Incident No. 207 -- 15 Nov. 1946, 2200 Hours, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.
The pilot of a T-6 reported seeing an object over the base at 1700 feet. Object was an oblong ball with one light, no wings, no exhaust, in landing light of T-6. It had a dull gray glow and was thought to be smaller than the T-6. Pilot made passes and object evaded by going above aircraft. T-6 tried to close in very tight climbing turns, but object turned inside the aircraft. Object was lost after ten minutes at 7500 feet. Its speed seemed to vary between 80 MPH and 60 MPH.
AMC Opinion: That the object described was a synoptic balloon. Dr. Pitt's report shows that it is very difficult for the observer to separate target motion and his own motion even in daylight, and practically impossible to do so at night. This fact has been substantiated by the writer, who in controlled experiments attacked ordinary balloons with a T-6. In daylight, and with knowledge of what the object was and what it did, all the above described maneuvers were duplicated in appearance.