1952
HALL III · July 19–20 and 26–27, 1952
The Washington National Flap
Radar contacts over the Capitol on two consecutive weekends
Washington National Airport and Andrews AFB
CURATOR'S WALL TEXT
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On two successive weekends in July 1952, unidentified blips appeared on radar at Washington National Airport, at Andrews Air Force Base, and aboard pursuing F-94 fighters scrambled from New Castle AFB. The objects vanished when fighters approached and returned when they departed. The Air Force convened the largest press conference since World War II to attribute the events to temperature inversions; the explanation did not satisfy the controllers and pilots involved, and the flap directly precipitated the Robertson Panel.
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