FBIUnknownAmbiguous

Rocket-like object observed from aircraft near Parkersburg, West Virginia

Sep 25, 1949Lubeck, near South Parkersburg, West Virginia3,450 ft2s

⟳ Deeper read pending. This record is from the FBI 62-HQ-83894 flying-disc file, whose cursive, clippings and faint scans are under-read by automated OCR. It is flagged for a vision-transcription pass and likely undercounts what the source contains — see the documents collection note.

Analysis — our summary

Glen Sprouse, piloting a Luscombe 8A aircraft at 3,450 feet and approximately 100 mph, reported a bright canary yellow rocket-shaped object approximately 15-18 inches long passing about 100 feet below and 50 feet to his right while flying southwest of Parkersburg, West Virginia, on September 25, 1949. The object had fins but no visible propulsion and appeared to be descending slightly. Sprouse reported the object moved too fast to study carefully, passing in approximately two seconds. The FBI forwarded the report to Air Force OSI.

As reported — verbatim from the document

“"a bright yellow object coming directly towards me... Color - bright canary yellow; Length - about 15 to 18 inches; Diameter - About 4" in the largest part... No wings but vertical and horizontal fins on rear 1/3 of the rocket. No visable means of propulsion such as propeller, vapor trail, smoke or exhaust."”

Analyst notes — caveats & confidence

Single airborne observer; wife present in aircraft did not see the object. Sprouse was a private pilot flying a known route. Object's extremely small physical size (15-18 inches) is unusual and reduces likelihood of structured craft hypothesis; could be consistent with a small experimental rocket or projectile. OCR quality good for this section of the document. Report forwarded to Air Force OSI per standard FBI procedure.

Provenance

Source document65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_5.pdf

Document typecorrespondence collection

Reporting agencyFBI

Source pages209

Redaction markers in doc6

DeclassifiedFirst public at this release (2026)

Held classified~77 years (≥, to this release)

Extraction confidence ModerateHow cleanly this record could be parsed from the source — driven by legibility & redaction. It is not a measure of how credible or anomalous the sighting is.