Washington, D.C., February 1959February 1959

Insufficient Data

Summary

A visitor from Portugal photographed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. in February 1959. When he later examined the photograph, he noticed a bright spot of light in the sky above and to the left of the Capitol that he had not seen at the time he took the picture. The man sent the photograph to the Air Force for analysis.

The Air Force's Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base received the photograph in July 1959. Analysts examined it but found the image printed with such extreme contrast (pure black and white with almost no gray tones) that a detailed analysis was difficult. They requested the original photographic negative to conduct a thorough study. The witness eventually sent the negative to the Air Force in September 1959.

When ATIC photo analysts examined the negative under a microscope, they concluded that the image was an aircraft, though they could not determine the specific type. The Air Force sent the negative back to the witness in November 1959 along with this conclusion. The case record indicates that the final Air Force evaluation was that the object was probably an aircraft.

The full case file, consisting of 14 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Washington, D.C., February 1959

Date of incident

February 1959

State / country

? / XX

Page count

14 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 35

poi RTARTA CH tun SRY BION A co, © © WE BH SEMEN ey ro em a ) . > ERs ant : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD Sed j 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS A O Woes Balloon 4 I'eb 59 Washington, D.C. O Probably Balloon 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION Rm —— | v O Was Aircraft BE i incomes XBround- Visual 0 Ground-Radar Q, Probably Aircraft gan CRGRBER 0 AirVisuel 0 Air-Intercept Rador 4 Possibly Aircraft S. PHOTOS . O Was Astronomical Yes O Probably Astronomicel 0 Ne ; civilian O Possibly Astronomical 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE § OME csaesgegnespe— O Insufficient Date for Evaluation 0 Unknown N/A one / “ 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS ~ bright obj which appeared on a photo- ATIC photoanalysis concluded the graph, ebove and to the left of the Capitol image to be an aireraftl building. Obj was not noticed at time | rhoto was taken. | ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 32) - | / : : : | . ’ | bs