Introduction. Page I iii Abstract. Explanation of nicap and its policies

Another pattern is of UFOs zigzagging across the sky, usually in constant motion rather than hovering in one general area. Twelve cases (30 per cent).

Most of the remaining cases involve motions which can only be described as "maneuvering." These include UFOs which circled, darted here and there, climbed, dove, and reversed course.

The word "flap" has been applied to one feature of UFO activity: periodical surges of sightings with attendant publicity. "Flap" originally was a military slang word indicating a high degree of excitement and confusion, such as might result from the unannounced visit of a V.I.P. to a military base. Its adaptation to similar reactions related to UFO sightings is very appropriate.

The UFO "flaps" have involved elements of sudden news media attention to UFO sightings concentrated in a short period of time, or relatively small geographical area; resurgence of public interest in UFOS (frequently introducing larger numbers of erroneous reports from inexperienced observers); confusion about the interpretation of these events. Analytically, it is not clear whether so-called "flaps" result from and feed on publicity, or vice versa. Does the occurrence of a "flap" really indicate a sudden increase in UFO sightings? Or does it merely represent occasional attention to something which is going on virtually all the time?

Sometimes there have been concentrations of sightings which were widely publicized. At other times there have been concentrations which received little or no publicity (these shall be termed "concentrations" rather than "flaps" here). It appears that "flaps" are the combined products of concentrated UFO activity plus a sudden outbreak of publicity and more

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thorough news coverage. If so, this would tend to give a false picture of total UFO activity.

The following chart probably gives a more accurate picture of real increases and decreases of UFO activity.

The first major wave of UFO sightings in the United States began in June 1947. Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot flying near Mt. Ranier, Washington, first reported a sighting to the press. On June 24 he observed 9 flat, shiny objects which fluttered and skipped along as if in a chain. In describing the sighting to newsmen, he said the strange objects flew "like a saucer skipped across water." Newsmen promptly dubbed the objects "flying saucers, "and the name stuck.

In the next three weeks, similar objects were spotted all over the country, but reports were concentrated in the north west. Later research in library files, by a NICAP member traveling around the country, uncovered 125 separate UFO reports for June and July. These covered 25 states, with 30% coming from Washington.

The Air Force Project Blue Book Report, released in 1955, lists for the same period:

June - 13 sightings, 4 unknown 

July - 40 sightings, 8 unknown
          ______
          53 Total

The following chart lists the main sightings of this period.

The year of 1952 saw the greatest wave of UFO reports in the United States; a wave which carried with it a major group of simultaneous radar-visual sightings of objects displaying out standing speed, maneuverability and persistence.

By official Air Force figures (Project Blue Book, Special Report No. 14), there were 1501 sightings during the year which were reported through official channels. As an indication of a much larger total number of sightings, one Ground Observer Corps Filter Center (Columbus, Ohio), covering about 1% of the continental U.S., reported 70 UFOs during six weeks at the height of the activity in mid-summer (on-the-spot count by NICAP member).

Project Blue Book Chief, Capt. E. J. Ruppelt stated that as of July 21, when the tide approached flood stage, "We were getting an average of 40 reports a day, 1/3 of which were unidentified." [6]

The early part of the year was marked by a number of interesting events:

January 29 - An Air Force pilot flying north of Misawa, Japan, in a practice intercept mission, watched a small disc pace one of the jet interceptors, then climb steeply away. [Section I.]

May 13 - In National City, California, two aeronautical engineers, an ex-Navy pilot and an amateur astronomer watched a round, white UFO descend at meteor-like speed; the UFO then leveled off and circled the area, darting erratically from side to side. [Section I.]

The first of more than a dozen simultaneous radar-visual observations occurred just after midnight, June 19, at Goose Bay AFB, Labrador. A light-first, red, then changing to white- hovered briefly. When it appeared to oscillate, its image on the radar scope flared up. Then it returned to its original size and disappeared. [Section VIII; Radar.]

On the first of July, the pace began to quicken. Capt. Ruppelt later stated, "By July 1 were were completely snowed under with reports." [7]

At Fort Monmouth, N.J., three radar instructors and 12 trainees tracked two objects on an SCR 584 radar set as they hovered at 50,000 feet for about five minutes. Viewers outside saw two shiny objects at the same time. [Section VIII; Radar.] Later that day, in Washington, D.C., hundreds of persons, including a physics professor from George Washington University, watched a dull gray object for about eight minutes, as it hovered, with an occasional movement to the side and return.

The next day, July 2, Navy photographer W/O Delbert New- house took color movies of 12 disc-shaped UFOs maneuvering in a group at high speed near Tremonton, Utah. [Section VIII; Photographs.]

After a week of nationwide activity, there began a period marked by almost daily accounts of almost unprecedented reliability and detail.

At 3:00 a.m., on the morning of July 13, Captain W. Bruen, National Airlines, reported to Washington, D.C., ARTC Center that a blue-white light was approaching his aircraft. He was 60 miles SW of National Airport. The UFO "came up to altitude of aircraft, hovered two miles to left of northbound aircraft. Pilot turned on all lights. Ball of light took off, going up and away." [From Civil Aeronautics Administration Report. See Section VIII; Radar.]

Group sightings played a significant part in the 1952 "flap", with some patterns appearing. Near Newport News, Va., July 4, the pilots of a Pan American Airways DC-4 watched a formation of six red discs speed below their plane, turn sharply and speed away, joined by two more discs. [Section V.]

Over a three-day period, July 16-18, there were three observations of groups of four UFOs. (See below).

An American Airlines pilot, Capt. Paul L. Carpenter, was approaching Denver, Colorado enroute to Chicago on the night of July 17/18. Capt. James Smay, on a flight ahead, radioed back and reported some odd lights maneuvering in the area. About 2:45 a.m., while at 17,000 feet over Denver, Capt. Carpenter noticed a speeding yellowish light to the south. It darted from a compass bearing of about 165 degrees (SSE) to about 180 degrees (S). About a minute later, a light sped back toward the east from about 195 degrees (SSW) to about 180 degrees. Simultaneously, two more lights sped from south to the south- southwest. Moments later, two lights were observed headed from south-southwest to south.

To Capt. Carpenter, it seemed that some unidentified objects were speeding back and forth, reversing direction sharply. The objects maneuvered over an arc of 30 degrees. Assuming they were over Colorado Springs, Capt. Carpenter estimated the speed at 3000 mph. If they were farther away, he pointed out, the speed would be even more fantastic.

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Washington, D.C.

The first of several well-publicized nights of radar-visual sightings in the Washington, D.C., area began about 11:40 p.m., July 19, at National Airport. Ground observers and military and civilian pilots observed unidentified lights while as many as ten strange blips were on radar scopes. Radar indicated hovering, sudden accelerations and great speeds until near dawn. Objects followed and passed incoming airliners, often seen by pilots and crews. USAF F-94 interceptors arrived at 3 a.m., after reportedly being delayed to check on UFOs over New Jersey, but the objects had left the scene (confirmed by radar), returning when the jets departed.

About 1:00 a.m., July 20, Capt. S.C. (Casey) Pierman, piloting Capital Airlines Flight #807 had just taken off from Washington National Airport and was swinging around to head south. At the airport, radar controllers had been noticing unidentified targets on the sets for some time. They had recalibrated the sets and were now convinced the targets were legitimate. Chief Controller Harry Barnes called Capt. Pierman and asked him to check for objects. Pierman, in the vicinity of Martinsburg, W. Va., agreed and quickly called back: "There's one, and there it goes!"

In a detailed interview published later, Barnes stated: "His [Pierman's] subsequent descriptions of the movements of the objects coincided with the position of our pips [radar targets] at all times while in our range."

In the next fourteen minutes, Capt. Pierman reported six such lights, "like falling stars without tails" which "moved rapidly up, down, and horizontally. Also hovered." [C.A.A. Report. See Section VIII; Radar.]

Two hours later, Capt. Howard Dermott on incoming Capital Flight #610 reported that a light followed his aircraft from the vicinity of Herndon, Va., to 4 miles west of the airport. Radar sets both in the control center and the tower at National Airport showed the object.

Again the following weekend, radar targets and maneuvering lights appeared. On the night of July 26/27, from 4 to 12 objects were tracked at various times between 8:00 p.m. and 1.20 a.m. on radar sets at the CAA control center, Washington National Airport tower, and Andrews AFB, Md. Lights were seen individually and in groups, both from the air and the ground.

Air Force interceptors were called in, and criss-crossed the area from 10:25 p.m. to 1:20 a.m. The pilots observed fast-moving lights where radar told them to look. One, Lt. William Patterson, was badly frightened when a group of glowing objects surrounded his  interceptor. As the CAA radar operators watched the blips on the scope cluster around his plane, the pilot asked them in a scared voice what he should do. There was a stunned silence; no one answered. After a tense moment, the UFOs pulled away and left the scene. (Incident confirmed by Al Chop, then Air Force spokesman on UFOs. Taped statement on file at NICAP).

The dramatic visual sightings of unexplained lights in the same places that radar showed unexplained objects were later attributed to unusual weather conditions. Ground lights refracted by inverted layers of cool and heated air (temperature inversions) were said to account for the visual sightings. The same conditions were said to cause refraction of the radar beams causing simultaneous false radar targets. Unfortunately for this theory, the stable air conditions required to produce persistent light (refracted from a ground source) are inconsistent with the reported rapid motions of the observed lights across the sky and large angular displacements. [See Radar analyses, Section VIII.]

At the time of the Washington radar-visual sightings, the NICAP Director consulted both a civilian scientist and an Air Force radar expert about the degree of temperature inversion necessary to produce false radar targets. The scientist stated the inversion would have to be 10 degrees Fahrenheit (about 6 degrees Centigrade), and much larger to produce strong radar effects. The Air Force expert, who had made a special study of temperature inversions, stated it would take an inversion of 5-10 degrees Centigrade.

The following weather information was obtained from the National Weather Records Center by the New York City NICAP Affiliate (photo-copy on file at NICAP).

"For the dates of interest to you, upper air observations were made at Silver Hill Observatory, Maryland rather than at Washington National Airport, but these locations are sufficiently near each other for Silver Hill to be representative of the general area of interest.

"In the data which follow, local time is given, temperature difference is given in degrees Centigrade and altitude is given as altitude above mean sea level. To convert to altitude above station level, 88 meters would be subtracted from the metric altitudes given below.

"July 18, 1952, 10 P.M. observation: An inversion from the surface to 210 meters. Temperature at top of inversion was 1.7 degrees warmer than at base of inversion. No other significant inversion below 20,000 feet.

"July 19, 1952, 10 A.M. observation: No significant inversion below 20,000 feet.

"July 19, 1952, 10 P.M. observation: An inversion from the surface to 340 meters. Temperature at top of inversion was 1.7 degrees warmer than at base of inversion. There was an isothermal condition (no temperature change) between 2,780 and 3,100 meters.

"July 25, 1952, 10 P.M. observation: An inversion from the surface to 320 meters. Temperature at top of inversion was 4 degrees warmer than at base of inversion. There was another inversion between 1,700 and 1,940 meters and in this case the temperature at top of inversion was 8 degrees warmer than at base of inversion.

"July 26, 1952, 10 A.M. observation: Two minor inversions. One between 1,060 and 1,230 meters, temperature at top 0.8 degree warmer than at base. One between 2,370 and 2,530 meters, temperature at top 0.9 degree warmer than at base.

"July 26, 1952, 10 P.M. observation: An inversion from the surface to 360 meters. Temperature at top of inversion was 1.1 degrees warmer than at base of inversion. There was another inversion between 1,310 and 1,370 meters where the temperature at top was 0.7 degree warmer than at base of inversion. .

                    /s/ Roy L. Fox

The unusual concentration of UFO activity in the Washington, D.C. area continued on July 29, as radar tracked unidentified targets for almost six hours. Unlike the first two nights, there were few visual sightings of these objects.

During the afternoon of July 29, the Air Force attempted to quiet the national concern which by now had grown to unprecedented proportions. In the heaviest attended Washington press conference since World War II, USAF Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. John A. Samford explained that the UFOs tracked and seen in the Washington area were the result of the refraction of light and radar waves by atmospheric temperature inversions. (Transcript on file at NICAP.) Weeks later, after scientists had made it clear that the inversions on the nights of the Washington sightings had been grossly insufficient to cause highly qualified radar observers to err so drastically, the Air Force re-classified these objects as "unknown."

Although they received less publicity after the Air Force press conference, UFO sightings continued at a high rate throughout August.

As the flood of reports was beginning to wane, late in the month, an Air Force Colonel, flying an F-84 between Hermanas, N. Mex., and El Paso, Tex., on the morning of August 24, saw two round, silvery objects flying abreast. One made a right turn in front of the jet, then both disappeared over Hermanas. They reappeared over El Paso. One was seen to climb straight up for several thousand feet.

The Colonel stated, "From their maneuvers and their terrific speed, I am certain their flight performance was greater than any aircraft known today." (Statement from Air Force Intelligence Report.)