Project Blue Book Case File
Phoenix, ArizonaAugust 1961
Summary
On the morning of August 2, 1961, near Phoenix, Arizona, several civilian witnesses reported seeing an unusual object hovering in the pre-dawn sky. The first to spot it was a child, who called the attention of adults in the area. The object appeared barrel-shaped or slightly oblong, roughly ten to fifteen feet long and five feet in diameter. Multiple observers, some using binoculars, watched for about ten minutes as the object drifted slowly in a northeasterly direction at an altitude of 1,000 to 1,200 feet, approximately one and a half to two miles away.
The witnesses reported seeing a slight reddish glow coming from the bottom center of the object, and smoke appeared to be issuing from the same spot. The object was gray or black in color and had no visible windows. There were three separate sightings between 0230 and 0428 hours (2:30 a.m. and 4:28 a.m.), all within a two-hour period. The observers all agreed on the general size and shape, though no one witnessed the object disappear. The weather conditions were partly cloudy with occasional lightning, and winds at lower altitudes were light, generally not exceeding 10 knots.
The Air Force officer preparing the report suspected the object was a weather balloon released by either Fort Huachuca or Yuma Marine Corps Test Station, both of which had flown balloons in the preceding forty-eight hours. He suggested that atmospheric conditions, the dim light of dusk, and untrained observers might have caused optical illusions about the object's altitude. However, he noted that the report of smoke and a reddish glow emanating from the center of the object could not be explained by the balloon hypothesis. The case was marked as unknown, and the file does not indicate that any further investigation was conducted.
The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 8 pages.
Reported location
Phoenix, Arizona
Date of incident
August 1961
State / country
AZ / US
Page count
8 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 43