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.

F-82 Attempts Intercept of UFO Over AEC Plant / Radar
Jan. 21, 1951
Oak Ridge, Tennessee


Fran Ridge:
Written off by the Air Force as a ground target and "ducting caused by an inversion", this incident is carried as unknown in the Comprehensive Catalog of Project Blue Book Unknowns by Brad Sparks. The sources are work by McDonald and the FUFOR Index.

Dan Wilson: 
January 21, 1951; AEC Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
At 4:20 p.m. an unidentified object was sighted on a radar scope of an F-82 fighter plane over the controlled area at Oak Ridge. The radar operator intercepted an indication of an airborne target at 18m (18,000 yards?). The GCI gave the go ahead to intercept the target. The radar set on the F-82 was "locked on" and the run began. The interception was unsuccessful and the fighter returned to base. In all, three passes were made at targets all with radar indications, but they could not be completed since the target was over the restricted area of Oak Ridge including the X-10 plant.

Brad Sparks:
The F-82 fighter (a Twin Mustang, like a 2-seater version of Mantell's plane) did not "return to base" then come back again.  The F-82 went to Lenoir City, about 10 miles S of Oak Ridge labs, as a staging area for its exercise then came back to look for the unknown target again.  Lenoir City was not the home base (which was unclear in this poorly documented report but was the 5th All-Weather Fighter Squadron, Knoxville).......Total unknown radar target duration probably 6 minutes but stretched out over an unknown time from 4:20 to at least 4:30 or even 5 PM.

Detailed reports and documents
UFO and F-82 Over Oak Ridge - Attempted Intercept - BB Microfilm - Dan Wilson
reports/510121oakridge_rep.htm (Brad Sparks)

The Oak Ridge Page


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