Tipp City, OhioJuly 1953

Insufficient Data

Summary

On July 3, 1953, Wilbur H. Focht, an employee at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Tipp City, Ohio, stepped outside his home around 6:43 p.m. and spotted an unusual object in the sky. The object was small, silver, and stationary at an altitude higher than a nearby airplane that was flying overhead at the time.

After the plane passed, Focht watched the object move upward and turn south. It then accelerated rapidly and vanished behind a cloud bank. Focht described what he had seen to Air Force officials, and the incident was investigated by the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson. In his interview, Focht suggested the object could have been an upper-air research balloon launched from another part of the country. However, a check of balloon launch records from the Dayton area on that date revealed no balloon had been released.

The Air Force investigated whether weather balloon programs, including "Moby Dick" and "Skyhook" balloons, or the Navy's "Winzen" balloon project, might explain the sighting. Officials requested additional information about these programs and wind patterns. An official statement from ATIC noted that officers were still studying the case. In a later memo from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, the object was identified as a weather balloon, though the basis for this conclusion is unclear from the file.

The full case file, held by the National Archives, consists of 30 pages.

Reported location

Tipp City, Ohio

Date of incident

July 1953

State / country

OH / US

Page count

30 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 19

; i ¥ : 5 : a3 Sm—— » 5 I. DATE - TIME GROUP 2. LOCATION : 2 we £2 “¥ BT mae. ER Sas ~ rl p- Jnl; po ¥- 1% 1 App Cig » WiC : 3. SOURCE 10. CONCLUSION Civilin SALI 4. NUMBER OF OBJECTS Ee i Are zeal Wo Ad on upper alr cetivlly, ramp aecabtliee allola he Loupelnc 1800 Lob tnuenal fore buwat to gop offi 109° 0 0 2) : S. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION [11. BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS coastal ww win welloon : 3 = Ll inutas ane ghd allver olloet auditiin, irregular rave vs obscrvoR bn hataw avo 4 iva Ahas wise pe, TRE NERS 6. TYPE OF OBSERVATION 0 HOVER OV «dp Vil, then rise vorlicully, disupicor int v o's Sein wo Wl ou »L a Le 4 p Xe > 1 le oicleVion 7. COURSE South : EE : 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE 0 Yeo 8 Ne FORM FTD ser 63 0-329 (TDE) previous oditions of this form may bo used, | a 4 © BE Ales ti 0