Indianapolis, IndianaJuly 1948

Unidentified

Summary

On July 29, 1948, two workers driving a truck near Indianapolis spotted a flying object shaped like a broad, short propeller. The men were heading east on East 56th Street when they approached a cantilever bridge. Just as their truck started across, the object appeared directly ahead of them, hovering just above the treetops at roughly 30 feet. It was traveling at about 25 to 30 miles per hour and banked sharply to the left, seeming to descend slowly. The object measured approximately six to eight feet long and two feet wide, with one-foot-thick "cups" or indentations on the upper sides of what looked like propeller blades. It had an aluminum, shiny appearance.

The witnesses reported seeing no sound, no exhaust trail, and no apparent spinning motion. The object glided smoothly. The truck was traveling in excellent weather conditions with no clouds.

After spotting the object, the men stopped on the other side of the bridge and jumped out for a closer look. But by then, the object was gone. They believed it had descended into the densely wooded area nearby. Officers from the nearby Stout Field Air Force Base, Lieutenant John E. Hoskins (public information officer) and Lieutenant Russell J. Carey Jr. (intelligence officer), launched a search of the wooded area where it supposedly came down. Despite a thorough effort, they found nothing. The terrain made the search difficult, with many hills and valleys thick with trees.

The Air Force investigated whether the object might be a roto-chute (an experimental parachute-like device with rotating blades) then under development by General Electric Company. The company was contacted and confirmed that no such device had been dropped, and that the description did not match their design.

The full case file, comprised of 17 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Indianapolis, Indiana

Date of incident

July 1948

State / country

IN / US

Page count

17 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 3

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 17

View transcribed text

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28931285