RADCAT Case Directory
  Category 9, RADAR  
 
  Preliminary Rating: 5  

                                   
     

RADCAT is a revitalized special project now being conducted jointly by NICAP & Project 1947 with the help and cooperation of the original compiler of RADCAT, Martin Shough, to create a comprehensive listing of radar cases with detailed documentation from all previous catalogues, including UFOCAT and original RADCAT.

B-29 Encounters High-Speed Targets Over Gulf
December 6, 1952
Gulf of Mexico

Fran Ridge:
This report is case #8, on the official clearance list of 41 formerly classified Air Technical Intelligence UFO reports cleared for Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe by Albert M. Chop, Air Force Press Desk. One of the most astonishing UFO sightings in the BB files with far-reaching implications.

Brad Sparks:
Dec. 6, 1952; Gulf of Mexico (BBU)
5:24-5:35 a.m. (CST). USAF crew of B-29 bomber at 20,000 ft tracked on radar 4 high speed targets on 120° heading at 5,000+ mph, followed by more targets moving SE. At 5:35 several (5?) blips merged into an arc about 30 miles away at 320° relative bearing and moved off the scope at 9,000+ mph. 11 mins. (McDonald; cf. Condon Rpt pp. 148-150; etc.)

Dr. James E. McDonald:
Just to cite briefly another example of a radar-visual sighting in the official unidentified category: the December 6, 1952, airborne sighting by the crew of an Air Force B-29 flying over the Gulf of Mexico at 18,000 feet in bright moonlight. More than six separate unknowns, seen on the B-29 radarscopes and by crewmen watching out side-blisters, passed at high speeds estimated at 5,000 mph from blip displacements.  Some of them were seen below the flight altitude, and others maneuvered in most unconventional patterns such as sudden course-reversals.  No meteor explanation would fit the visual sightings, and ground-return effects are essentially out of the question by virtue of the high altitude and by the features of the atmospheric laps rate at the time and area of this unusual sighting.  It remains an unidentified in USAF files.


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