Las Vegas, NevadaJuly 1957

Insufficient Data

Summary

# Las Vegas Radar Sighting, July 1957

On July 16, 1957, a radar station in Las Vegas detected an object moving at an extraordinary speed. The object appeared on the radar scope traveling inbound at 5,400 knots (about 6,200 miles per hour). Then it abruptly stopped and remained stationary on the radar screen. The entire sighting lasted two minutes and twelve seconds.

The radar operators watched as the object vanished near the Bryce Canyon area in Utah, roughly 195 miles away. One puzzle stood out to investigators: the object remained visible on the radar even after the video display was briefly turned off for one complete sweep. This suggested the radar was picking up an IFF return, a signal used by military and civilian aircraft to identify themselves.

Air Force investigators examined several possibilities. They noted that the object's path generally followed an established airway used by both military and civilian aircraft. They considered whether the extreme speed might be explained by aircraft electronics equipment, though they noted they lacked expertise to comment. Weather data from the area showed unstable conditions with broken clouds up to 12,000 feet, which investigators thought worth noting.

The Air Force specialists who reviewed the case acknowledged the object's speed ruled out any known U.S. aircraft equipped with standard identification equipment. They concluded in their analysis that this appeared to be another radar sighting with no satisfactory explanation, due to insufficient data. The case file lists the final evaluation as "unknown."

The complete case file, 8 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Las Vegas, Nevada

Date of incident

July 1957

State / country

NV / US

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 28

: PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD E |). DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS 0 Was Bolloon 16 July 1957 Las Vegas, Nevada O Probably Balloon _ | 3. DATZ-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION G- Fossitay Dellsen. _ J : 3 E O Was Aircraft | | DAN EN SE Oe O Ground- Visual :Ground-Rodar O Probably Aircroft R-1 CMT 16/20567 0 Air-Visuol 0 Air-lntercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft ~ |5. PHOTOS : 6. SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical O Yes 0 Probably Astronomical “TNe Military Radar ONITIY SAU | 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION | 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE Sx0ther_Llec Intorforpce RN O Insufficient Data for Evaluation i X RET : 0 Unknown two minutes, 12 sec one inbound 3 fro. SRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS ll | One object seen on ground radar, Obj ATIC form 332 was sent to reporting fl | came inbound at a speed of 5400 knots | squadron and was returned with BR | aud abruptly stopped and then remainad| the opinion that this sighting Bl | stationary, Object was seen for two was cased by electric interference 1 ninutes,, twelve seconds, caused by a temperature inversion, rE! 2 | | | EN | ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 32) 8 . : ; ; 4 : 3 3 v - § - : : » 5: