Harlingen AFB, TexasNovember 1957

On November 7, 1957, military radar operators at Harlingen Air Force Base in Texas detected an unusual target on their radar screen. The object appeared roughly ten miles to the northeast, traveling west. After moving about four miles, it disappeared from view. Then it reappeared ten miles to the southwest, moved east for ten miles, turned north for another ten miles, then turned west and vanished again at fifteen miles distance. Radar analysts estimated the target was moving at approximately 1,500 miles per hour.

The radar operator who reported the sighting was working aircraft traffic control patterns at the time. No other surveillance equipment picked up the target, and no visual sighting was reported by personnel on the ground or in the air. The only evidence of the object's existence came from the single radar screen where it briefly appeared.

Officers at Harlingen suspected the mysterious blip might have been caused by radar malfunction. An official analysis agreed this was possible. The report noted that the radar target was faint and appeared while the operator was focused on directing other aircraft. There was also a question about whether the radar antenna was actually rotating during the sighting, since the target's bearing (direction) remained exactly the same throughout the entire observation. This detail suggested the signal might have originated inside the equipment itself rather than from an actual object in the sky.

The U.S. Air Force concluded the case was unidentified, but emphasized that a radar equipment failure remained the leading explanation. The full case file of 8 pages is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.