Wilmington, OhioJune 1956

A father and his two sons reported seeing a strange aircraft near Wilmington, Ohio on June 27, 1956, at approximately 2:25 p.m. The family was standing about 2.4 miles north of Wilmington on Route 314 when they spotted the object below treetop level. The craft appeared to be round, roughly the size and length of an automobile, with a distinctive bulge or canopy-like protrusion at its center. The witnesses described the object as bright silver or aluminum in color and estimated it to be about 3 to 4 feet thick. The youngest boy said it looked like a "button."

The object made no sound and produced no smoke or vapor trail. The witnesses were familiar with jet aircraft and stated firmly that this was not a jet plane. According to their account, the craft moved very swiftly, climbing at a steep angle at first and then almost vertically before disappearing from view in three or four seconds.

The Air Force investigation was conducted by ATIC (Air Technical Intelligence Center) after the report reached Captain J. M. Long at Clinton County Air Force Base in Ohio on June 27. The weather at the time was clear with a fifteen mile per hour wind from the west and visibility of at least fifteen miles. The area had fighter aircraft conducting flight test operations in a nearby restricted zone. The investigators noted that they did not obtain the witnesses' names and addresses directly but believed the Ohio Highway Patrol had this information for follow-up.

The Air Force evaluation recorded on the case card indicates the object was "probably balloon," though the file shows the investigation was resolved as an aircraft from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The full case file, consisting of 28 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.