Washington, D.C. radar-visual flap

On the weekends of 19-20 and 26-27 July 1952, Civil Aeronautics Administration controllers at Washington National, and radar at Andrews and Bolling, tracked unidentified targets over the capital, while airline crews and ground observers reported lights; F-94 interceptors sent up mostly saw nothing, though one pilot reported lights that outpaced him. On 29 July Maj. Gen. John Samford held the largest Pentagon press conference since the war and attributed the returns to temperature inversions; a State Department memo of 28 July (PURSUE) quotes him calling the subject 'a complete enigma'. The CAA's own technical analysis found an inversion present in almost every instance, while some controllers and a Condon Committee researcher rejected that reading. Radar-visual correlation was imperfect, and the photographs are ambiguous.

Anomalous radar propagation from inversions, plus stars, meteors and aircraft for the visual reports; disputed by some of the controllers

• Document59_64634_711.5612[7-2852Release 1

  59_64634_711.5612[7-2852 (Samford flying-saucer memorandum)

  A two-page memorandum dated July 28, 1952, records a State Department official's request to Air Force Gen. John Samford for the Air Force's view on flying saucers, relayed for circulation at a State morning meeting. Samford is quoted saying the subject is 'a complete enigma' but that phenomena resembling flying saucers have been reported for over 100 years, and that 'credible observers are reporting the incredible.' He attributes the 1952 increase in reports mainly to improved radar and pilot-reporting methods plus publicity, and does not endorse a man-made or foreign origin.

  Open the original on war.gov

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  Top Astronomer: UFOs Are STILL HereWatch from 57:15 on YouTube

• Unverified57:15Beatriz VillarroelUnsourced

  Villarroel cites the Nimitz 2004 encounter and the 'Washington flap' as highly credible, still-unexplained historical UAP cases.

  you still have cases like the Nimits case that are highly fascinating. Uh you still have the Washington flap that you can't just explain away just like that

  Said in Top Astronomer: UFOs Are STILL Here

• Wikipedia: 1952 Washington, D.C., UFO incidenten.wikipedia.org