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This Project Blue Book file, released through NICAP, covers the August 1956 radar and visual UFO sightings at RAF Bentwaters and Lakenheath, England. It contains radar operator statements, pilot intercept accounts, weather data and USAF teletype messages. It also includes ATIC analyses suggesting weather returns or Perseid meteors, and an October 1956 memorandum by Dr. J. Allen Hynek. Hynek judged the meteor explanation unlikely, called for better data and relayed Dr. Whipple's proposal for camera sky patrols.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
SUBJECT: Report for Analysis - UPO Reports from CINCUBAFE, Wiesbaden and Lakeshore, England 70: APOIN-4E4 Attn: Capt. Gregory F1004: APOIX-4B1 DATE 31 Aug 56 CORRESPONDENT NO. 2 AFOIN-4E1n/Dr. Bryant/pn/72131 1. From the incomplete information submitted, it is impossible to make a definite determination of the sources of these sightings. Certain facts which are available, however, do tend to indicate that the targets were due to weather conditions. For example, the fact that a number of blips appeared and disappeared intermittently are characteristic of weather returns on radar; this characteristic frequently leads to a mistaken observation that one target has moved at tremendous speed, where in reality one has faded out or disappeared and another appeared at a different location on the scope. This also explains the erratic movement of the supposed target. Another characteristic of weather returns is the disappearance of all the targets in question at about the same time. This is due to rapid atmospheric changes wherein conditions change from favorable for anomalous propagation to normal conditions. 2. The fact that the visual and radar sightings were not simultaneous tends to preclude the possibility of the targets being material targets. 3. A more thorough analysis of those UPO sightings would have been possible if more complete information were available. Partinent data which is necessary for such analysis includes scope photographs, weather information indicating presence or lack of temperature inversion, moisture inppe data, and an accurate tabulation of related times and places of sightings (as between visual and electronic sightings). This is not intended to infer negligence or lack of capability of reporting; personnel; such overreights or omissions are natural during such times, and data of this type may not be available even if considered. Incls 5 Incls w/1-1 = 5 GORDON C. BOPPEN Colosel, UEA AFOIN-4E1 CLASSIFICATION CHANGED TO UNCLASSIFIED, EFFECTIVE 15 MARCH 1966, UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF APP 205-1, PARA 2-176(11), BY Maj Hector Quintanilla, Joan
Document, cited by the archive. 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. 22 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.