1952 Wash DC - Blips on a Scope - Article

I found a new place for my OCD

The TIME magazine archive It is very interesting to read the articles going back to 1923. Articles of Nikola Tesla, when he was alive and living in NYC, and thousands of others.

This piece from AUG 4, 1952 describes the events of the previous week, the UFO's over DC incident, I had not read this before and thought I would share it for others who may not have had the opportunity to read the story.

www.time.com

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."

A week later Time had a follow up with more reports of sightings across the world and a weak explanation by the AirForce that a temperature inversion caused the radar to pick up movement of trucks on the ground

Something in the Air

...Like the Navy, the Air Force was sure that temperature inversions over the nation's capital had permitted high-angling radars to pick up trucks and other moving targets on the ground. But what about the other 1,000 or more sightings elsewhere? In a Pentagon press conference, just as if he meant to be reassuring, General Samford went on to state that such things as missiles, ice formations, birds, meteors, and honest misinterpretations of natural phenomena account for all but 20% of them. That still left plenty unexplained...

Back to the archives


ed:add follow up article



[edit on 11/10/2007 by JacKatMtn]