Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

The 1952 Washington UFOs :


Bogeyman

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 49
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • karl 12

    10

  • Stixxman

    9

  • skyeagle409

    9

  • captain pish

    4

interesting. of course it will soon be shot down by our resident skeptics.

Not necessarily.

It was called the 'Washington Merry-go-round' by the air force, and the sightings were supported by numerous witnesses.

The evidence is plainly there that something did indeed happed over Washington over that two week period, however, 55 years later we can not accurately look at video and photographs and be so definitive.

As long as there is at least the smallest amount of chance that it could have been caused by something else, the Skeptical mind unfortunately has the upperhand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen all the stills of these but never knew until now they'd actually been filmed.......Hey i tell ya if this is genuine ,thats a weird sight flying over the Whitehouse.....especially in 1952......Opinions ?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6426240870588647115

About Washington D. C. in 1952.

linked-image

Radar Tracks Blips and Blobs

by Maj. Donald Keyhoe

Author's Note: Since 1952, when my article "What Radar Tells About Flying Saucers," was published in TRUE, radar has played a vital part in building up proof of UFO reality

“Considering the objects' relative position, just before they vanished, this last would require a speed of from 5,000 to 7,000 mph. At the time, this seemed unbelievable to Barnes and the other controllers. But Captain Pierman later confirmed the objects' tremendous speed.”

"They'd go up and down at terrific speed, or streak off and disappear. Between Washington and Martinsburg, we saw six of these fast-moving lights. (Control Center radar showed them at the same position.) I don't know what they were, but they weren't shooting stars."

“Another confirmation of the visitors' incredible speed came later that night, from the Washington tower. Operator Joe Zacko had been watching the A.S.R. scope when one of the mystery objects abruptly appeared just west of Andrews Field. Unlike the slower M.E.W., the A.S.R., with its 28-rpm antenna, can track extremely high speeds. As Zacko watched, fascinated, the blips made a bright streak or trail, heading north-northeast toward Riverdale. Then the trail ended as swiftly as it had come.

Howard Cocklin, hastily called over by Zacko, also saw the bright trail. Together they figured the object's speed from its trace.”

It had been making two miles per second-7,200 m.p.h.

"It was as if it had descended rapidly, almost vertically," Cocklin told me later. "That would bring it suddenly into the A.S.R. beam area. It seemed to level off for those few seconds, and then abruptly ascend out of the beam again."

http://users.ev1.net/~seektress/blip.htm

http://www.project1947.com/fig/1952d.htm

http://www.altereddimensions.net/aliens/UFOWashington.htm

http://ufologie.net/htm/usa1952.htm

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0380814706...730#reader-link

http://www.ufocasebook.com/washingtondc1952.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i look at the film and think

people actually think there is NOTHING to the sightings. That video which i didn't know existed convinces me that if its a genuine unaltered clip then we are all fooling ourselves in thinking there is nothing to it. And one other thing i noticed is that for the most part the lights form triangles except for the one firt in line it seems to be missing a light. Could it be a damaged craft being trailed down by other crafts due to a failure in a prepulsion unit?

im more likely to be fully convinced of the government coming forward, but that seems unlikely so this might have to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Edward Ruppelt was told to expect this event in advance... curious... CIA...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Edward Ruppelt was told to expect this event in advance... curious... CIA...

He was told of incidents such as these? Not likely!

July 13: 0400 EDT.

National Airlines plane en route to National Airport, about 60 mi. SW of the city observed a blue- white ball of light hovering to the west. Object then "came up to 11,000 ft. [and] then maintained a parallel course, on the same level, at the same speed, until the aircraft pilot turned on all lights. Object then departed from the vicinity at an estimated 1000 m.p.h. Weather was excellent for observation." The crew said the object "took off up and away." No other air traffic was reported in the area at the time. (AF Int.)

July 14: 2012 EDT.

Newport News, Va. Southbound Pan American Airways plane at 8,000 ft. nearing the Norfolk, Va, area observed six glowing red, circular objects approaching below the airliner; objects flipped up on edge in unison and then sped from behind and under the airliner and joined the in-line formation, which "climbed in a graceful arc above the altitude of the airliner." "Then the lights blinked out one by one, though not in sequence." Next day the crew was thoroughly interrogated by AFOSI, and advised that they already had seven other reports of red discs moving at high speed and making sharp turns. (UFOE, p. 38-39.)

July 27: 0020 EDT.

[*] F-94 jet interceptors scrambled from New Castle AFB, Del., to investigate Washington, D.C., radar- UFOs. One F-94 pilot made visual contact and appeared to be gaining on target; both F-94 and UFO were observed on radar and "appeared to be travelling at the same approximate speed." When the F-94 pilot tried to overtake the UFO, it disappeared visually and on radar. The pilot remarked about the "incredible speed of the object." (AFOSI.)

Edited by skyeagle409
Link to comment
Share on other sites

is there some doubt about the 2002 footage. I dont know much about it at all. is it fake?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Confirms you are not as knowledgeable as you would like us to think.

It was not likely that the UFO events of 1952 had anything to do with the military, especially since certain airspace over Washtington D. C. are prohibited flight zones. As we now know, the CIA has been at the heart of the UFO disinformation campaign since the 1950s.

On another note, right after the Washington D.C. UFO incidents, was something that I have presented before and revealed some time ago by Major Dewey Fournet, USAF, in regards to the 1952 Air Force intelligence report on UFO maneuvers. Major Donald Keyhoe was going to reveal sensitive information that UFOs were in fact, a reality, but he was cut off on "Live TV" by the censors at CBS, on the Armstrong Circle Star theater on January 22, 1958, in their own words; "in the interest of national security."

Conclusion UFOs Are Space Ships

Given SAC in 1952

A 1952 evaluation of "flying saucers" as interplanetary devices, sent to Strategic Air Command Headquarters from MacDill AFB, has been disclosed to NICAP by former information Specialist Don Widener, one of the AF men concurring in this opinion.

The spaceship conclusion was based on numerous AF sighting reports, especially those in the MacDill area. It was drawn up by the MacDill UFO project officer, an AF intelligence captain with whom Widener served. As a member of the project, Widener had access to official AF sighting reports, some of which have never been released.

"Captain ---------- and I drafted a report to SAC Headquarters," Widener has told NICAP. "It stated that in our opinion the unknown objects were of extraterrestrial origin. I imagine that his report is still gathering dust!" (The preceding UFO Investigator listed one case evaluated by the MacDill project, "hidden" sighting recently given NICAP by Widener. It described the MacDill radar tracking of a UFO at 40,000 feet and visual reports by a B-29 bomber crew ordered to chase it. The UFO, a glowing oval-shaped device, reversed course and raced off. The sighting was never explained.

Edited by skyeagle409
Link to comment
Share on other sites

that's pretty good footage. unless it's fake (doctored film) WHAT could it possibly be? ? ? i think i know :alien::alien::alien:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah im not picking up on any of the regular things that would indicate a fake .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe pictures of UFOs over the White House were recently explained as reflections of lights on a window.

However, that is not to say the debunking of the picture debunks the 1952 DC wave. It was the '52 DC sightings that lead to the Robertson Panel, not because of a general concern of an invasion from beyond the stars, but rather the CIA and Air Force feared the Soviet Union could use UFO reports to create a mass-panic, or use such reports as cover for invasion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

see thats what i was looking for. I find the 1952 episode more interesting. There are several factors that eliminate the standard explanations. The fact that they scrambled fighters to intercept tells us that whatever was there was not invited. The fact that in the aftermath of fifty years there is still no explanation is also interesting. And by now or in the past i may have expected the russians to take credit for it to tweak the tail but they have not. What should be looked at is the response, knowing that America and the states were probably the only countries that might have been able to produce craft that could od this and that neither country seemed aware of them is curious. Who else in the whole world could have done this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What should be looked at is the response, knowing that America and the states were probably the only countries that might have been able to produce craft that could od this and that neither country seemed aware of them is curious. Who else in the whole world could have done this?

Given the fact that neither the Soviet Union, nor the United States, had the technology to produce a flying craft capable of these kinds of performance figures 1952, and in fact, not even today.

linked-image

What Radar Tells About Flying Saucers

In a new investigation of the flying saucer, TRUE Magazine has secured Air Force confirmation of these important facts:

1. Since 1947, hundreds of unidentified aerial objects have been tracked by radar operators of the Air Force, Navy and Civil Aeronautics Administration.

2. More than 300 times, Air Force interceptor planes have chased mysterious lights and unidentified objects revealed by radar scopes.

3. Strange round objects have shown on interceptors gun camera pictures and on photographs from the ground at a missile testing range.

4. The "temperature inversion" or mirage answer to radar sightings widely publicized by Dr. Donald H. Menzel of Harvard has failed to satisfy Force investigators because he has not attempted to explain any specific "saucer" cases in official files.

______________________________________________________________________________

WASHINGTON D. C., 1952

The action began at 12:40 a.m. on the night of July 20. At midnight. eight air traffic controllers. headed by Harry G. Barnes. took over the watch at the Washington Center. The night was clear, traffic was light and the men settled down for a routine watch.

"On the night of July 20, none of these things were involved, as an Air Force check has proved. The scope was clear of any strange objects until 12:40. At that moment, seven round blips, like those of planes. suddenly appeared in the southwest quadrant. Since no group of planes - military or civilian -was due to arrive, the Control Center men were immediately concerned. Harry Barnes, the senior controller, tracked the unknown visitors at 100-130 m.p.h. - a speed oddly low compared with their swift appearance."

"Barnes quickly checked the consoles; both scopes showed the strange blips. He called in radar technicians; they found no flaw in the set or antenna. Worried, though the low speeds didn't indicate Soviet bombers, he called the Washington Airport tower. To handle local traffic, the tower has a separate set, an A.S.R. (Airport Surveillance Radar) with a 30 mile range."

"Tower operators Howard Cocklin and Joe Zacko both reported the strange blips on their scope, and in the same position. So did Air Force radar men at Andrews Air Force Base, which uses an A.S.R. set. Not only that, visual observers at both points could see mysterious lights moving in the sky."

"Flashing word to Air Defense, Barnes turned back to the scope. The unknown visitors had separated, were now over Washington, two near the White House, one close to the Capitol."

"A few minutes later, the controllers bending over the scope got a new jolt. One blip track showed an abrupt 90- degree turn, something no plane could do. As the sweep came around, another of the strange objects suddenly reversed, its new blip "blossoming" on top of the one it bad previously made. The unknown craft, or whatever it was, had stopped dead from over 100 m.p.h., then completely reversed direction - all in about five seconds."

"Then we noticed another strange thing," Barnes told me later. "Some blips suddenly disappeared, between sweeps. I couldn't explain, until Jim Ritchey called 'Casey' Pierman to check on one group of the things."

"Captain Pierman, flying a Capital airliner, had just taken off from Washington. In a few moments he radioed back that he saw a bright light where the scope showed one of the objects. At the very instant he called the Center, the object raced off at terrific speed."

"It was almost as if whatever controlled it had heard us, or had seen Pierman head toward it," said Barnes. "He said it vanished from sight in three to five seconds. But here's the important point: at that very moment, the blip disappeared from the scope."

"That means it must have raced out of our beam between ten second sweeps. It could have done this in one of two ways: First, it could make a steep climb at terrific speed, so that in ten seconds it would be above the vertical area swept by our M.E.W. set. [The beam's average altitude, at its highest point, is from 35,000 to 40,000 feet, far out, but it is much less near the airport. At 30 miles, it is about 8,500 feet, sloping to 1,200 at three miles.] Second, it could race horizontally off our 34 mile scope within ten seconds."

"Considering the objects' relative position, just before they vanished, this last would require a speed of from 5,000 to 7,000 m.p.h. At the time, this seemed unbelievable to Barnes and the other controllers. But Captain Pierman later confirmed the objects' tremendous speed."

"They'd go up and down at terrific speed, or streak off and disappear. Between Washington and Martinsburg, we saw six of these fast moving lights. [Control Center showed them at the same position.] I don't know what they were, but they weren't shooting stars."

"Another confirmation of the visitors' incredible speed came later that night, from the Washington tower. Operator Joe Zacko had been watching the A.S.R. scope when one of the mystery objects abruptly appeared just west of Andrews Field. Unlike the slower M.E.W., the A.S.R., with its 28-r.p.m. antenna, can track extremely high speeds. As Zacko watched, fascinated, the blips made a bright streak or trail, heading north- northeast toward Riverdale. Then the trail ended as swiftly as it had come."

"Howard Cocklin, hastily called over by Zacko, also saw the bright trail. Together they figured the object's speed from its trace."

It had been making two miles per second -7,200 m.p.h.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

see, even with this type of radar evience people still doubt. As if radar has an imagination. I just don't undeerstand why this doesn't seem important to more people. Its as if one half wnats it while the other have wants it to go away so they don't have to apply themselves thinking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

a radar does not take sides it mearly shows what it "sees" and sometimes it makes people uncomfortable that it will show a ufo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

see, even with this type of radar evience people still doubt. As if radar has an imagination. I just don't undeerstand why this doesn't seem important to more people. Its as if one half wnats it while the other have wants it to go away so they don't have to apply themselves thinking.

But, the Washington D.C. UFO incidents of 1952, were of radar/visual cases. That is, visual accounts were corroborated by radar data, and vise-versa.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

but even with this type of electronic evidence people still doubt. It doesn't seem logical.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But, the Washington D.C. UFO incidents of 1952, were of radar/visual cases. That is, visual accounts were corroborated by radar data, and vise-versa.

so where are all the debunkers on this one, where is all the swamp gas reflecting off of duck buts theories. On this they are very silent. Why is that do you think?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

but even with this type of electronic evidence people still doubt. It doesn't seem logical.

It is amazing!

Pilots, both commercial and military, were reporting the objects in the exact positions where they are depicted on radar screens, and ATC personnel were looking out of their windows and confirming the position of those objects on their radar screens as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

still no debunkers though. No wonder they have nothing to say because from what i see this is not very refutable. Funny how they aren't here. they should be jumping all over this. I can't imagine ignoring members of the military or police reporting stuff like this. And yet there are literally bthousands and thousands of reports by poeple just like that. Thats something else i see debunkers glaze over, these types of reports. I wonder why? oh yeah the house of cards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some great info there Sky eagle :tu:

These UFOs appeared over the Whitehouse on two consecutive fridays,were witnessed by a great many people,were tracked on radar and fighter jets were scrambled to intercept them (both times).

I seem to remember UFO debunkers trying to explain this one away by saying it was that two very rare 'temperature inversions' happening in the same area of sky exactly one week apart (hmmm).

As for the video ,it looks fake to me and a person on another website has stated the footage is a reconstruction made for a television programme about the event.

Cheers Karl

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1952 Washington D.C. UFO Incidents

TIME Magazine - August 4, 1952

SCIENCE:

Blips on the Scopes

Air traffic was light at Washington Airport one midnight last week, and the radar scope of the Civil Aeronautics Authority was almost clear. At 12:40 a.m. a group of bright blips showed. The operator estimated that they were about 15 miles southwest of Washington. Then the blips disappeared abruptly and reappeared a few seconds later over northeast Washington. The operator called his boss, Senior Controller Harry Barnes, 39, a graduate of the Buffalo Technical Institute who has worked for the CAA as an electronics expert since 1941. The operator told Barnes: "Here are some flying saucers for you."

Barnes laughed at first, but the blips kept popping up all over the scope. They sometimes hovered, sometimes flew slowly and sometimes incredibly fast. Technicians checked the radar; it was in good working order.

Over the White House. Barnes began to worry when he saw the blips apparently flying over the White House and other prohibited areas. He called the airport control tower. Sure enough, its radar showed the strange blips too. When the towermen measured the speed of a fast blip, they found that it had flown for eight miles at 7,200 m.p.h.

Now the blips on Barnes's scope were moving towards Andrews Air Force Base about ten miles to the east. Barnes called the Andrews tower. Nothing strange showed on its radar, but both towermen and an enlisted man on the field saw a single, round, orange light drifting in the southern sky. That was enough for Barnes. He called the Air Defense Command and reported an unidentified object was over the Washington area. Then he told an airline pilot, C.S. Pierman of Capital Airlines, who was about to take off for Pittsburgh, to watch for mysterious objects. Pierman climbed to 6,000 ft. and headed northwest. Barnes & Co. saw a group of strange blips cluster around the blip made by Pierman's plane and Pierman spotted a white light "like a falling star." It sped away, and its blip disappeared from Barnes's scope.

Air Force to the Rescue. Over from a Delaware base came a flight of radar-equipped F-94 jet fighters. Before they reached Washington, all the blips vanished. The jets saw nothing at all. But when the jets departed the blips reappeared, playing all over the scope. Barnes said: "like a bunch of kids." He called all airliners flying near Washington, asked their pilots to report any strange objects. One pilot saw a white light, moving fast. But during all this uproar, other radars near Washington (e.g. Quantico and Fort Meade) saw nothing unusual.

All the rest of the week, a few strange blips appeared now & then. Then on Saturday night they broke out all over, criss-crossing the capital as they had the week before. This time, the radar at Andrews was seeing the things too. One blip hung over Bolling Field, across the Potomac from the airport, but observers at Bolling saw nothing in the sky. Some airline pilots saw mysterious lights; others saw nothing.

The Saucer Flies Again. Down from Delaware roared another flight of night fighters. This time the blips did not vanish. They stayed on the ground scopes while the jets screamed among them. But only one pilot saw a light, another saw a doubtful blip on his scope. It vanished before he could shoot.

What were the mysterious blips? The Air Force, unless it was trying to conceal some mysterious gadget of its own (e.g. a radar countermeasure), was as baffled as everyone else. As might be expected the phantom invasion touched off a whole new rash of flying-saucer stories. But if the men from Mars were really overhead, the oddest part of the whole story was the fact that among all the conflicting reports, no radar outside of a ten-mile radius in Washington reported seeing anything unusual at any time.

_______________________________________________________________

AIR FORCE TIMES

August 2, 1952

F-94s Called Out To Chase

Saucers Over Washington

By Rita Nelson

WASHINGTON. -- The status of the flying saucer following radar sightings over Washington and a Pentagon "saucer" conference this week is just where it was previously -- all up in the air.

Comments of high-ranking Air Force intelligence and "saucer project" officers are on the intangible side, as befits talk about phenomena on which the Air Force says no scientifically useful observations have been made.

In an effort to settle one rumor which declares that the "limitless" power which would be required for saucer propulsion could be obtained from a nuclear power plant generating electricity, The TIMES stated the theory to Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, Air Force director of intelligence.

"That's a pretty strong idea, but wait until it gets a little further along," he replied. Quizzed as to his meaning, he said that the idea is "mentally implausible."

Washington has had a flurry of sightings of unidentified objects. Around midnight on July 19 the Air Route Traffic Control Center (CAA) at Washington National Airport sighted from seven to 10 unidentified aerial objects. The radar operators said that eight were picked up in the vicinity of Andrews AFB, Md., moving at from 100 to 120 mph.

The control center notified the Air Force and also asked planes in the air if they could see anything.

Capt. S.C. Pierman, piloting Capital Airlines Flight 807, southbound from National Airport, soon reported seeing seven objects between Washington and Martinsburg, W. Va. He said they changed pace, sometimes moving at tremendous speed, at other times hanging almost motionless. He described them as "like falling stars without tails", and added:

"In all my years of flying I've seen a lot of falling or shooting stars, but these were much faster. They couldn't have been aircraft. They were moving too fast for that. They were about the same size as the brighter stars, and were much higher than our 6000 ft altitude."

Another airliner, Capital National airlines flight 610, also reported seeing a light and following it from Herndon, Va., to within four miles of Washington.

The Air Force did not send up interceptor planes that night because its own radar had not picked up the images and because the round-the-clock observer operation had not sent out warnings, officers said.

The night of July 26 at 9:08 unidentified objects were picked up by radar at National Airport. At various times four to 12 in number, the objects were seen on the radar screen until 3 a.m. Radar at Andrews AFB showed the objects from around 8:30 until midnight, and located them at approximately seven miles south of the base.

At 11:25 p.m., two F-94s from the Air Defense Command at New Castle AFB, Del., took off to investigate. One of the F-94 pilots saw four lights near Andrews, but he could not overtake them and they disappeared in two or three minutes. He also saw a steady white light 10 miles east of Mount Vernon but it faded quickly.

At 1:40 a.m., two more F-94s took off and patrolled the area until 2:20 a.m., but they saw nothing suspicious.

Edited by skyeagle409
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some great info there Sky eagle :tu:

Thank you!

These UFOs appeared over the Whitehouse on two consecutive fridays,were witnessed by a great many people,were tracked on radar and fighter jets were scrambled to intercept them (both times). I seem to remember UFO debunkers trying to explain this one away by saying it was that two very rare 'temperature inversions' happening in the same area of sky exactly one week apart (hmmm).

Temperature inversions are common and as pilots and radar controllers stated; the blips were not the result of temperature inversion.

Temperature Inversions

The official explanation for the objects seen on radars was 'temperature inversions'. UFOlogists believe that temperature inversions could have been the cause of the blips seen on radar, although highly unlikely. They also point out that this does nothing to explain the hundreds of visual sightings, both from the air and from the ground. In fact, it is apparent that Project Bluebook also discounted this explanation as the Washington DC Lights case was officially classified as 'unknown'.

Pilots also disagreed with the temperature inversions explanation and noted that they were perfectly aware of temperature inversions in the area that night (they are in fact quite common in the Washington DC area). They indicated that they never believed the lights they saw were temperature inversions and wonder why the explanation was so easily accepted by the public since it was common knowledge that the known temperature inversions were at 1000 feet and the objects they spotted were much higher, often in the 8,000 to 10,000 feet range.

Radar operators at Washington National Airport (using a Type ASR-1 radar) and Washington ARTC Center (using a MEW radar) were also skeptical of the temperature inversion theory. Radar controller Barnes stated: "Inversion blips are always recognized by experts, we are familiar with what weather conditions, flying birds, and [other] such things can cause on radar." The operators noted that temperature inversions on radar are typically weak returns and move at a slow ground speed. These blips were distinctly clear (reported as "a very good return" and "solid") and often traveled and unbelievable speeds.

The Case for UFO Reality

One popular explanation for radar/visual reports is temperature inversion. This was first brought to public attention following two nights of UFO sightings over Washington, D.C., in 1952. Inversions, the cause of mirages, probably never caused these or any other UFO reports.

"Quantitative Aspects of Mirages"

According to a 1969 study by the Air Force Environmental Technical Applications Center, the conditions needed to produce the UFO-like effects attributed to inversions cannot exist in the Earth's atmosphere.

Menkello, F.V., "Quantitative Aspects of Mirages," USAF Environmental Technical Applications Center, 1969.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.