Kirtland AFB, New MexicoMay 1952

Unidentified

Summary

On the afternoon of May 23, 1952, officers at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico saw a bright silver object hanging in the western sky. Multiple Air Force personnel watched it for about forty to forty-five minutes, using binoculars and a telescope to get a better look. What they saw appeared flat on the bottom and slightly rounded on top.

The object moved very little and seemed to float randomly in place. Its brightness changed on and off repeatedly. It drifted slowly westward before disappearing below the horizon around the same time sunset light was fading. An Air Force pilot was diverted to search for it from the air, but found nothing despite good visibility and a low cloud ceiling. Radar operators at the base had no contact with the object either.

Several hypotheses emerged from the investigation. One officer suggested it might be a piece of paper caught in a thermal updraft, which would explain both the floating motion and the flashing reflections from sunlight. Another officer, who had seen unexplained objects before, stated he could not convince himself this was a paper scrap, an outbound airplane, or a balloon. The Air Force rated all the witnesses as reliable. The commanding officer's official assessment of the evidence was that the case remained unidentified.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 15 scanned pages.

Reported location

Kirtland AFB, New Mexico

Date of incident

May 1952

State / country

NM / US

Page count

15 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 10

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 15

View transcribed text

- . ?

” ' oR i ———————— ——— ————————. i BOB tl ll 2 A Bt 8 a ————— — N 3
| gin "PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

| p pe > oy ! .

’ 1. DATE : ( I" LOCATION A 12. CONCLUSIONS

i D Wos Balloon
§ 23 Fay 1952 | Kirtland AIB, New Mexico D Probably Balloon Fo

3. DATE-TIME GROUP : 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION O Possibly Bolloon |

3 2 Local. 1600 MST in] Ground- Visual (bY) D Ground-Rader - tu gy ARR
a Grp 2300 a 0 Air-Visuvol D Air-Intercopt Raodor O Possibly Aircraft

3 5. PHOTO 8. SOURCE |o Wos Astronomical i

' ! OVYes O Probably Astronomical |

: LO No Several AF Officers O Possibly Astronomical |
"7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE Other POSS_paper in thesx

. | O Insufficient Data for Evoluation i

P 4 | Min - 1 O Unknown

10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING § 11. COMMENTS :
~ |CGenerally hovering--very little change in Detailed Report--Visual sighting with 4
: position - a telescope, theodolite, binoculars, i
: Onc sowrce thinks it was paper in an updraft? Attempted radar and airborne 1

llo definite conclusions : ; interception,

: Color: Silver :

Shape: Circular w/dome Js 4 Slits in 4 dooaTyin dnd mol7ic

| 5 Lr Cs d3i87enT ari PR lloon $34 or 4 : i

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i RA Lan Cos 7m 7 CEs mam d C E

: ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) : 1S uly © ey, ¥

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28942256