Incident · 1 June 1950 · Over the Portsmouth area (RAF Tangmere; radar at RAF Wartling, Sussex)
Meteor pilot and Wartling radar, Portsmouth area
Also known as Tangmere 1950, Wartling radar 1950
Explained. The 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party found the radar response came ten minutes apart from the sighting and was probably interference from another transmitter, and judged the pilot most probably saw a meteorological balloon. (“Unidentified Flying Objects”: report by the Flying Saucer Working Party (UK, June 1951))
On 1 June 1950 the pilot of an RAF Meteor reported a circular, bright metallic object passing him at very high speed over the Portsmouth area, and the radar station at Wartling in Sussex logged an unusual fast-moving response at about the same time. It is one of three cases reported by RAF officers that the Ministry of Defence's Flying Saucer Working Party investigated.
The working party found the two reports ten minutes apart, explained the radar return as interference from another transmitter and the sighting as most probably a balloon, and used the case to support its conclusion that no further investigation was needed. The pilot is not named in the report.
Source: Flying Saucer Working Party report, DEFE 44/119 (1951)
Facts and claims
- documented The pilot of a Meteor reported on landing at Tangmere that at 1430, at 20,000 feet over the Portsmouth area, he had seen an object travelling at very high speed on a reciprocal course, “circular, and of bright metallic appearance”, which he watched for about 15 seconds. Source: defe44-119.pdf
- documented The radar station at Wartling reported that at about the same time the Duty Controller and three radar operators had seen an unusual response moving at 1,300–1,650 knots; the controller said it “looked to be very thick, leaving more afterglow than a usual response behind.” Source: defe44-119.pdf
- documented Fighter Command's Research Branch interviewed everyone involved and found “a discrepancy of ten minutes between the times of the two reports”, so the working party concluded “there was no connection between the unusual P.P.I. response and the pilot's visual observation.” Source: defe44-119.pdf
- documented The working party put the radar response down to “interference from another transmitter”, possibly ship-borne (Appendix A), and the pilot's object, “Assuming that he was not merely the victim of an optical illusion”, most probably to a meteorological balloon whose speed he greatly overestimated. Source: defe44-119.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- “Unidentified Flying Objects”: report by the Flying Saucer Working Party (UK, June 1951) (subject of)
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