Chronicle year

1954

1954-11-01 / Sylacauga, Alabama

In January 1955, Lt. Col. Joseph A. Bloomer of the Air Force Directorate of Intelligence responded to letters from Senator Sparkman, private citizens, and foreign correspondents regarding the Unidentified Flying Object Program. The correspondence addresses the "seizure" of a meteorite that fell through the roof of Mrs. Hewlett Hodges' home in Sylacauga, Alabama, in November 1954, which Air Force officers retrieved, flew to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and determined to be a meteorite before returning it to Mrs. Hodges' attorney on 9 December 1954.

1954-06-03 / Cincinnati, Ohio

In July and August 1954, the FBI Cincinnati Field Office and Washington Field Office documented reports from civilian informant Thomas Eickhoff concerning flying saucer lecturers Truman Bethurum and George Hunt Williamson, and from Navy Security Officer John Hutson concerning Frances Swan's claimed thought transmission contact with beings designated "AFFA" and "PONNAR," commanders of ships M-4 and L-11. Eickhoff reported attending a luncheon at the Terrace Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati on June 7, 1954, where Bethurum and Williamson stated their story was factual and consented to government scrutiny.

1954-01-01 / Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio

A Department of War file dated 1954-1955 contains reports, memoranda, and correspondence on Avro Project Y2, a near-circular VTOL aircraft developed by A. V. Roe Canada Ltd. that a 1954 memorandum noted could be mistaken for a flying saucer. The file includes an AFOIN special project investigating Soviet capabilities to develop a vertical take-off aircraft similar in appearance to a flying saucer, and a USAF committee finding that simultaneous ground radar returns and aircrew visual sightings of a UFO near Newfoundland in July 1955 could not be explained.