Document · 5 August 1952
Project Blue Book case file: Haneda AFB, Japan, August 1952
The Project Blue Book case file on the sighting of 5–6 August 1952 at Haneda Air Force Base, Tokyo, held by the National Archives in its sanitized version of the Blue Book case files. Our copy is the 15 page images from the NARA catalog, OCR'd for search.
It contains the record card, Far East Air Forces intelligence report IR-35-52 with the statement of control tower operator A/3C Lloyd West and his drawing of the object, the statements of the Shiroi GCI controllers (1st Lt. Henry E. Albert, 1st Lt. Melvin E. Rawlins) and of the F-94 crew (1st Lt. Wesley R. Holder and 1st Lt. Aaron Jones), the 35th Fighter-Interceptor Wing's report, and Blue Book's later analysis notes.
Source: U.S. National Archives, Project Blue Book (local copy)
Facts and claims
- documented The Project 10073 record card files the sighting of 5 August 1952 at Haneda AFB (2330 local, one hour, one circular object, source “Varied AF Personnel”, ground-visual and air-visual) with the conclusion marked “Unknown”. Source: doc-bluebook-haneda-1952.pdf
- documented Far East Air Forces intelligence report IR-35-52 summarises the case as the visual and radar sighting of an unidentified flying object in the Tokyo area: first seen by control tower personnel at Haneda AFB, tracked by the Tokyo GCI radar at Shiroi Air Force Base, and briefly contacted by the APG-33 radar of an F-94 vectored onto it. Source: doc-bluebook-haneda-1952.pdf
- documented The preparing officer wrote that this was “the first sighting in the Far East which combined positive visual and radar contact over an extended period of time”, and listed possible factors, among them moonlight reflected off clouds, while noting that the near-perfect visibility and the object's circular orbit would tend to disprove reflections off ionized areas. Source: doc-bluebook-haneda-1952.pdf
- documented A later analysis note in the file, dated 15 September 1952, says the report of radar targets does not allow a plausible explanation of the nature of the targets, and that without temperature and moisture data by height no anomalous-propagation estimate is possible. Source: doc-bluebook-haneda-1952.pdf
Connected files
Programs
- Project Blue Book (case file of)
Incidents
- Haneda AFB radar-visual sighting (documents)
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
More documents
- Project Blue Book case files: Chorwon, Korea, May 1952
- Brazilian Air Defence Command report on the events of 19–20 May 1986 ("Official UFO Night")
- Spanish Air Force file 670603: aircraft and radar encounter over Montánchez, 3 June 1967
- Project Blue Book case file: Minot AFB, North Dakota, October 1968
- CIA/FBIS Foreign Press Note FB PN 90-123: "USSR: UFO sightings no. 2 — General Maltsev comments" (1990)
- Spanish Air Force file 791111/791117/791128: unusual phenomena in Valencia, Motril and Madrid, November 1979 (the Manises case)