Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts, odd sightings or just the plain unexplainable.
In July of 1952 Washington DC was changed from a town of confusing, argumentative and boring politics to one overrun with UFOs.? The sightings were real enough to scramble fighter jets, confuse radar operators – and perhaps most importantly – to be recorded on film.
Part of the strange episode is still floating around on YouTube – we have some of that footage for you here today.
The UFO concept is not a new one by any stretch of the imagination. Why, we’ve told you about the ‘classic’ alien contactees who claim to be receiving mental-inter stellar transmissions meant to bring peace for all of humanity. And more recently then that we told you about the Wow! signal – a radio transmission of some sort or other that definitely did not emanate from Earth.
One UFO-related case that has remained surprisingly unknown given its chosen location, has come to be known by several different names: The Washington Merry-Go-Round, The 1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident, the Washington flap or the Washington National Airport Sightings.
Whatever you want to call it – here is part of what happened, according to Unexplained-Mysteries.com:
“On 19th July,1952,several UFOs were plotted on multiple radar screens travelling over the White House airspace corridor. They were also witnessed by huge numbers of people and fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the objects but where ‘outran’ by the UFOs. Exactly seven days later on July 26th,the UFOs returned,were again captured on multiple radar, were again witnessed by huge numbers of people and were again able to outrun military fighter jets.”
The great concern at the time was that the cold war was raging – and it appeared that the Soviet Union had possibly developed flying technology that was so fast US fighters couldn’t catch them if they tried. The first time pilots launched they arrived to where the ships were supposed to be – and nothing was there. Almost exactly when the fighters returned to their air base, the ships popped back up on radar. The jets were launched again, this time making visual contact.
According to Wikipedia – here is some more of what happened during the July 19 & 20 sightings:
“At Andrews AFB, meanwhile, the control tower personnel were tracking on radar what some thought to be unknown objects, but others suspected, and in one instance were able to prove, were simply stars and meteors. However, Staff Sgt. Charles Davenport observed an orange-red light to the south; the light “would appear to stand still, then make an abrupt change in direction and altitude . . . this happened several times”. At one point both radar centers at National Airport and the radar at Andrews AFB were tracking an object hovering over a radio beacon.
“The object vanished in all three radar centers at the same time. At 3 a.m., shortly before two jet fighters from Newcastle AFB in Delaware arrived over Washington, all of the objects vanished from the radar at National Airport. However, when the jets ran low on fuel and left, the objects returned, which convinced Barnes that “the UFOs were monitoring radio traffic and behaving accordingly”. The objects were last detected by radar at 5:30 a.m. Around sunrise, E.W. Chambers, a civilian radio engineer in Washington’s suburbs, observed “five huge disks circling in a loose formation. They tilted upward and left on a steep ascent.””
But these sightings lasted longer than just the July 19 & 20 dates – the ships came back on July 26 & 27. Wikipedia has more on this too:
“At 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, 1952, a pilot and stewardess on a National Airlines flight into Washington observed some strange objects above their plane. Within minutes, both radar centers at National Airport, and the radar at Andrews AFB, were tracking more unknown objects. The objects were traveling between 90 and 100 miles per hour. A master sergeant at Andrews visually observed the objects; he later said that “these lights did not have the characteristics of shooting stars. There was [sic] no trails . . . they traveled faster than any shooting star I have ever seen.”
“…By this time (9:30 p.m.) the radar center was picking up unknown objects in every sector. At times the objects traveled slowly; at other times they reversed direction and moved across the radarscope at speeds calculated at 7,000 mph. At 11:30 p.m., two jet fighters from Newcastle AFB in Delaware arrived over Washington. Capt. John McHugo, the flight leader, was vectored towards the radar pips but saw nothing, despite repeated attempts. However, his wingman, Lt. William Patterson, did see four white “glows” and chased them. Suddenly, the “glows” turned and surrounded his fighter. Patterson asked the control tower at National Airport what he should do; according to Chop, the tower’s answer was “stunned silence”. The four objects then sped away from Patterson’s jet and disappeared.”
Now that sounds eerily familiar. Luckily this outcome was a tad better.
All of that UFO-surrounding stuff sounds fantastic alright – and dare we say unbelievable. But its on video. We’ve posted two such videos below – the first one is just the sighting alone – a bunch of ships casually floating past the US Capital Building back when CGI’s greatest achievement was a wooden cowboy puppet attached to several strings.
The second video clip is a segment from a History Channel documentary that delves deeper into the sighting – even interviewing actual witnesses. It’s 10 minutes long – and a very worthwhile watch.
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StuartW says
I’m such a sucker for this stuff. Can’t believe I’ve never seen that first video before…
Having said that – probably weather balloons.
Sunny says
Notice how they always attack in America? The White House a continuous beacon for the crazy and unusual whether in alien or human form. Explains the state of the politicians inhabiting our government.
They’ve simply been dropped/beamed down through that spire atop the capitol building. I’m on to them. *wink*
mike says
The 1952 Washington DC overflight is today often buried by the story of Roswell, at least, as far as those events of historic significance go. If the same even were to occur tomorrow, it would be interesting to see how our modern media would hold up the walls of official denial.
NOTE: I have seen several versions of the famous B&W film of the overflight… but never one in color.
…
Julian Mentat says
That first film clip – which is dated July 12th and therefore does not relate to any of the events written about in the article – appears to show fragments of a large meteor burning up in the atmosphere hundreds of miles from Washington. They are extremely bright and are seen through a thin layer of cloud; this is why they seem to have a surrounding glow. The lead fragment leaves a faint glowing trail. Multiple glowing objects with straight-line parallel paths and constant speed are the expected symptoms of meteor entry.
noah lieske says
da truth is out der man. just gotta keep on truckin to find it.
noah
53, Maryland, Farmer.
Clyde says
No..the first clip is from the sighting, not a meteor.
mike says
Quote: “Multiple glowing objects with straight-line parallel paths and constant speed are the expected symptoms of meteor entry.”
Of course, and regularly spaced locations… as in formation flight, is widely known to be the result of swamp gas.
Julian Mentat says
I did not mention swamp gas; do not put words in my mouth.
Yes, some of the objects in the video are arranged in a straight line with approximately equal spacings. Others are not.
This is a photo of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 following a close encounter with Jupiter. The comet, originally a single object, was broken up by tidal forces. The fragments acquired very slightly different velocities which caused them to spread out in a straight line with approximately equal spacings – exactly like the meteor in the clip.
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/gif/sl9hst.gif
Dale says
Meteors? They seem to be traveling parallel, not in descent. Also, they are sort of slowly floating, not hurtling along. The flight path and velocity seem to indicate something less energetic, don’t they?
Julian Mentat says
Slowly floating? How can you possibly know how fast or slow they are going?
For your information, when things are further away they appear to move more slowly. They could still be going as fast as any meteor. You can’t tell.
As Father Ted put it: this cow SMALL, that cow FAR AWAY.
Jason says
This is NOT a Meteor, if it would have broken up in our atmosphere there would have been further evidence of more pieces breaking out. It was not descending it was freaking moving sideways lol….And notice the blinking lights on the moving object further to the right? Yea not a normal behavior of a Meteor……..