Rydall, PennsylvaniaFebruary 1963

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of February 13, 1963, in Rydall, Pennsylvania, a boy and his mother saw a reddish object in the western sky just above the horizon. At first, the boy thought he was looking at the planet Mars. Within a few minutes, the object rose higher in the sky and grew larger, eventually reaching about one quarter the apparent size of the moon. As it continued to move, it passed directly over their car.

The witnesses disagreed on what they had seen. The mother believed the object was a delta-wing aircraft, an airplane with a triangular wing shape. However, the object moved very slowly and made no sound. She described it as appearing to have two delta wings with no fuselage, the main body of an aircraft.

The Air Force requested additional information from the witnesses to clarify their account, but they did not reply. The case file notes inconsistencies between the witnesses' letter and the follow-up request. Because both witnesses had offered the opinion that the object might be an aircraft, the Air Force carried the case as such, though the investigation remained incomplete. The Air Force's official evaluation was listed as unknown.

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

Reported location

Rydall, Pennsylvania

Date of incident

February 1963

State / country

PA / US

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 47

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 8

View transcribed text

3 . PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
3 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
LL 0 Was Balloon
“2 13 February 1963 Rydall pPennsylvaniall a Probably Balloon
. 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION BI (RERSIEly BRtteay
E 605 3 Vi i Was Aircraft
E Local EG 5 10 10 18 ©.) Eee XXGround- Visual 0 Ground-Radar O Probably odes
i GMT 13/23057 an 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft
3 5. PHOTOS 4. SOURCE O Was Astronomical
4 O Yes O Probably Astronomical
3 i eli gril 0 Possibly Astronomical
] 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATICN 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0, 0hete— ee :
; O Insufficient Data for Evaluation
2 O Unknown
i PR Lo Calon n= RUE A ol A RCL. east
3 ho. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING [11. COMMENTS
|
3 Reddish colorzsd object observed | Duration not reported. Inconsis
E several degrees above the horizon in tancies in letter and request
| i the west, First impression was that | for additional info sent to wit
i ohject was Mars. A few miputes latex ness. No reply. Case carried as
; { the object moved higher 1n the sky and a/c in view of opinion of both
E | hecame bigger reaching about 1/4 appa- witnesses.
1 | rent size of moon. Object passed ovar
] | car. Mother of boy reporting arcued |
] that obj was delta wing a‘’c. However,
: | obj moved vary slowly, no sound,
i | Appeared as two délta win: ss w/no fusela e. Low Altitude.
3 SE
: ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
4
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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 29000256