Washington National Airport Radar-Visual July 1952

On July 19-20 and again July 26-27, 1952, Washington National Airport's radar showed multiple unknown blips forming over the capital. Senior CAA radar controller Harry Barnes tracked multiple contacts performing maneuvers inconsistent with any aircraft. Andrews Air Force Base radar independently confirmed the contacts. Multiple airline crews on approach to National Airport made visual contact. When USAF F-94 interceptors were scrambled, the objects departed at speeds tracked at over 7,000 mph on radar. When the fighters returned to base, the objects returned. This cycle repeated multiple times across both weekends. President Harry Truman personally requested answers from the USAF. The Air Force's Major General John Samford held the largest Pentagon press conference since World War II to address the wave. The July 1952 Washington Nationals cases remain the most significant radar-visual mass observation UAP event in American aviation history and the only UAP event to prompt a presidential response and Pentagon press conference simultaneously.