U.S. Air Force Flying Discs File, 1952

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••
10 0 ·p I
OBS LABOllA.'!OllIES
.l Dirtaion of Colllllbia :Broe.deaati.ng
S,.1tea. Inc.
485 Jladiaon .l-.enue. ••• Torl: 22. 1'ev Tor~ - Plan 5-2000
Au&uat 1. 1952
MaJor General Jue• .l. Satdord
Chtet ot Intelligence
Pentagon :Building
Arli~on. Virginia
Dear Sir:
In connection with •t171ng eaucer• newspaper accounts of
obaerTaUons on t be aeareh radar 17stem at the Washington
Rational Airport, 1t occurred to me that. the described ~
haTtor could poesibl7 be accounted for in the following IDllDller:
111gb. power, narrow beam fire control radar s7ate111 of the uSlllll.
tn,e night concel~bl7, under unusua1 atmospheric conditions,
create enough ion.ilaUon along points on the beam i~ the upper
ataospher• to al.low the return of an appreciable echo to the
search radar 17atem f'rOJll such po1nt1.
The apparent motion would
be quit• haphaslll"d, follovtng wzat...-.r the f'ire control radar
~erator does in directing the beaa.
!his hypothesis 18 t.inatt:racti'ff for teTeral reeaona: J'irst).7,
the power required for auch an effect 1e many timea greater
than that put out by the UBU&l radar.
Second.17. eueh echoes
would pre11UJD&bl7 come from ionospheric heigh.ta and theref'ore
could not appear at ra.ngea of' a fev mile ■ from the search radar.
•• •• reported.
fllird.17. it a"11la 11Dl.1kel7 that a coinciden~
Tilual effect ot 8.J17 conapieaous magnitude vould be produced.
In spite of this, I am offering this suggeatioa in the belief
that if considerable tille, mon•7 and effort 1a being deToted \o
this problea, it might be vorthvhile trying the relatively aimple
experiment ot having a povert"ul fire control radar sweep out
certain dmple pattern• to see if the7 can be detected on the
aearch radar e7et•• preterabl,: at a time when •n71ng saucer•
echoea a re being obaened.
•I
John X. BollTWOod
lmgineer
COP Y