Wichita Falls, TexasMay 1952

Unidentified

Summary

Early on the morning of May 2, 1952, a retired Army sergeant in Wichita Falls, Texas reported seeing an unusual disc shaped object flying overhead. The witness, a 56 year old man with 20 years of military service, said the object was roughly 18 to 24 feet across, dull metal in color, and shaped like a saucer that was thicker in the middle and tapered at the edges. He observed it for about five seconds as it flew approximately one mile away at an altitude of around 4,000 feet, traveling northeast to south southwest at a speed between 900 and 1,000 miles per hour. The witness reported seeing no exhaust trail, hearing no noise, and being unable to determine how the object was propelled.

The sighting occurred at 1000 hours (10 a.m.) under partly cloudy skies with good visibility. The Air Force intelligence officer who conducted the interview noted that the witness was credible, having been retired from military service for about eight years and currently living in Wichita Falls. Weather conditions at the time included scattered clouds at 10,000 feet, visibility of 15 miles or better, and light winds from the northeast.

The Air Force examined aircraft in the area at the time of the sighting. A classified message from Sheppard Air Force Base listed several military and civilian aircraft that were airborne or taking off near Wichita Falls during the relevant time period, including T33 jets, C47 transports, and civilian aircraft. The complete results of this aircraft check do not appear clearly in the available OCR text.

The Air Force officially evaluated this sighting as unidentified. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, 11 pages.

Reported location

Wichita Falls, Texas

Date of incident

May 1952

State / country

TX / US

Page count

11 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 9

»--9 4 ; : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD : C1 LATE § cs, YE E LOCATION ney "12.7 CONCLUSIONS 8 : 2 lay 52 © Wichita 1'n)ls, Texas |o Wes Balloon | C—O A YE gy an FS I > eg 10 Probably Balloon ! — wo oe bean Bes . cone tr . . cu on . —— a NOSpR—— ) ably . ) 3. DATE-TINL SROUF C4. TYPL OF OBSERVATION [9 NEY. | 0 PORE, 2000 CHT wi | X35 Bound Visua! 03 Ground-Rudar 181 Was Airceahy to Probobly Aircrafr . GN T. o%h500 7 HOT EOE AN U Ar Visual 0 Arr-lntercept Rodor 0 Possibly Aircraft V's, PROTOS 6 SOURCE {1 Was Astroncniical C Yes volo (2 Probebly Astronomical CH= J | Y » pi spare \ | 22a 3/850 LI Possibly Astronomical 315" "000 a — vn ——— re ee = . On + ED ET ca De es DE Be A > —— n ae Bt SE Ba + A + An Sl 1 0 PSPS —— | | 7. LENGTH OF COSERVATION "6. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE ERE ERT Te A ! 1 ! 1 30 Insufficiont Dota for Evaluation 5 seconds | | lo Unknown ; 10. BRIEF SUMMARY oF SIGHTING Ea we ER EE RIESE or. [11 comments ee ey ee Dull metal color. Disc shaped. i Report contains too noay "exact Straight end level and arched. deatils.” ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) ’