[ILLEGIBLE], [ILLEGIBLE] - Incident Number: 180Date unknown

On October 13, 1948, around 11:45 a.m., two office workers at the Studebaker Corporation in South Bend, Indiana saw an unusual object in the sky while at their desks. The first witness noticed a dark airplane flying north at a distance she could not quite judge. Moments later, another object caught her eye. At first she thought it was a piece of paper blowing in the wind, but it was moving far too fast and too high for that. The object was silver or chrome in color, appeared to be spinning or flashing as sunlight bounced off it, and was traveling in a straight line from northwest to southeast. Both witnesses estimated the object was visible for about fifteen to twenty seconds before it faded from view.

The Air Force's Office of Special Investigations interviewed both witnesses in late November and early December 1948. The investigators found both workers to be reliable and credible. Neither witness could precisely estimate the object's altitude, though both believed it was below fifteen hundred feet. They described its size as smaller than a DC-3 transport plane but larger than a Piper Cub. No sound was heard, no trail was noticed, and neither witness could determine if the object had any wings or other projections. The Weather Bureau confirmed that October 13 was a clear day with minimal cloud cover. A check of commercial flight schedules revealed no aircraft were scheduled over South Bend at that time. No weather balloons or other research devices had been released in the area.

The investigators noted in their report that the witnesses had no criminal records and held responsible positions at a major manufacturer. Their employers vouched for their character and reliability. Despite this thorough investigation, the file does not state a definitive conclusion about what the object was. The full case file comprises 28 pages held by the National Archives.