Documents / Official release
This 1947-dated Project Blue Book case file from the Air Materiel Command's Technical Intelligence Division contains an illustrated piece titled "Saucers Over Washington, D.C." It covers the radar sightings at the Washington National Airport control center on the night of July 19, 1952. Senior controller Harry G. Barnes reported at least 10 unidentified objects, and Capitol Airlines pilot C.S. Pierman saw lights that matched the radar returns. The piece disputes the Air Force's temperature inversion explanation, noting the inversion was only one degree.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# SAUCERS OVER WASHINGTON,D.C. HARRY G. BARNES, SENIOR AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROLLER FOR THE CIVIL AERONAUTICS ADMINISTRATION, WAS IN CHARGE OF THE NATIONAL AIRPORT, WASHINGTON, D.C., A.R.T. CONTROL CENTER ON THE NIGHT OF JULY 19, 1952. "BRIEFY," HE STATES IN A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE, "...OUR JOB IS TO CONSTANTLY MONITOR THE SKIES AROUND THE NATION'S CAPITOL WITH THE ELECTRONIC EYE OF RADAR..." SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT ON THAT DATE, SEVEN PIPS APPEARED SUDDENLY ON THE CONTROL CENTER'S SCOPE. ED NUGENT, JIM COPELAND, AND JIM RITCHEY, ALL EXPERIENCED RADAR CONTROLLERS, CHECKED THE OBSERVATIONS. THE AIRPORT CONTROL TOWER RADAR OPERATOR VERIFIED THE SAME SIGHTING. THEY WERE OVER "THE RESTRICTED AREAS OF WASHINGTON, INCLUDING THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE CAPITOL..." CAPTAIN C.S. PIERMAN, A CAPITOL AIRLINES PILOT OF 17 YEARS FLYING EXPERIENCE, SHORTLY AFTER TAKING OFF, WAS ASKED TO CHECK THESE MYSTERIOUS OBJECTS. HE RADIOED BACK... THERE'S ONE...AND THERE IT GOES! PIERMAN DESCRIBED IT AS A BRIGHT LIGHT MOVING FASTER, AT TIMES,THAN A SHOOTING STAR... BARNES STATES: "OURING THE NEXT 14 MINUTES, HE (PIERMAN) REPORTED THAT HE SAW SIX SUCH LIGHTS... EACH SIGHTING COINCIDED WITH A PIP WE COULD SEE NEAR HIS PLANE. WHEN HE REPORTED THAT THE LIGHT STREAKED OFF AT HIGH SPEED, IT DISAPPEARED FROM OUR SCOPE..." THAT MEANS IT ZOOMED OUT OF OUR BEAM BETWEEN SWEEPS! IT ACCELERATED FROM 130 MILES PER HOUR TO ALMOST 500 IN LESS THAN 4 SECONDS...
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.