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Investigation on in Secret After Chase Over Capital by Paul Sampson - Post Reporter Military secrecy veils an investigation of the mysterious,glowing aerial objects that showed up on radar screens in theWashington area Saturday night for the second consecutive week. A jet pilot sent up by the Air Defense Command to investigatethe objects reported he was unable to overtake glowing lightsmoving near Andrews Air Base. The CAA reported the objects traveled at "predominantlylower levels - about 1700 feet". July 19 Air Force spokesmen said yesterday they could report onlythat an investigation was being made into the sighting of theobjects on the radar screen in the CAA Air Route Traffic ControlCenter at Washington National Airport and on two other radar screens.Methods of investigation were classified as secret, a spokesmansaid. "We have no evidence they are flying saucers, converselywe have no evidence they are not flying saucers.. We don't knowwhat they are," a spokesman added. The same source reported an expert from the Air TechnicalIntelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air FOrce Base, Dayton,Ohio, was here last week investigating the objects sighted July19. The expert has been identified as Capt. E. J. Ruppelt. Reachedby telephone at his home in Dayton yesterday, Ruppelt said hecould make no comment on his activity in Washington. Capt. Ruppelt confirmed that he was in Washington last week,but said he had no come here to investigate the mysterious objects.He recalled he did make an investigation after hearing of theobjects but could not say what he investigated. Another Air Force spokesman said here yesterday the Air Forceis taking all steps necessary to evaluate the sightings. "The intelligence people," the spokesman explained,"sent someone over to the control center at the time of thesightings, and did whatever necessary to make the proper evaluation." Asked whether the radar equipment might have been misfunctioning,the spokesman said radar, like the compass, is not a perfect instrumentand is subject to error. He thought, however, the investigationswould be made by persons acquainted with the problems of radar. The other radar screens in the area picked up the objects.An employee of the National Airport control tower said the radarscope there picked up very weak "blips" of the objects.The tower radar, however, is for short ranges and is not so powerfulas that at the center. Radar at Andrews Air Force Base also registeredthe objects from about 8:30 p.m. until midnight. Andrews radarlocated them about seven miles south of the base. A traffic control center spokesman said the nature of thesignals on the radar screen ruled out any possibility they werefrom clouds or some other weather disturbance. "The returns we received from the unidentified objectswere simular and analagous to targets representing aircraft inflight," e said. The objects, "flying saucers" or what have you,appeared on the radar scope at the airport center at 9:08 p.m.Varying from four to 12 in number, the objects were seen on thescreen until 3 a.m., when they disappeared. At 11:25 p.m., two F-94 jet fighters from Air Defense Commandsquadron at Newcastle, Del., capable of attaining 600-mile-per-hourspeeds, took off to investigate the objects. Airline, civil and military pilots described the objectsas looking like the lighted end of a cigaret or a cluster of orangeand red lights. One jet pilot observed four lights in the vicinity of AndrewsAir Force Base, but was not able to overtake them, and they disappearedin about two minutes. The same pilot observed a steady white light 10 miles eastof Mt. Vernon at 11:49 p.m. The light, about five miles from him,faded in a minute. The lights were also observed in the Beltsville,Md. vicinity. At 1:40 a.m., two other F-94 jet fighters took offand scanned the area until 2:20 a.m. but did not make any sighting. Visible in Two Ways Although unidentified objects have been picked up on radarbefore, the incidents of the last two Saturdays are believed tobe the first time they have been spotted on radar - while visibleto the human eye. Besides the pilots who last Saturday saw the lights, a womanliving on Mississippi Ave., SE told The Post she saw a "verybright light" streaking across the sky towards Andrews Baseabout 11:45 p.m. Then a second object, with a tail like a comet,whizzed by, and a few seconds later, a third passed in a differentdirection toward Suitland, she said. Radar operators plotted Saturday night's "visitors"at from 38 to 90 miles an hour, but one jet pilot reported fasterspeeds for the light he saw. The jet pilot reported he had no apparent "closing speed'when he attempted to reach the lights he saw near Andrews. Thismeans the lights were moving at least as fast as his top speed- a maximum of 600 miles per hour. One person who saw the lights when they first appeared inthis area did not see them last night. He is F.W. Chambers, anengineer at radio station WRC, who spotted the lights while workingearly the morning of July 20 at the station's Hyattsville tower. Chambers said he was sorry he had seen the lights becausehe had been skeptical about "flying saucers" before.Now, he said, he sort of "wonders" and worries aboutthe whole thing. Leon Davidson, 804 South Irving St., Arlington, a chemicalengineer, who has made an exhaustive study of flying saucers asa hobby, said yesterday reports of saucers in the East have beenrelatively rare. Davidson has studied the official Air Force report on thesaucers, including some of the secret portions never made public,and analysed all the data in the report. Davidson, whose study of saucers is impressively detailedand scientific, said he believes the lights are American "aviationproducts" - probably circular flying wings using new-typejet engines that permit rapid acceleration and relatively lowspeeds. He believes they are either new fighters, including theNavy's F 4-D, which has a radical bat wing, as examples of whathe thinks the objects might resemble. Davidson thinks that the fact that the lights have been seenin this area indicates the authorities may be ready to disclosethe new aircraft in the near future. Previously, most of theverified saucers were seen over sparsely inhabited areas. Davidsonexplained,"and now, when they appear here, it may indicatethat secrecy is not so important any more. |