Richmond, VirginiaAugust 1952

Unidentified

Summary

On the morning of August 27, 1952, Air Force personnel at the Richmond Filter Center in Richmond, Virginia spotted a round, medium-sized, amber-colored object moving west-northwest at about 100 miles per hour. The object appeared as a bright light to observers and remained visible for roughly five minutes before fading near the horizon.

The same object, or a similar one, was sighted again shortly after. This time witnesses described it as very large and resembling a bright white light that moved up and down in the sky. The Air Force took the sighting seriously enough to scramble two F-94 fighter aircraft from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to intercept the object.

As the fighters arrived over Richmond around 0700 (7:00 a.m.), the ground observers and pilots communicated by radio about the object's location. Each time ground personnel reported the object's position relative to the circling fighters, the lead pilot reported seeing the planet Venus at that exact spot. After searching the area for about fifteen minutes, both pilots concluded that Venus was the only object visible to them, and they returned to base.

One of the ground observers, Lieutenant Volgenuth, later called back and stated that he believed a fellow observer had seen a genuine first object, then looked away for a few minutes and mistaken Venus for the original sighting when it reappeared. The Air Force evaluated this case as unidentified, though the file indicates that Venus was likely the explanation for at least the second sighting. The full case file, consisting of 8 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.

Reported location

Richmond, Virginia

Date of incident

August 1952

State / country

VA / US

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 15

: i i é ix \ PROJECT 10073 RECCRD CARD ’ . 7’ A 9 - me” of \ sarees conn of TT —— AY Be a “ea SU SERA a Me ¢ Suu— { 1. DATE ( {2 LOCATION ( ‘12, CONCLUSIONS : . i : i : ! 27 Muy 52 ! Richyond, Virzinia . |G Wes Bailean E EER —. i 8 10 Probably Lailoon : | 3. DATETIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION =|8 Possibly Balloon | . : Fer 4 # ) 3 Il dls : \ oO Wos Aircrcis i Locai Po 3 fe »Graund- Visual 5 Ground-Rodar Tr Probably Aurcrafy : | TARE, BOR : U Air Vi svol © Airlntercept Rodor 10 Possibly Awrcraly ’ | 5. PAOTOS 6. SOURCL 1D Was Astronomical ! QO Yes —g- ; ‘va Probably Asironamice! Fo’ ) : [31 | nilivesy |o Possibly Astronomical i I'7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0 Other—m ooo ooo | Z | i '0 Insviiicient Date for Evaluation ' 5 rin. 1 ree |0 Unknown ~ BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING = COMMENTS : Auber. Round. Planet Venus. | | | \ ] { i { | . |} | | | : | | BRR TT ER ARERR RAS : | Ee —. —— A —— ——— ———— ——— ee — ® = Gm ee ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SE 52)