Radar Targets and Visual Sightings — Washington National Airport

I was on duty as an air traffic controller at Washington National Airport on the night of July 19 into July 20, 1952. At approximately 11:40 PM I noticed seven targets on my radarscope that had no flight plan and were not responding to identification procedures. The targets were clustered over the restricted airspace above the Capitol and the White House. Their movement was unlike any aircraft I had tracked — they moved at 100 to 130 miles per hour initially, then suddenly accelerated to speeds I later estimated between 7,000 and 7,200 miles per hour in seconds, then came to a dead stop. I contacted Andrews Air Force Base radar center and they confirmed they were painting the same targets independently. Two Capital Airlines pilots operating in the area, Flight 807 and Flight 610, confirmed visual contact with bright orange lights. The tower operator at Andrews also had a visual on a large fiery orange sphere. When interceptor jets were scrambled from Newcastle Air Force Base in Delaware, the objects disappeared from radar. As soon as the jets returned to base due to fuel, the targets reappeared. This pattern repeated itself on the following weekend, July 26. I want to be clear: I have tracked aircraft for years. These were solid radar returns. Temperature inversion does not produce returns with the acceleration, speed, and behavioral intelligence we observed that night.