Lumberton, OhioMay 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of May 23, 1956, a resident of Lumberton, Ohio saw a bright blue-white light moving across the sky. At 9:12 p.m. EST, the observer was walking in the driveway of his home when he noticed the light, which seemed too bright to be ordinary aircraft lights. The light traveled at a medium-fast speed with no sound. Over the course of about 30 minutes, the object appeared and disappeared multiple times, moving from left to right and then right to left behind nearby trees. The observer noted that the light sometimes resembled a searchlight, but at other times appeared as a steady blue-white glow. Estimating the object's altitude at approximately 5,000 feet, the observer calculated its speed at roughly 75 miles per hour.

After the sighting generated multiple calls to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base from alarmed residents in the Xenia area, the Air Force determined the answer quickly. Newspaper accounts from late May 1956 reveal that the light was caused by an RF-84F jet aircraft conducting night aerial photography missions for the Wright Air Development Center. The plane carried high-intensity mercury arc lamps mounted in wing pods, which were used for experimental nighttime reconnaissance photography. The Air Force stated that similar flights would continue through mid-June 1956 in the southern Ohio, Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania region during clear weather.

The Air Force's conclusion recorded on the case file is that the object was probably an aircraft conducting test flights. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 13 pages.

Reported location

Lumberton, Ohio

Date of incident

May 1956

State / country

OH / US

Page count

13 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 25

gone A a ST A Cy om IR AN BRT WT Te aes 7 Sp! : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD ih a: 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS O Wos Bolloon 23 May 1956 Lumberton, Ohio 0 Erobady Relisen 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION Wr ERE BY RL en Local —2112 EST XIX Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Radar 8 Probably Aircraft oMT___24/02 2122 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft 5. PHOTOS . SOURCE D Was Astronomical 0 Yes 0 Probobly Astronomicol TNo Civilian 0 Possibly Astronomical | 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE cB 1 Cai 0 Insufficient Date for Evaluation 5 1 O Unknown 30 min at 10 m intervals one back r i 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS Ra One object described as a blue flare, After talking with observer it size of grapefruit, color blue white. was determined tis was an a/c : Object appeared from behind trees and running tests from WADC, disappeared behind trees. First from left to right thenee right to left. | ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 32) gh ; : : ; Ein IS » A i ot iE Rad Sat Sh GRAAF EE NCE SE LG i Ki VR AVE i PO PENA ol Ee EA OER Y ht ee YY om MRI i% Mra 3