Kentland, IndianaAugust 1961

On the evening of August 3, 1961, two observers in Kentland, Indiana were watching Jupiter and Saturn through a small telescope when they spotted an unusual object moving northeast across the sky. At first they thought it was a comet because it had a bright central nucleus and a wide fan of light trailing behind it. When one observer got the object in focus with the telescope, he realized it was not a comet at all. The object appeared to have a system of lights and was making sound as it moved overhead. Most strikingly, once the object passed overhead, the direction of its tail suddenly reversed. Instead of trailing behind the object as it moved, the tail now pointed in front of it, like car headlights. The sighting ended at 11:35 p.m. The observer noted that he had spent many hours observing the night sky and was familiar with aircraft passing over Kentland, which sits on an air route from Chicago. This object, he emphasized, was far outside the ordinary.

The observers filled out a detailed questionnaire for the Air Force, documenting their observations and drawings of the object. Headquarters Air Defense Command forwarded their initial report to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where the Foreign Technology Division handled UFO investigations. The Air Force personnel noted that the speed, sound, and lighting effects were consistent with a conventional aircraft, and they suggested that a trailing light might be explained as an aircraft's exterior lighting viewed through a telescope. However, they acknowledged that this explanation did not fully account for the position of the light as the object approached, and they left open the possibility that the aircraft was facing downward while actually producing a contrail (the white trail left by an aircraft at high altitude).

The case file contains the original sighting report, official correspondence, detailed technical questionnaires, and Air Force analysis spanning 15 pages. The Air Force's final evaluation was marked unknown, meaning investigators could not definitively identify the object. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.