1954: Engineer observes lens-shaped disc in New York

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THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: October, 1954

Sighting Time: About 4:00 p.m.

Day/Night: Afternoon

Location: Cherry Valley, New York

Urban or Rural: Rural

Hynek Classification:  DD (Daylight Disc) Metallic or whitish object was seen in the day.

Duration: 20 seconds or a little more

No. of Object(s): 1

Height & Speed: 200 feet

Size of Object(s): 30 or 35 feet

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Color of Object(s): gray

Number of Witnesses: Single

Source: Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, 1964 (NICAP)  Original Source

Summary/Description: “It seemed to be a large disc or lens-shaped object, and in comparison with the objects below I estimated it to be perhaps 30 or 35 feet in diameter… It was moving like a wheel sliding sideways and not rotating, and in perspective presented an elliptical appearance such as any circular object would when viewed from an angle…The color was gray.” 

Full Report

Excerpts from letter dated December 28, 1955 from Major A. B. Cox to Richard Hall:

“The sky was more or less covered with streaks or layers of clouds, with blue sky between, so that the rays of the sun came through almost horizontally, the time being not far from sunset in the valley. I was walking in a NE direction, having been an airplane spotter for a long time, I have formed the habit of looking at the sky, quite naturally.

“I happened to be looking at the West in the direction of my farm buildings, perhaps a half mile distant, and saw something which at first glance was about over my farm buildings. It was quite low, and did not seem to be more than a few hundred feet above the earth. I thought at first it was a large airplane not moving very swiftly. . . . It was moving horizontally in a direction parallel to my own direction. Then I noticed that it seemed to make no noise, and then I could not see any wings or tail or fuselage generally.

“It seemed to be a large disc or lens-shaped object, and in comparison with the objects below I estimated it to be perhaps 30 or 35 feet in diameter. . , , It was moving like a wheel sliding sideways and not rotating, and in perspective presented an elliptical appearance such as any circular object would when viewed from an angle; the degree of ellipticity varying as it came up and then passed me. I must have seen it for 20 seconds or a little more. Then it got ahead of me and it presented the appearance of a circular disc, perhaps five or six feet thick. The color was gray, and I think perhaps a little darker on the rim or edge; not much but enough to make the edge sharply defined.

“Suddenly it stopped and seemed to be going in a direction more or less at right angles to its first motion, but still in an upright direction. . . This sudden stop interested me as an engineer, because any sudden retardation or acceleration requires in so large an object the application of a very considerable force, and seemed a much shorter turn and a more rapid turn than any airplane I had ever seen could be capable of.

“It then began to ascend in a direction of perhaps at right angles to its first direction and at an upward angle of perhaps 30 or 35 degrees from the horizontal. . . . There were some fleecy clouds above it, and it entered them and was lost to sight for perhaps a second or so, to emerge into vision again above this first layer of clouds. Its direction had not changed, and shortly after it entered some more layers of cloud, which were thicker, and was lost to view.”