W of Marietta, Ga., January 1958January 1958

Insufficient Data

Summary

On January 3, 1958, in the daytime west of Marietta (in Georgia), a military observer reported a single object in the sky. The sighting lasted about 90 seconds. The object was very thin in a horizontal plane, slightly thickened in the center. It appeared silvery-white, like a mirror, in the reflection of the sun. The reflection of the sun was bright at one end while the rest of the object looked like a thin beam of light. As the object changed aspect, the sun's reflection moved from one end to the other. The reflection then disappeared, and the object appeared as a thin brown line shortly before fading from sight. The object was mostly stationary. The witness was an experienced pilot and controller. The report was filed under Project 10073, the Air Force's official record for unidentified flying object reports. The Air Force noted it could possibly have been a research balloon, but the short duration in excellent weather nearly ruled that out. It concluded the object could have been a non-persistent contrail from an aircraft in a turn.

Reported location

W of Marietta, Ga., January 1958

Date of incident

January 1958

State / country

? / XX

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 31

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

Loi fait Me aote iE AA is Sli fia a sub BR eR A & hon oh able we - v ’ . ¥
| PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD : |
goa 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
O Was Balloon |

3 1 O Probably Balloon |
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION E1 Possitty Balison |
pr | pS A NE Ce CRRA KR XXGround- Visual O Ground-Radar Sx Probably Aircraft :
GMT___03/17407 0 Air Visual O Air-Intercept Rader O Possibly Aircroft
S. PHOTOS . E O Was Astronomical
Q Yes 0 Probably Astronomical
B Neo : Military O Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BONS Sa ae nb
j 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation
i : CO Unknown
90) secs one stationary |
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
Very thin obj in horizontal plane, Could havebeen non-persistent
: slightly thicken=2d in center, Appeared contrail fm A/C in turn, Contrai
silvery white in reflection of sun patterns as times appear very
like a mirror, Raflection of sun was unusual even to experienced
bright at one end while remainder of observers,
obj appeared as thin beam of light,
Reflection disapneared, Obj then
j appeared as a thin brown line shortly
hefore fading from sight, :
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP $52)
x :
§. Dra i abe BEBE SP 5 KTR NT RRR Ae AT di ie i

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28976482