unidentified

Summary

On April 27, 1952, near Grand Rapids, Michigan, a civilian who worked as a controller for the Civil Aeronautics Administration reported an unusual flying object. The sighting happened at 1308 (1:08 p.m.) near Kent County Airport, in a completely clear sky.

The witness described one very bright white object that could have been a disk or sphere. It appeared about the size of a ping pong ball held at arm's length. He stopped his car and got a good view with the sun behind him. The object traveled in a south southeasterly direction, on a heading of about 170 degrees, at a very high rate of speed.

There was no sound, no vapor trail, and no visible exhaust. The object flew in a pronounced arc on a steady course. The witness guessed the altitude at 40,000 to 50,000 feet and the speed at over 1,500 miles per hour. It was visible about 16 or 17 seconds and covered about five eighths of the sky. No military or commercial aircraft were active in the area, and radar showed no record of the object.

Reported location

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Date of incident

April 1952

State / country

MI / US

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 9

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

FT A T———
FOG ler Ba © PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD 5
3. DATE e ( | 2 LocaTion ( 12. CONCLUSIONS :
i 27 Apr 52 { Grand Rapids, Michigan 0 Wes Bolloon
Sen —————y i 0 Probably Boticon
® RNID es SID. «> ou ema TH i PE SP SE © SE — en gre +0 + EE = E+ Ee eB + Gos SS. SD + Se SED A ts En Cet Eee ) {
3. DATE-TIME GROUP | 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION W  Tesity Dues
: “ Local fr r—— | 8 Ground- Visual O Ground-Rodar  - 3 Probably Aircrofs
; ont... +. 11308" : 1. Air-Vi sual O Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aireraft
: 5. PHOTOS Pl . 16 SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical
CQ Yes - Probably Astronomical METEO! :
reel ERR DR Cha controller Li AERO O Possibly Astronomicol
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION &. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE CH RRR CR
’ 0 Insufficient Dota for Evaluation
16-1¢ seconds. 1 0 Unknown
| 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING ey 1. COMMENTS ah
| Bright white color. Spherical shape. Size estimated to be that of a
Pronounced arched path. Ping pong ball-at erm's length.
: Es : Traveled at” very high rate of speed.
Coversd 5/8 of sky.
. é
i {
. \ / Somat :
"ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) 3 : : : Gabe Se

/ 3

Use ← → keys to navigate · scans hosted by the U.S. National Archives

Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28941609