Project Blue Book Case #1382. On July 3, 1952, witnesses in Chicago, Illinois, observed a bright object in the sky over the nation's second-largest city. The sighting came at the very beginning of the great July 1952 wave — the most concentrated period of UFO activity in American history.
Chicago's sprawling metropolitan area, with its multiple airports (Midway was the world's busiest airport in 1952, and O'Hare was under construction), military installations, and industrial complexes, created one of the most complex aerial environments in the country. Witnesses in Chicago saw more aircraft daily than residents of almost any other city, making their determination that this object was anomalous highly credible.
July 3, 1952, was the same date as the Selfridge AFB sighting in Michigan (Case #1380) and coincided with reports from multiple other locations — the wave was beginning its dramatic acceleration. Within two weeks, UFOs would be tracked on radar over Washington, D.C., creating the biggest UFO story in history.
Chicago's importance to American defense extended beyond its military installations. The city was the nation's primary transportation hub — rail, air, and highway routes converged here, and its industrial capacity was second only to the Detroit area. Any unidentified object over Chicago was a matter of national security concern.
All military and civilian flight records for the Chicago area were checked. No aircraft correlated with the sighting. The case was classified "Unknown."