Several Indiana towns, Alexandria, Kokomo, etc., August 1957August 1957

On the night of August 7, 1957, a mysterious flying object with flashing red, blue, green, and white lights was sighted over several towns across north-central Indiana. The sightings began around 12:34 a.m. in Anderson and continued until roughly 1:51 a.m., when the last report came in from Portland, near the Ohio border. The object was reported moving across the state, with sightings logged from Alexandria, Kokomo, Muncie, Hartford City, Greenwood, Pendleton, Yorktown, and many other communities.

Witnesses described an object that changed colors constantly, sometimes appearing to flash, sparkle, and waver. Some observers reported it stood still in the sky for several minutes at a time, while others said it moved quickly. The object's altitude was estimated at around 5,000 feet, and multiple witnesses reported it radiated light, sometimes described as a "sparkling brilliant color." State police tracked the reports carefully, and at one point Ohio authorities even detected the object on radar between 5,000 and 8,000 feet, though they could not identify it.

Early speculation centered on a B-29 tanker aircraft that was known to be conducting aerial refueling operations out of Bunker Hill Air Force Base near Peru. However, when state police notified the base, officials stated they could find nothing on radar and did not scramble any aircraft. The object's track was plotted based on citizen reports from surrounding communities and appeared to be heading toward Detroit.

The Air Force investigation concluded that the object was an XB-50 aircraft (a variant of the B-29) conducting a round robin flight from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, equipped with new-type lights. The file appears to have been closed as "probably balloon" in the conclusion box, though the reasoning and evidence supporting that determination are unclear in the OCR text.

The full case file, consisting of 22 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.