Wilmington, DelawareDecember 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

On December 18, 1956, two separate sightings of unusual objects were reported in the Delaware-New Jersey area. The first sighting occurred in Wilmington, Delaware, where one witness saw a bright, symmetrical object with a long streamer trailing behind it. The object's front glowed brilliant bluish-green, while its rear shifted to greenish-yellow and orange. The witness watched it move in a straight, horizontal path from southwest to northeast for only three to four seconds. During this brief observation, the object suddenly broke apart into several smaller objects that disappeared.

A second sighting took place in the same general timeframe, this one reported from the Newburgh, New York area. A witness observed a round yellow-green object about the size of a coin held at arm's length, which appeared to emit sparks. This object flew quickly toward the northeast and gradually faded from view. This observer watched for twenty to thirty seconds, considerably longer than the first witness. The second observer felt the object was miles away, and noted no sound accompanied the sighting.

On examining the reports, investigators considered whether the sightings might be explained as a meteor. The case file notes, in its conclusions section, that the sighting was "probably caused by a meteor." However, the OCR'd material is heavily degraded on several pages, making it difficult to confirm what analysis or investigation details support this determination. The file contains routing and correspondence sheets indicating the Air Force solicited a formal technical report from at least one witness, but the quality of the scanned images prevents a clear reading of the investigative findings and reasoning.

The full case file, 13 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Wilmington, Delaware

Date of incident

December 1956

State / country

DE / US

Page count

13 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 27

i PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD | i FE | 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS E Wilmington, Delaware O Was Balloon § | 18 December 1956 | Newburgh, New York 7 BUSEY Elis: | 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. 1éRg" PaiveyS” New Jersey Ba ; Local I. 19700252" Gk §ground- Vi sual 0 Ground-Radar a BEIT. al) } | oMT2.10/0030z | 0AicVisd __O Air-Intercopt Radar | Possibly Airerolt 5. PHOT . SOURCE Was ronomica { 3. 39400302 a Probably Meg io teor j £o Civilian 0 Possibly Astrotomical 1 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0, Other. ee 1 1. -4 ecs b one source 1 SW to NE nsufficient Data for Evaluation 0 20338 S2cg.2nd sourge She | 2. NE Sn 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS ; 1 1) One symmetrical-shaped obj w/long Sighting probably caused by 1 streamer behind. Front of obj was meteor. / | colored brilliant bluish-green & rear greenish yellow to orange. Obj moved | 3 in straight path horizontal fm SW to 3) Brilliant obj observed thru NE. Obj broke into several smaller objls car windshield for 15 seconds. which disappeared suddenly. Obj was Brilliant silver w/tail like trail. | seen visually for 3-4 secs by one Fieey yellow leading obj. No snd]. 4 observer & 20-30 ses by a second. Thought to be many miles away, | 2) One round yellow & green obj,size : i] os dine at arm's length, Sparks noted ] Flew, ast in NE direction, Faded fm : 4 ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) j /