From owner-skunk-works-digest@netwrx1.com Thu Jan 20 00:18:57 2011 Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:18:00 -0600 From: skunk-works-digest Reply-To: skunk-works@netwrx1.com To: skunk-works-digest@netwrx1.com Subject: skunk-works-digest V16 #11 skunk-works-digest Wednesday, January 19 2011 Volume 16 : Number 011 Index of this digest by subject: *************************************************** skunk-works [JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 636 Re: skunk-works [JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 636 skunk-works PROJECT BLUE BOOK - AMPLIFYING AIR INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION REPORT/ RADAR TARGETS/GROUND & AIR/TOKYO, JAPAN - 20 MAR 55 *************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:18:53 +0700 (GMT+07:00) From: "Terry W. Colvin" Subject: skunk-works [JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 636 [JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 636 Date: Dec 31, 2010 5:21 AM Jonathan's Space Report No. 636 2010 Dec 30 Somerville, MA - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shuttle and Station - ------------------- Expedition 26 is now underway with crew commander Scott Kelly, flight engineer-2 Aleksandr Kaleri, flight engineer-3 Oleg Skripochka, flight engineer-4 Dmitri Kondratev, flight engineer-5 Paolo Nespoli and flight engineer-6 Cady Coleman aboard the Station. Soyuz TMA-01M is docked at Poisk, Progress M-07M at Zvezda, and Progress M-08M at Pirs, and Soyuz TMA-20 at Rassvet. Soyuz TMA-20 was launched on Dec 15, carrying Kondratev, Nespoli and Coleman. It docked with the Rassvet module at 2011 UTC on Dec 17. On Dec 22-23, the SPDM robot hand was used to relocate a cargo container (CTC-3) between two locations on the ELC-2 storage pallet. Proton failure - -------------- A Proton-M was launched on Dec 6 carrying three Uragan-M satellites for the Glonass system. The third stage went off course because an extra 1500 kg of propellant was loaded in the fourth stage by mistake; the extra mass caused the final velocity to be around 100 m/s too low, leading to an orbit which I estimate to have been around -150 x 165 km x 64.8 deg. (For what it's worth, an anonymous post on nasaspaceflight.com citing unidentified Russian sources reported an orbit of -154 x 189 km x 64.8 deg). The third stage and, separately, the upper composite consisting of the satellites mounted on the Blok DM-3 stage reentered over the Pacific on their first revolution. Federal Space Agency news releases reported the satellite names as "Glonass-M". (Successful Glonass satellites have all been given Kosmos cover names). Proton launch - -------------- Another Proton-M was launched on Dec 26, carrying the commercial KA-SAT payload for Eutelsat. This time Proton-M was successful and the Briz-M stage made 5 burns from a -496 x 171 km injection orbit to a deployment orbit of 3704 x 35763 km x 24.6 deg. KA-SAT is an Astrium Eurostar 3000 satellite with a launch mass of 6150 kg and a dry mass of 3200 kg, providing broadband services in the Ka-band with 80 spot beams. Akatsuki at Venus - ----------------- Japan's Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter probe reached Venus on Dec 6 but a malfunction at the time of the insertion burn at 2349 UTC prevented the probe from entering Venus orbit. The probe remains in solar orbit. The Ikaros solar sail craft flew past Venus at 80000 km at 0739 UTC on Dec 8. Dragon - ------- SpaceX launched its second Falcon 9 rocket at 1543 UTC on Dec 8, successfully putting the first Dragon spacecraft into a 279 x 308 km x 34.5 deg orbit for a test flight. The capsule was recovered in the Pacific a few hours later, splashing down 800 km W of Mexico at 1903 UTC. The actual splashdown location and the mass of the Dragon spacecraft have not been reported. The Dragon C1's Trunk Module remained attached to the Falcon 9 second stage after orbit insertion; the capsule separated from the trunk module. About 45 min after launch six small satellites were also ejected from the trunk. The small satellites used the 1U (0.1 x 0.1m) and 3U (0.1 x 0.3m) cubesat buses, some with deployable solar panels. SMDC-ONE is an Operational Nanosatellite Experiment for the US Army Space and Missile Defense Center (Huntsville, Alabama), possibly carrying a communications payload. QbX-1 and QbX-2 are Cubesat Experiments built by Pumpkin Inc. of San Francisco for the National Reconaissance Office's Colony-1 technology development project. They also carry communications payloads, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. These first three payloads are 3U cubesats. Caerus/Mayflower is an experiment for Northrop Grumman NovaWorks and the University of Southern California, a 3U cubesat made up of the 2U (double cube) Mayflower Next Generation Technology Nanosat from Northrop Grumman and a 1U (single cube) from USC's engineering schools in Los Angeles and Marina del Rey, with deployable solar panels. Not much information is available about four 1U-size Los Alamos National Laboratory `Perseus' cubesats; they may be monitoring the ionosphere. Nanosail-D2 - ------------ An attempt to eject the Nanosail-D2 experiment from Fastsat was made at 0631 UTC on Dec 6, but the satellite has not been tracked and it seems possible that the ejection may have failed. X-37B - ----- The X-37B spaceplane landed successfully at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 0916 UTC on Dec 3. Launched on Apr 23 by an Atlas V, the X-37B completed its mission with the second ever automated runway landing following orbital re-entry; the first was the USSR's Buran in 1988. Suborbital launches - -------------------- Russia launched a Topol' missile from Kapustin Yar to Sary Shagan on Dec 5. India launched an Agni I missile on Nov 25; an Agni 2P launch on Dec 10 failed to leave the atmosphere. On Dec 15 a modified Trident I missile was launched as a target from Kwajalein Atoll's Meck Island in the Pacific, and a Pegasus-derived Ground Based Interceptor launched from Vandenberg failed to intercept it. A Terrier Orion from White Sands carried a JPL technology experiment to 120 km on Dec 6; it will be used to refine methods for planetary lander terrain recognition (thanks to the nasaspaceflight.com forum for details). The Brazilian Space Agency completed Operation Maracati 2 with the launch of VSB-30 V07 carrying the MICROG 1A payload, following a test launch using Improved Orion V03 to check out operations at Alcantara. Beidou - ------ China launched the 7th Beidou Navigation Satellite (di qi ke beidou daohang weixing) on Dec 17 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (xichang weixing fashe zhongxin). The launch vehicle was the "Changzheng sanhao jia" (Long March 3A). Beidou Daohang Weixing 7 will be the second in inclined geosynchronous orbit, following BDW5 launched in July, and is also referred to as Compass I2. It reached synchronous orbit on Dec 22 and as of Dec 29 was in a 35716 x 35857 km x 55.2 deg orbit. GSLV - ---- India's GSLV Mk I rocket flight F06 was destroyed one minute after launch on Dec 25 after the steering system on its strapon boosters failed to receive commands from the rocket's computer. The vehicle reached an altitude of 15 km. The rocket carried the GSAT-5P communications satellite, and was to feature the first use of a stretched version of the Russian-developed third stage. Ariane 5 - -------- Ariane 5ECA vehicle 557, flight V199, placed two satellites in orbit on Dec 29. The upper passenger was Hispasat 1E for Spain's Hispasat, a 5320 kg full/2175 kg dry Loral 1300 satellite; the lower was Koreasat 6 for Korea Telecom, an Orbital Star-2 with 2850 kg mass at launch, 1150 kg dry. Transfer orbit was 273 x 35876 km x 3.1 deg. Both satellites carry Ku-band broadcasting/comms payloads. Erratum - ------- The first SJ-12 rendezvous was with SJ-6/3A (2008-53B) on 2010 Aug 19. Thanks to Igor Lissov for pointing out the error in the last JSR. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Nov 2 0059 Meridan Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/3 Comms 58A Nov 5 1837 Fengyun 3 (01)B Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Weather 59A Nov 6 0220 COSMO-SkyMed 4 Delta 7420-10 Vandenberg SLC2W Radar 60A Nov 14 1729 SkyTerra 1 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur Comms 61A Nov 20 0125 STPSat-2 ) Minotaur IV Kodiak Tech 62A Falconsat-5 ) Tech 62E Fastsat-HSV ) Tech 62D Fastrac 1 ) Tech 62F Fastrac 2 ) Tech 62 O/OREOS ) Science 62C RAX ) Science 62B S26 Ballast A) Dummy 62J S26 Ballast B) Dummy 62K Nov 21 2258 USA 223 Delta IVH Canaveral SLC37B Sigint? 63A Nov 24 1609 Zhongxing 20A Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Comms 64A Nov 26 1839 Intelsat IS-17 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 65A Hylas 1 ) Comms 65B Dec 6 0631 Nanosail-D2 Fastsat,LEO Tech 62L? Dec 6 1025 Glonass-M ) Proton-M/DM-3 Baykonur Navigation F03 Glonass-M ) Navigation F03 Glonass-M ) Navigation F03 Dec 8 1543 Dragon C1 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Spaceship 66A SMDC-One ) Comms? 66C QbX-1 ) Secret 66F QbX-2 ) Secret 66B Perseus 000 ) Tech? 66H Perseus 001 ) Tech? 66E Perseus 002 ) Tech? 66G Perseus 003 ) Tech? 66D Caerus/Mayflower) Tech 66J Dec 15 1909 Soyuz TMA-20 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 67A Dec 17 2020 Beidou DW7 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Navigation 68A Dec 25 1034 GSAT-5P GSLV Sriharikota SLP Comms F04 Dec 26 2151 KA-SAT Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 69A Dec 29 2127 Hispasat 1E ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou Comms 70A Koreasat 6 ) Comms 70B Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches - ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Nov 25 0440 Agni I RV Agni 1 Wheeler Island Test 300? Dec 4 0421 ECOMA 7 Nike Orion Andoya Meteor dust 135 Dec 5 1911 Topol' RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Test 1000? Dec 6 1719 Maracati 2 Orion Alcantara Range Test 103 Dec 6 1730? NASA 41.087NT Terrier Orion White Sands Tech 120 Dec 12 0638 NASA 40.026UE Black Brant XII Andoya Aurora 500? Dec 12 1535 MICROG 1A VSB-30 Alcantara Micrograv 242 Dec 13 0324 ECOMA 8 Nike Orion Andoya Meteor dust 138 Dec 15 1957? FTG-06A Target LV-2 Meck Island Target 1000? Dec 15 2003 FTG-06A KV GBI Vandenberg LF23 Interceptor 1000? Dec 19 0236 ECOMA 9 Nike Orion Andoya Meteor dust 135? .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@www.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------' _______________________________________________ JSR mailing list JSR@www.planet4589.org http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr To unsubscribe, email jsr-leave@www.planet4589.org Terry W. Colvin Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/ [Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:16:49 -0800 (PST) From: John Ault Subject: Re: skunk-works [JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 636 Terry --- I hope that you, and your famly had a Merry Christmas, and have a safe Happy New Year. I'm amazed, but not surprised, at the amount of orbital flights that i hear nothing about on mainstream news. I'm glad the list is assembled. Of course my gut feeling is that there are also orbital flights launched from aircraft that aren't reported. JJ - --- On Thu, 12/30/10, Terry W. Colvin wrote: From: Terry W. Colvin Subject: skunk-works [JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 636 To: "tlc-brotherhood@nexus.net" Date: Thursday, December 30, 2010, 9:18 PM [JSR] Jonathan's Space Report, No. 636 Date: Dec 31, 2010 5:21 AM Jonathan's Space Report No. 636 2010 Dec 30 Somerville, MA - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ----- Shuttle and Station - ------------------- Expedition 26 is now underway with crew commander Scott Kelly, flight engineer-2 Aleksandr Kaleri, flight engineer-3 Oleg Skripochka, flight engineer-4 Dmitri Kondratev, flight engineer-5 Paolo Nespoli and flight engineer-6 Cady Coleman aboard the Station. Soyuz TMA-01M is docked at Poisk, Progress M-07M at Zvezda, and Progress M-08M at Pirs, and Soyuz TMA-20 at Rassvet. Soyuz TMA-20 was launched on Dec 15, carrying Kondratev, Nespoli and Coleman. It docked with the Rassvet module at 2011 UTC on Dec 17. On Dec 22-23, the SPDM robot hand was used to relocate a cargo container (CTC-3) between two locations on the ELC-2 storage pallet. Proton failure - -------------- A Proton-M was launched on Dec 6 carrying three Uragan-M satellites for the Glonass system. The third stage went off course because an extra 1500 kg of propellant was loaded in the fourth stage by mistake; the extra mass caused the final velocity to be around 100 m/s too low, leading to an orbit which I estimate to have been around -150 x 165 km x 64.8 deg. (For what it's worth, an anonymous post on nasaspaceflight.com citing unidentified Russian sources reported an orbit of -154 x 189 km x 64.8 deg). The third stage and, separately, the upper composite consisting of the satellites mounted on the Blok DM-3 stage reentered over the Pacific on their first revolution. Federal Space Agency news releases reported the satellite names as "Glonass-M". (Successful Glonass satellites have all been given Kosmos cover names). Proton launch - -------------- Another Proton-M was launched on Dec 26, carrying the commercial KA-SAT payload for Eutelsat. This time Proton-M was successful and the Briz-M stage made 5 burns from a -496 x 171 km injection orbit to a deployment orbit of 3704 x 35763 km x 24.6 deg. KA-SAT is an Astrium Eurostar 3000 satellite with a launch mass of 6150 kg and a dry mass of 3200 kg, providing broadband services in the Ka-band with 80 spot beams. Akatsuki at Venus - ----------------- Japan's Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter probe reached Venus on Dec 6 but a malfunction at the time of the insertion burn at 2349 UTC prevented the probe from entering Venus orbit. The probe remains in solar orbit. The Ikaros solar sail craft flew past Venus at 80000 km at 0739 UTC on Dec 8. Dragon - ------- SpaceX launched its second Falcon 9 rocket at 1543 UTC on Dec 8, successfully putting the first Dragon spacecraft into a 279 x 308 km x 34.5 deg orbit for a test flight. The capsule was recovered in the Pacific a few hours later, splashing down 800 km W of Mexico at 1903 UTC. The actual splashdown location and the mass of the Dragon spacecraft have not been reported. The Dragon C1's Trunk Module remained attached to the Falcon 9 second stage after orbit insertion; the capsule separated from the trunk module. About 45 min after launch six small satellites were also ejected from the trunk. The small satellites used the 1U (0.1 x 0.1m) and 3U (0.1 x 0.3m) cubesat buses, some with deployable solar panels. SMDC-ONE is an Operational Nanosatellite Experiment for the US Army Space and Missile Defense Center (Huntsville, Alabama), possibly carrying a communications payload. QbX-1 and QbX-2 are Cubesat Experiments built by Pumpkin Inc. of San Francisco for the National Reconaissance Office's Colony-1 technology development project. They also carry communications payloads, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. These first three payloads are 3U cubesats. Caerus/Mayflower is an experiment for Northrop Grumman NovaWorks and the University of Southern California, a 3U cubesat made up of the 2U (double cube) Mayflower Next Generation Technology Nanosat from Northrop Grumman and a 1U (single cube) from USC's engineering schools in Los Angeles and Marina del Rey, with deployable solar panels. Not much information is available about four 1U-size Los Alamos National Laboratory `Perseus' cubesats; they may be monitoring the ionosphere. Nanosail-D2 - ------------ An attempt to eject the Nanosail-D2 experiment from Fastsat was made at 0631 UTC on Dec 6, but the satellite has not been tracked and it seems possible that the ejection may have failed. X-37B - ----- The X-37B spaceplane landed successfully at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 0916 UTC on Dec 3. Launched on Apr 23 by an Atlas V, the X-37B completed its mission with the second ever automated runway landing following orbital re-entry; the first was the USSR's Buran in 1988. Suborbital launches - -------------------- Russia launched a Topol' missile from Kapustin Yar to Sary Shagan on Dec 5. India launched an Agni I missile on Nov 25; an Agni 2P launch on Dec 10 failed to leave the atmosphere. On Dec 15 a modified Trident I missile was launched as a target from Kwajalein Atoll's Meck Island in the Pacific, and a Pegasus-derived Ground Based Interceptor launched from Vandenberg failed to intercept it. A Terrier Orion from White Sands carried a JPL technology experiment to 120 km on Dec 6; it will be used to refine methods for planetary lander terrain recognition (thanks to the nasaspaceflight.com forum for details). The Brazilian Space Agency completed Operation Maracati 2 with the launch of VSB-30 V07 carrying the MICROG 1A payload, following a test launch using Improved Orion V03 to check out operations at Alcantara. Beidou - ------ China launched the 7th Beidou Navigation Satellite (di qi ke beidou daohang weixing) on Dec 17 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (xichang weixing fashe zhongxin). The launch vehicle was the "Changzheng sanhao jia" (Long March 3A). Beidou Daohang Weixing 7 will be the second in inclined geosynchronous orbit, following BDW5 launched in July, and is also referred to as Compass I2. It reached synchronous orbit on Dec 22 and as of Dec 29 was in a 35716 x 35857 km x 55.2 deg orbit. GSLV - ---- India's GSLV Mk I rocket flight F06 was destroyed one minute after launch on Dec 25 after the steering system on its strapon boosters failed to receive commands from the rocket's computer. The vehicle reached an altitude of 15 km. The rocket carried the GSAT-5P communications satellite, and was to feature the first use of a stretched version of the Russian-developed third stage. Ariane 5 - -------- Ariane 5ECA vehicle 557, flight V199, placed two satellites in orbit on Dec 29. The upper passenger was Hispasat 1E for Spain's Hispasat, a 5320 kg full/2175 kg dry Loral 1300 satellite; the lower was Koreasat 6 for Korea Telecom, an Orbital Star-2 with 2850 kg mass at launch, 1150 kg dry. Transfer orbit was 273 x 35876 km x 3.1 deg. Both satellites carry Ku-band broadcasting/comms payloads. Erratum - ------- The first SJ-12 rendezvous was with SJ-6/3A (2008-53B) on 2010 Aug 19. Thanks to Igor Lissov for pointing out the error in the last JSR. Table of Recent (orbital) Launches - ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Nov 2 0059 Meridan Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/3 Comms 58A Nov 5 1837 Fengyun 3 (01)B Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Weather 59A Nov 6 0220 COSMO-SkyMed 4 Delta 7420-10 Vandenberg SLC2W Radar 60A Nov 14 1729 SkyTerra 1 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur Comms 61A Nov 20 0125 STPSat-2 ) Minotaur IV Kodiak Tech 62A Falconsat-5 ) Tech 62E Fastsat-HSV ) Tech 62D Fastrac 1 ) Tech 62F Fastrac 2 ) Tech 62 O/OREOS ) Science 62C RAX ) Science 62B S26 Ballast A) Dummy 62J S26 Ballast B) Dummy 62K Nov 21 2258 USA 223 Delta IVH Canaveral SLC37B Sigint? 63A Nov 24 1609 Zhongxing 20A Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Comms 64A Nov 26 1839 Intelsat IS-17 ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou ELA3 Comms 65A Hylas 1 ) Comms 65B Dec 6 0631 Nanosail-D2 Fastsat,LEO Tech 62L? Dec 6 1025 Glonass-M ) Proton-M/DM-3 Baykonur Navigation F03 Glonass-M ) Navigation F03 Glonass-M ) Navigation F03 Dec 8 1543 Dragon C1 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Spaceship 66A SMDC-One ) Comms? 66C QbX-1 ) Secret 66F QbX-2 ) Secret 66B Perseus 000 ) Tech? 66H Perseus 001 ) Tech? 66E Perseus 002 ) Tech? 66G Perseus 003 ) Tech? 66D Caerus/Mayflower) Tech 66J Dec 15 1909 Soyuz TMA-20 Soyuz-FG Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 67A Dec 17 2020 Beidou DW7 Chang Zheng 3A Xichang Navigation 68A Dec 25 1034 GSAT-5P GSLV Sriharikota SLP Comms F04 Dec 26 2151 KA-SAT Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur LC200/39 Comms 69A Dec 29 2127 Hispasat 1E ) Ariane 5ECA Kourou Comms 70A Koreasat 6 ) Comms 70B Table of Recent (suborbital) Launches - ---------------------------------- Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Nov 25 0440 Agni I RV Agni 1 Wheeler Island Test 300? Dec 4 0421 ECOMA 7 Nike Orion Andoya Meteor dust 135 Dec 5 1911 Topol' RV Topol' Kapustin Yar Test 1000? Dec 6 1719 Maracati 2 Orion Alcantara Range Test 103 Dec 6 1730? NASA 41.087NT Terrier Orion White Sands Tech 120 Dec 12 0638 NASA 40.026UE Black Brant XII Andoya Aurora 500? Dec 12 1535 MICROG 1A VSB-30 Alcantara Micrograv 242 Dec 13 0324 ECOMA 8 Nike Orion Andoya Meteor dust 138 Dec 15 1957? FTG-06A Target LV-2 Meck Island Target 1000? Dec 15 2003 FTG-06A KV GBI Vandenberg LF23 Interceptor 1000? Dec 19 0236 ECOMA 9 Nike Orion Andoya Meteor dust 135? .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@www.planet4589.org | | USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------' _______________________________________________ JSR mailing list JSR@www.planet4589.org http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr To unsubscribe, email jsr-leave@www.planet4589.org Terry W. Colvin Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/ [Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:17:01 +0700 (GMT+07:00) From: "Terry W. Colvin" Subject: skunk-works PROJECT BLUE BOOK - AMPLIFYING AIR INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION REPORT/ RADAR TARGETS/GROUND & AIR/TOKYO, JAPAN - 20 MAR 55 FOR CC-3 et al Any comments good, bad, and/or ugly from the back-channel ''shooting gallery'' are most welcome. I want to emphasize that I view the UFO phenomena and history with a jaded eye after about 40 years of hobbyist interest. I am neither a hostile skeptic nor a true believer. Terry QUOTE I searched again for those radar charts and images -- ''no joy'' in fighter pilot parlance. Whether still withheld, misplaced, or lost is moot. The jumbled nature of the image files has meant finding images outside of the time period and/or geographic location. Thank you for your preliminary analysis which puts the speeds into a better perspective. I agree that is one hell of a volatile temperature inversion. With your permission I want to send your comments, anonymously, to the CC-3 mailing list. That list deals with back-channel or special communications. What I have seen in the image files is that prior to 1953-54 the CIA was included in the additional distribution. After that time period no mention of CIA getting copies. About that time the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron became involved in investigating and analyzing reports. The 4602nd AISS issued one report that is in the image files. Since these followed the internal PBB procedure of issuing monthly sighting summaries, I find it quite interesting that so far into early 1957, there is only one report from the 4602nd AISS in the image files. It is my informed opinion, educated guess, that the public face of Project Blue Book was shadowed by a separate back-channel investigation of the more complicated and least explainable sighting cases. Again, for a year or so the teletype messages show GENSER (front-channel) SSO (special security office) plain language addresses; e.g., AFSSO WPAFB OHIO. I found one back-channel message that dealt with an unknown space object, probably a satellite reentering Earth's atmosphere. The UFO DIScommunity has been speculating on this for years, especially Stanton T. Friedman. You are most welcome. Terry -----Original Message----- From: Robert Powell Sent: Jan 20, 2011 5:26 AM To: "Terry W. Colvin" Subject: Re: PROJECT BLUE BOOK - AMPLIFYING AIR INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION REPORT/ RADAR TARGETS/GROUND & AIR/TOKYO, JAPAN - 20 MAR 55 Hi Terry, I'm behind on a lot of the radar reports that you have sent me but I immediately went and read through this one based on your comments. It is an excellent radar report. The report indicated that charts/radar images were attached. I was not able to find those. Were you? It is clear that this was a true "unknown" and "unexplainable" event. The remark about a "weather inversion" was obviously written on to the report later on as a way to categorize it and dismiss it. There is no way these were false radar signals caused by cloud inversions. There were seen on two ground radar stations as well as the aircraft. The aircraft followed this "inversion" for 15 minutes. It was closing in on the "inversion" at .85 mach (637 mph) and was gaining 110-180 mph on the target, so that means this "inversion" was traveling at 450-500 mph. As he got closer to the "inversion" it began to pull away from him. In a dive at .97 mach(730 mph) the F-86 continued to fall behind the "inversion layer" as it moved away at a delta of 200 knots (220 mph) or 950mph. That must have been one hell of a cloud formation! Thanks for sending that one to me. Robert UNQUOTE xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx PTTUZYUW RUMOUHA4527 0191511-UUUU--RUCICSA RUEOEHA RUMKC. ZNR UUUUU RUCICSA T AUTODIN OPNET RUEOEHA T RULPALJ P R 191313Z JAN 11 FM COMMCEN CAMP SAMAE SAN TH//TERRY C// TO RUCICSA/AUTODIN OPNET//COMMCENTER-2// RUMKC/AIG 600 INFO ZEN2/CDRUSARSUPTHAI CAMP SAMAE SAN TH//S-2/PAO/MEDTC/CILTHAI// RUEOEHA/USCINCSO QUARRY HEIGHTS PN//SCJ2/INTAFF/POLAD/NCR/SCJ6/SSO// BT UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AIR INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION REPORT CLASSIFICATION: SECRET(STAMPED UNCLASSIFIED) COUNTRY: JAPAN REPORT NO: IR-21-55 SUBJECT: GROUND AND AIRBORNE RADAR OBSERVATIONS OF UNIDENTIFIED TARGETS AREA REPORTED ON: JAPAN FROM (AGENCY): DI FEAF, ATLO DATE OF REPORT: 2 APRIL 1955 DATE OF INFORMATION: 20 MARCH 1955 EVALUATIN: B-2 PAGE 02 RUMOUHA4527 UNCLAS PREPARED BY (OFFICER): CAPTAIN DOUGLAS J. DAVIS, ATLO SOURCE: USAF F-86D PILOT & GROUND RADAR REFERENCES: FEAF MSG DI-RC 3572, BAIR 4E2; IR-27-54 AND IR-129-54, DI FEAF ATLO; DTG 22/0221Z MAR 55 SUMMARY: THIS REPORT FORWARDS INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THE INTERROGATION OF A USAF GROUND RADAR CREW AND THE PILOT OF AN F-86D WHO MADE OBSERVATIONS BY RADAR MEANS OF POSSIBLE TARGETS OVER CENTRAL HONSHU. APPROVED: /SIGNATURE/ GEORGE D. HASTINGS COLONEL, USAF DIRECTOR OF REQUIREMENTS 6 INCLS (USAF ONLY) 1. GRID OVERLAY OF JAPAN 2. SURFACE CHART, 20 MAR 55 3. 850 MB CHART, 20 MAR 55 4. 700 MB CHART, 20 MAR 55 PAGE 03 RUMOUHA4527 UNCLAS 5. 500 MB CHART, 20 MAR 55 6. USAF SKEW T, LOG P DIAGRAM DISTRIBUTION BY ORIGINATOR: ATIC 41ST AIR DIV 314TH AIR DIV 5AF 43RD AIR DIV FEC, J-2 39TH AIR DIV 313TH AIR DIV AFFE, TECH INTEL 1. TO REDEVELOP THE INCIDENT, AS IT EVOLVED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, EACH OF THE ORGANIZATIONS HAVING KNOWLEDGE OF PERTINENT FACTORS WERE VISITED AND APPROPRIATE PERSONNEL INTERROGATED. 2. THE SITE INITIATING THE ALERT WAS THE CPS-1 RADAR OPERATING UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE 1954 AACS SQUADRON. THIS SITE OPERATES WITH A MISSION OF CONTROLLING AIRWAY TRAFFIC IN THE TOKYO AREA. RADAR SURVEILLANCE AND POSITIVE CONTROL IS GENERALLY UTILIZED ONLY IN THE SECTOR SOUTH OF THIS LOCATION. A GENERAL RECAPITULATION OF EVENTS AS THEY WERE EVIDENCED IS AS FOLLOWS: AT APPROXIMATELY 1613I (LOCAL TIME) THE TOKYO RADAR TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER LOCATED AT JOHNSON AIR BASE, JAPAN, IN ITS USUAL CAPACITY OF CON- TROLLING AIRWAY TRAFFIC IN THE TOKYO AREA, HAD UNDER CONTROL FOUR AIRCRAFT. TWO AIRCRAFT WERE INBOUND FROM THE SOUTH AND UNDER CONTROL OF ONE OF THE RADAR CONTROLLERS. THE OTHER CONTROLLER HAD A C-47 INBOUND FROM DIAGO INTO PAGE 04 RUMOUHA4527 UNCLAS TACHIKAWA VIA KUMAGAYA HOMER WITH AN ESTIMATE OF OVER KUMAGAYA AT 1620I, AT 6,000 FT. HE ALSO HAD A B-50 WHICH HAD TAKEN OFF FROM YOKOTA AT 1613I, ON A TACTICAL ROUND ROBIN, WHICH ESTIMATED KUMAGAYA NORTH BOUND AT 1620I. SINCE THE CONTROLLER WISHED TO EXPEDITE THE CLIMB OF THE B-50, WHICH WAS NOW RESTRICTED TO 5,000 FT DUE TO THE C-47 TRAFFIC, HE SWITCHED TO SHORT RANGE ON HIS PPI AND MOVED HIS OFF-CENTERED PPI POSITION, WHICH HAD BEEN AT THE 360 DEGREE POSITION LOOKING TO THE SOUTH TO THE 160 DEGREE POSITION. AT THIS SETTING HE WAS SURVEILLING THE SECTOR TO THE NORTH-NORTHWEST FOR A RANGE OF APPROXIMATELY 32 MILES. AT ABOUT THIS TIME THE C-47 HAD BEEN CLEARED TO CONTACT TACHIKAWA GCA HAVING ARRIVED OVER KUMAGAYA AT 1618I. AT 160 DEGREE POSITION THE CONTROLLER OBSERVED WHAT HE TOOK TO BE INITIALLY FOUR AIRCRAFT DUE NORTH OF JOHNSON NEAR THE PERIPHERY OF THE SCOPE. TO GET A BETTER LOOK AT THESE TARGETS HE MOVED THE OFF-CENTER POSITION TO THE 180 DEGREE POSITION SO THAT HE WAS LOOKING AT THE TARGETS. HE NOW OBSERVED WHAT HE BELIEVED TO BE A TOTAL OF SIXTEEN TARGETS IN SIX FORMATIONS. THEIR POSITION WAS APPROXIMATELY DUE NORTH OF JOHNSON AND AT RANGES FROM 20 TO 28 MILES. THESE TARGETS APPEARED TO HIM TO BE MOVING IN A SOUTHEASTERLY DIRECTION. AS THE CONTROLLER OBSERVED THE TARGETS MOVING APPARENTLY IN A SOUTHEASTERLY DIRECTION, HE OFF-CENTERED TO THE 220 DEGREE POSITION. HE THEN CALLED BUTTERFLY, THE EW/GCI SITE LOCATED ON THE CHIBA PENINSULA, AS PAGE 05 RUMOUHA4527 UNCLAS SHOWN ON INCLOSURE 1, TO ASCERTAIN THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THESE TARGETS IN THIS AREA. THE CONTROLLER ESTIMATED THAT THE TARGETS MOVED FROM 360 DEGREES TO 020 DEGREES IN THE TEN MINUTE PERIOD OF FROM 1621I TO 1631I ON AN APPROXI- MATE HEADING OF 145 DEGREES. AS A RESULT OF THE CALL TO BUTTERFLY, THROUGH ADCC AT JOHNSON, AN F-86D WAS SCRAMBLED FROM YOKOTA AIR BASE. AT APPROXI- MATELY THIS SAME TIME THE TOKYO RATCC CONTROLLER OBSERVED THE TARGETS MOVING ACROSS THE SCOPE IN AN ERRATIC MOTION LEAVING A TRACE SIMILAR TO THAT HE HAD OBSERVED FROM JET TYPE AIRCRAFT. BUTTERFLY WAS AGAIN NOTIFIED OF THIS OBSERVATION. BY 1635I THE MOTION OF WHAT THE CONTROLLER BELIEVED TO BE THESE SAME TARGETS HAD NEARLY CEASED MOTION. THE MOTION WAS NOW SO SMALL THAT MOVEMENT COULD ONLY BE DETECTED BY COVERING THE TARGETS WITH GREASE PEN- CIL AND OBSERVING THEM AS THEY BECAME VISIBLE AGAIN. UPON ARRIVAL OF THE DUTY OFFICER ON DUTY AT THE SITE, FROM AN ADJACENT ROOM, THE TARGETS HAD ASSUMED A STATIC POSITION. THE OTHER CONTROLLER ON DUTY DID NOT HAVE A CHANCE TO SET UP HIS SCOPE TO OBSERVE THESE TARGETS TO THE NORTH, SINCE HE WAS RADAR CONTROLLING OTHER TRAFFIC TO THE SOUTH USING OFF-CENTERED PPI AT THE 360 DEGREE POSITION AND LOOKING ONLY TO THE SOUTH. NO ONE ELSE AT TOKYO RATCC MADE OBSERVATION OF THESE TARGETS WHILE IN MOTION. COMMUNICATIONS WITH BUTTERFLY DURING THIS PERIOD OF TIME INDICATED THAT THEY HAD NO TARGETS IN THIS AREA. 3. AT YOKOTA AIR BASE THE PILOT OF THE SCRAMBLED F-86D WAS INTERROGATED TO PAGE 06 RUMOUHA4527 UNCLAS GAIN KNOWLEDGE OF HIS OBSERVATIONS. THE PILOT, 1ST LT. O. D. MERRICK, AO 3021967, 39F15 WAS ON FIVE MINUTE ALERT WHEN THE SCRAMBLE ORDER ARRIVED AT APPROXIMATELY 1632I. HE WAS AIRBORNE AT APPROXIMATELY 1636I AND IMMEDIATELY WENT UNDER CONTROL OF BUTTERFLY, THIS GCI CONTROL. HE WAS GIVEN A VECTOR OF 350 DEGREES AT ''ANGELS'' 10, AND, WAS TOLD THAT TOKYO RADAR HAD 16 BOGIES IN THE AREA. SINCE BUTTERFLY WAS NOT PAINTING THESE TARGETS THEY MERELY CONTROLLED HIM THROUGH A SEARCH OF THE AREA. HE WAS FURTHER VECTORED 270 DEGREES, THEN 180 DEGREES AND THEN TURNED AGAIN ON A NORTHERLY HEADING. SHORTLY AFTER TURNING TO THIS NORTHERLY HEADING HE PICKED UP 2 RADAR BLIPS AT APPROXIMATELY ONE THIRTY O'CLOCK HIS POSITION. HE TURNED INTO THESE TARGETS AND LOST THEM IN THE TURN. AFTER MAKING ABOUT A 45 DEGREE TURN HE ROLLED OUT AGAIN AND HAD ONE BOGIE AT APPROXIMATELY 22 MILES AT THE 1130 O'CLOCK POSITION. HE MANEUVERED INTO THIS TARGET AND GOT THE TARGET IN THE 12 O'CLOCK POSITION. HE REPORTED TO GCI, AND THEY ASKED HIM FOR IDENTIFICATION RUN. AT THIS TIME HE HAD AN OVERTAKE INDICATION OF FROM 100 TO 175 KNOTS. HE WAS IN AFTERBURNER AT FULL BORE INDICATING ABOUT .85 - .86 MACH. AT 15 MILES HE GOT AN INDICATION OF ''LOCK-ON'' AND CLOSED DOWN TO 6 MILES WHERE HE SWITCHED SCOPES AND KEPT CLOSING. AT 2 1/2 TO 3 MILES RANGE HIS 20 SECONDS TO GO CIRCLE BEGAN TO COLLAPSE AROUND THE TARGET. SINCE HIS RATE OF OVERTAKE WAS RELATIVELY HIGH HE BT #4527 NNNN PTTUZYUW RUMOUHA4528 0191511-UUUU--RUCICSA RUEOEHA RUMKC. ZNR UUUUU RUCICSA T AUTODIN OPNET RUEOEHA T RULPALJ P R 191313Z JAN 11 FM COMMCEN CAMP SAMAE SAN TH//TERRY C// TO RUCICSA/AUTODIN OPNET//COMMCENTER-2// RUMKC/AIG 600 INFO ZEN2/CDRUSARSUPTHAI CAMP SAMAE SAN TH//S-2/PAO/MEDTC/CILTHAI// RUEOEHA/USCINCSO QUARRY HEIGHTS PN//SCJ2/INTAFF/POLAD/NCR/SCJ6/SSO// BT UNCLAS SECTION 02 OF 03 CAME BACK OUT OF AFTERBURNER. THE TARGET CAME BACK THROUGH 20 SECONDS TO GO TO FIRE AND HIS RATE OF CLOSURE WENT FROM A POSITIVE OVERTAKE TO A -25, THEN TO A -50. AS HE SAW A -25 HE WENT BACK INTO AFTERBURNER OPERATION AND MANAGED TO HOLD ABOUT A -50 AS THE TARGET WENT OUT TO ABOUT 7 MILES AND MADE A PORT TURN. HE FOLLOWED THE TARGET THROUGH THIS TURN, STILL IN TRAIL, THEN SHORTLY AFTER THAT THROUGH A 90 DEGREE TURN TO THE STARBOARD, BACK TO A HEADING OF APPROXIMATELY 020 DEGREES -- ALL OF THIS TIME HE HAD BEEN FLYING AT 10,000 FT. HE THEN GOT AN INDICATION THAT THE TARGET WAS CLIMBING ON HIS PRESENTATION AND CLOSED RANGE TO ABOUT 5 MILES. BY THIS TIME HE WAS NOTIFIED BY GCI THAT HE WAS CLEARED TO FIRE. HE MAINTAINED THIS 5 MILE RANGE IN A CLIMB TO ABOUT 16,000 FT. HE THEN REALIZED THAT HE HAD OVERSHOT A LITTLE AND PAGE 02 RUMOUHA4528 UNCLAS THAT THE BOGIE WAS AT ABOUT 15,000 FT SO HE BEGAN A LETDOWN AGAIN STILL IN AFTERBURNER. AT THE 15,000 FT LEVEL, HE FEELS THAT THE BOGIE LEVELED OFF AND BEGAN TO EXPAND RANGE -- HE WENT BACK TO HIS 30 MILE SCOPE AS THE RANGE OF THE BOGIE EXPANDED THROUGH 7 - 8 THEN 10 MILES. SINCE HE WAS AT 16,000 FT HE BEGAN A SHALLOW DIVE. IN THIS DIVE HIS SPEED NATURALLY INCREASED -- HE WENT THROUGH WING ROLL AT ABOUT .94, THEN SAW .97 AND .98. DURING THIS TIME THE RATE OF CLOSURE CONTINUED TO DECREASE AND GRADUALLY WENT OVER TO THE 1030 POSITION WITH A NEGATIVE RATE OF CLOSURE INDICATION OF NEGATIVE 200 KNOTS. AT 15 MILES HE BROKE LOCK AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER GCI GAVE HIM A VECTOR BACK TO HOME STATION AT YOKOTA. THE TWO TARGETS WHICH HE PICKED UP INITIALLY WERE IN HIS OPINION NORMAL RADAR TARGETS. THESE TARGETS WERE RIGHT TOGETHER AT THE ONE THIRTY POSITION AND WERE SIMILAR IN APPEARANCE TO TWO AIRCRAFT IN FORMATION. THE RETURNS OF THESE TWO BLIPS WERE AS LARGE AS, OR LARGER THAN, THE RETURN FROM ANOTHER 86D. THEY WERE SHARPLY DEFINED AND APPEARED TO BE NORMAL RADAR RETURN. HIS IMPRESSION WAS THAT HIS RADAR EQUIPMENT WAS VERY GOOD WITH A CLEAR (MILKY) SCOPE AT SHORT RANGES AND NORMAL GROUND RETURN SHOWING UP AT NEAR MAXIMUM RANGE. AT THE TIME HE WAS WITHIN MINIMUM RANGE HE FEELS THAT HE WAS WITHIN PAGE 03 RUMOUHA4528 UNCLAS APPROXIMATELY 2 1/2 MILES AND HAD ABOUT 15 SECONDS TO GO TO FIRE. (THIS WAS THE TIME HE CAME OUT OF AFTERBURNER AND IMMEDIATELY HIS TARGETS BEGAN TO EXPAND RANGE.) SINCE HE WAS TRYING TO ESTABLISH IDENTIFICATION ON THIS TARGET HE DIDN'T WANT HIS RATE OF CLOSURE TO BE GREATER THAN 50 KNOTS. HE WAS IN SOLID WEATHER FROM 1100 FT UNTIL HE WENT THROUGH 1100 FT ON LANDING. THE PILOT BELIEVES THAT THE TARGET WHICH HE FINALLY PICKED OUT AND GAVE CHASE WAS DEFINITELY ONE OF THE TARGETS THAT HE HAD PICKED UP WHILE SEARCHING. THE TARGET HAD CHANGED AZIMUTH AS HE TURNED INTO IT, CHANGED RANGE AND HIS PRESENTATION REACTED NORMALLY TO THAT HE HAS OBSERVED ON OCCASIONS WHEN HE HAS WORKED PRACTICE INTERCEPTS WITH OTHER ''DOGS''. DURING THE ENTIRE INTERCEPT HE WAS IN CONTACT WITH BUTTERFLY TO ASCERTAIN THAT THEY WATCHED TERRAIN CLEARANCE FOR HIM SINCE HE KNEW HE WAS FLYING IN AN AREA WITH MOUNTAINS WHICH REACHED CLOSE TO HIS ALTITUDE. HE WAS CONTINUALLY TRANSMITTING TO BUTTERFLY INFORMATION ABOUT ACTIONS OF THE BOGIE -- THE FACT THAT HE HAD LOCK-ON - -- WAS WITHIN 20 SECONDS TO GO TO FIRE, ETC. ALL COMMUNICATIONS WITH BUTTERFLY WERE ON UHF CHANNEL 5 FREQUENCY. HE HAD TAKEN OFF ON CHANNEL 2 -- SWITCHED TO CHANNEL 10 -- THEN ALL CONTROL WAS EXECUTED UTILIZING CHANNEL 5. HIS IFF TRANSPONDER WAS ON MODE 2 THROUGHOUT THE ENCOUNTER. ALTHOUGH HE COULD NOT CONCENTRATE ON NAVIGATION, SINCE HE WAS PRE- PAGE 04 RUMOUHA4528 UNCLAS OCCUPIED WITH OTHER DUTIES, HE FELT THAT HIS POSITION WAS GENERALLY NORTH AND NORTHEAST OF YOKOTA AREA AND IN THE VICINITY OF NIKKO. THE ESTIMATE OF TIME THROUGHOUT THE ENCOUNTER WAS NOT MORE THAN 15 MINUTES PROBABLY FROM 10 TO 15 MINUTES. THE ELAPSED TIME FROM TAKEOFF UNTIL THE PICKUP OF THE TWO TARGETS WAS APPROXIMATELY 15 MINUTES. THE PILOT FEELS THAT THE ONLY THING THAT WAS EXCEPTIONAL ABOUT THE ENCOUNTER WAS THE RATE OF NEGATIVE CLOSURE. THE RATE OF NEGATIVE CLOSURE HE DESCRIBED AS SIMILAR TO THAT EXPERIENCED WHEN TRAVELING IN TRAIL WITH ANOTHER 86D AND HAVE HIM GO INTO AFTERBURNER OPERATION WHILE YOU ARE SITTING FLATFOOTED AT LOW MACH NOT EXPECTING IT. HE WAS, OF COURSE, INDICATING .97 ON THIS OCCASION. AT THE TIME OF BREAKOFF HE WAS STILL HOLDING THE TARGET AT 12 O'CLOCK POSITION UNDER THE ''JIZZLE BAND''. COMMENTS OF THE PREPARING OFFICER: 4. THE RADAR WHICH MADE THE OBSERVATIONS, AS MENTIONED BEFORE, IS A CPS-1, AND IS USED PRIMARILY FOR AIRWAY TRAFFIC CONTROL IN THE TOKYO AREA. IN THEIR PRESENT OPERATION THEY HAVE TWO ''PPI'' SCOPES IN THE OPERATIONS ROOM BOTH OF WHICH ARE NORMALLY UTILIZED IN THE OFF-CENTERED POSITION AT 360 DEGREES SCANNING TO THE SOUTH. AN ''A'' SCOPE IS UTILIZED FOR TEST AND CALIBRATION AND IS LOCATED IN AN ADJACENT ROOM. 5. THE CONTROLLERS WORKING THESE SCOPES IN NORMAL OPERATIONS ARE PAGE 05 RUMOUHA4528 UNCLAS CONTROLLING TRAFFIC SOUTH OF THE RADAR LOCATION AND ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE NORMAL GROUND RETURN IN THE AREAS OTHERS THAN THOSE NORMALLY VIEWED TO THE SOUTH. 6. THE CONTROLLER ON DUTY IS A 5-LEVEL AIRMAN WHO IS OJT FOR 7-LEVEL. HE HAS TWENTY MONTHS EXPERIENCE IN TRAFFIC CONTROL WORK AND IS FAMILIAR WITH THE RADAR CONTROL OF AIRCRAFT AT THIS LOCATION. HE IS FAMILIAR WITH NORMAL RADAR RETURNS (AIRCRAFT TARGETS) AND WITH THE NORMAL GROUND RETURNS SOUTH OF THE JOHNSON AREA, HOWEVER, HE AS WELL AS THE OTHER CONTROLLERS, WAS UNFAMILIAR WITH THE NORMAL GROUND RETURN PATTERNS THROUGHOUT 360 DEGREES FROM THE SITE. 7. THE GROUND RETURN TO THE NORTHEAST FROM JOHNSON IS EXCEEDING SHARP AND MORE HIGHLY DEFINED THAN THE GROUND RETURN NORMALLY ASSOCIATED WITH THIS TYPE RADAR RETURN. 8. THE SCOPE WHICH THE CONTROLLER WAS USING AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT WAS OPERATING NORMALLY AND USED FOR CONTROL IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO AND AFTER THE INCIDENT. AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT ANOTHER CON- TROLLER HAD KNOWN AIRCRAFT UNDER POSITIVE CONTROL TO THE SOUTH. 9. THE MAINTENANCE NCOIC CONDUCTED THE PREPARING OFFICER THROUGH THE SITE ON A CHECK OF THE FACILITY. HE, THE NCOIC, IS VERY FAMILIAR WITH THE CPS-1 SYSTEM AND THIS PARTICULAR INSTALLATION. HE IS FAMILIAR PAGE 06 RUMOUHA4528 UNCLAS WITH THE PERMANENT ECHO PATTERN THROUGHOUT 360 DEGREES AND THE PERMANENT ECHO WHICH HE USED FOR ANTENNA ALIGNMENT AND FUNCTIONAL CHECK OF THIS INSTALLATION. A SETUP OF THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE OBSERVATIONS WERE MADE BY THE CONTROLLERS WAS MADE. THE PERMANENT ECHOES TO THE NORTHEAST OF THE SITE ARE COMPLETELY OFF THE SCOPE AT THE 160 DEGREES AND 180 DEGREES OFF-CENTERED POSITIONS. AT THE 220 DEGREE POSITION THE PERMANENT ECHOES TO THE NORTHEAST ARE SHARPLY DEFINED. THE ONLY MAIN- TENANCE PROBLEM REALIZED IN THE NEAR PAST HAS BEEN A BREAKDOWN CAUSED BY THE DROPPING DOWN AND CONSEQUENT MANGLING OF THE ANTENNA SELSYN DRIVE GEARS. SINCE THIS BREAKDOWN THE SYSTEM THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN OPERATING ON THE 1 TO 1 SELSYN WITHOUT 36-1 RATIO TIE IN BETWEEN THE ANTENNA AND THE PPI INDICATORS. JERKY PRESENTATION HAS BEEN EVIDENCED DURING SOME CONDITIONS, HOWEVER, LOW WINDS AT THE TIME OF THE VISIT CAUSED NO NOTICEABLE OSCILLATION. 10. NO LOGICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE POSSIBLE MISORIENTATION OF THE PRESENTED INFORMATION ON THE PPI IN USE CAN BE FOUND. (GREAT INFO AND PLACEHOLDER) BT #4528 NNNN PTTUZYUW RUMOUHA4529 0191511-UUUU--RUCICSA RUEOEHA RUMKC. ZNR UUUUU RUCICSA T AUTODIN OPNET RUEOEHA T RULPALJ P R 191313Z JAN 11 FM COMMCEN CAMP SAMAE SAN TH//TERRY C// TO RUCICSA/AUTODIN OPNET//COMMCENTER-2// RUMKC/AIG 600 INFO ZEN2/CDRUSARSUPTHAI CAMP SAMAE SAN TH//S-2/PAO/MEDTC/CILTHAI// RUEOEHA/USCINCSO QUARRY HEIGHTS PN//SCJ2/INTAFF/POLAD/NCR/SCJ6/SSO// BT UNCLAS FINAL SECTION OF 03 11. THE CONTROLLER DOES NOT RECALL WHETHER HE EVER DID SEE EITHER THE C-47 OR THE B-50 SINCE HIS ATTENTION WAS DISTRACTED BY THE PRESENCE OF THE MULTIPLE TARGETS. 12. THE PILOT OF THE F-86D HAS APPROXIMATELY 565 HOURS TOTAL TIME WITH 100 HOURS IN THE F-86D AND APPROXIMATELY 120 HOURS IN THE F86 E & F. HE HAS A TOTAL OF 15 HOURS OF ACTUAL WEATHER TIME. 13. THE PILOTS ROUGH ESTIMATE OF HIS POSITION AND THE TIME OF THE ACTUAL ENGAGEMENT WERE EXCELLENT IN VIEW OF THE FACT THAT HE WAS VERY BUSY. FOR INSTANCE, HIS ESTIMATE OF TIME WAS APPROXIMATELY 15 MINUTES FOR THE ENGAGEMENT, GCI RECORDS SHOW A TIME OF 14 MINUTES. 14. AS SOON AS THE AIRCRAFT WAS ON THE GROUND THE NCOIC OF RADAR MAINTENANCE AND THE HUGHES TECHNICAL REPRESENTATIVE MADE A CHECK OF THE PAGE 02 RUMOUHA4529 UNCLAS COMPLETE FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM. THE SYSTEM WAS FOUND TO BE OPERATING NORMALLY IN ALL RESPECTS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE CLOSING RATE INDICATION WHICH WAS NOT ZEROED. THIS CONDITION WOULD INDUCE AN ERROR WHICH WOULD GIVE A PLUS 30 KNOT ERROR IN CLOSING SPEED, OTHERWISE NO OTHER SYSTEM ERROR WOULD BE INDUCED. 15. THE TECHNICAL REPRESENTATIVE AND THE OPERATIONS OFFICER OF THE 39TH SQUADRON WERE IMPRESSED THAT THE PILOT WAS FAMILIAR WITH THE F-86D FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM, AND, THAT THE INDICATIONS WHICH HE DESCRIBED WERE, AS WELL AS NOW CAN BE DETERMINED, NORMAL RADAR FUNCTIONING. 16. THE SWITCH IN RANGE MENTIONED IN PARAGRAPH #3 OF THIS REPORT IS A MODIFICATION MADE IN THIS THEATER TO THE BASIC FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM. THIS MODIFICATION WAS MADE TO FACILITATE IDENTIFICATION RUNS FROM ASTERN. EFFECTIVELY, THIS MODIFICATION MERELY BLOWS UP THE LAST SIX MILES OF RANGE OVER THE ENTIRE SCOPE SO SHORT RANGES BELOW SIX MILES, CAN BE READ MORE ACCURATELY FOR THIS IDENTIFICATION TYPE PASS. 17. INCLOSURES #1, 2, 3, 4 AND 5 WERE PREPARED BY TOKYO WEATHER CENTRAL, 1ST WEATHER WING AND COVER THE WEATHER SITUATION EFFECTING THE AREA. INCLOSURE #5, SHOWING THE SYNOPTIC SITUATION INDICATES A PRO- NOUNCED TEMPERATURE INVERSION FROM THE 8,000 TO THE 10,000 FT LEVELS. 18. AT THE TIME THE F-86D WAS IN THE AIR THERE WERE NO KNOWN PAGE 03 RUMOUHA4529 UNCLAS FRIENDLY AIRCRAFT IN THE AREA FROM WHICH HE RECEIVED A RETURN, AND AN OPERATIONAL CHECK ELIMINATED THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE IDENTIFIED TARGET WAS A FRIENDLY AIRCRAFT. 19. NO CONCLUSION CAN BE REACHED FROM THIS INDIVIDUAL INCIDENT AS TO WHAT THE RADAR TARGET OR TARGETS COULD HAVE BEEN. IT IS EX- CEEDINGLY DIFFICULT TO ESTABLISH A TIE IN BETWEEN THE GROUND RADAR OBSERVATIONS AND THE OBSERVATIONS OF THE PILOT OF THE AIRBORNE AIRCRAFT. 20. THE CAPABILITIES OF AN AIRCRAFT WHICH WOULD BE CAPABLE OF THE PERFORMANCE AND RANGE AT THE ALTITUDE OF THIS ENCOUNTER IS, OF COURSE, UNKNOWN IN THE COMMUNIST AIRCRAFT INVENTORY. (SO WHAT WAS THIS UNUSUAL AIRCRAFT?) /*NOT* SIGNED/ DOUGLAS J. DAVIS CAPTAIN, USAF AIR TECHNICAL LIAISON OFFICER COMMENTS OF THE PREPARING OFFICER: THIS REPORT WAS PREPARED IN ITS ENTIRETY BY THE PREPARING OFFICER. PAGE 04 RUMOUHA4529 UNCLAS ODH ((PROJECT BLUE BOOK - AMPLIFYING AIR INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION REPORT/ RADAR TARGETS/GROUND & AIR/TOKYO, JAPAN - 20 MAR 55)) ((REFERENCE: RUMOUHA4525 0191010 P R 190810Z JAN 11 PROJECT BLUE BOOK - RADAR TARGETS/GROUND & AIR/TOKYO, JAPAN - 20 MAR 55 (END OF MESSAGE SUBJECT) )) BT #4529 NNNN PTTUZYUW RUMOUHA4525 0191010-UUUU--RUCICSA RUEOEHA RUMKC. ZNR UUUUU RUCICSA T AUTODIN OPNET RUEOEHA T RULPALJ P R 190810Z JAN 11 FM COMMCEN CAMP SAMAE SAN TH//TERRY C// TO RUCICSA/AUTODIN OPNET//COMMCENTER-2// RUMKC/AIG 600 INFO ZEN2/CDRUSARSUPTHAI CAMP SAMAE SAN TH//S-2/PAO/MEDTC/CILTHAI// RUEOEHA/USCINCSO QUARRY HEIGHTS PN//SCJ2/INTAFF/POLAD/NCR/SCJ6/SSO// BT UNCLAS HQA005CRA009 PYB019 PP JEDWP JEPHQDE JAPAD 8B P (200513Z MAR 55) ZEX FM COMFEAF TOKYO JAPAN TO JEPHQ/COFS USAF WASH D C JEDWP/COMDR ATIC WRIGHT PATTERSON AFB OHIO BT (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)-DI-RC 3572. PASS TO DI. AT APRX 1640I, 20MAR, 5AF REPORTED ACTUAL YELLOW ALERT DUE TO RADAR SIGHTING. AIRBORNE F-86 ACFT DIRTED(SIC) TO INTERCEPT UNIDENTIFIED ACFT OR FLYING OBJECTS IN TOKYO AREA.PILOT OF F-86 HAD RADAR PAGE 02 RUMOUHA4525 UNCLAS CONTACT AND CLOSED TO WITHIN 3 MILES OF BOGIE BUT LOST CONTACT WHEN RATE OF CLOSURE WENT FROM APRX PLUS 75 KNOTS TO NEGATIVE 200 KNOTS. WEATHER POOR AT TIME. NO VISUAL CONTACT MADE. MORE INFO TO FOLLOW UPON COMPLETION OF INVESTIGATION PRESENTLY BEING CONDUCTED BY THIS HEADQUARTERS. BT 21/0823Z MAR JAPAD ((PROJECT BLUE BOOK - RADAR TARGETS/GROUND & AIR/TOKYO, JAPAN - 20 MAR 55)) - --------------------- (EXTRACTED FROM)AIR INTELLIGENCE EVALUATION REPORT 1. THE TARGETS THAT MOVED AND THEN BECAME STATIONARY ARE BELIEVED TO HAVE RESULTED FROM A POSSIBLE TEMPERATURE INVERSION THAT WOULD JUSTIFY FALSE ECHOES FROM GROUND TARGETS. HOWEVER, THIS REPORT IS THE FIRST TO DETAIL SO LONG AN AIRBORNE PURSUIT OF UFO'S, AND IT IS SURPRISING TO FIND THE RADAR OPERATING NORMALLY ON A TARGET OF THIS TYPE. 2. THE FACT THAT 16 TARGETS ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON THE PPI SCOPE, BUT ONLY 2 WERE OBSERVED ON THE AI RADAR TENDS TO SUBSTANTIATE THE SPURIOUS RESPONSE THEORY. ALSO, IT CANNOT POSITIVELY BE ESTABLISHED THAT THE 2 AI TARGETS WERE PART OF THE ORIGINAL 16 TARGETS. IT WOULD PAGE 03 RUMOUHA4525 UNCLAS BE *POSSIBLE* FOR THE RADAR TO MALFUNCTION DURING THE FLIGHT AND STILL CHECK OUT AFTER THE FLIGHT BUT IT WOULD BE UNLIKELY. 3. THERE IS NOT SUFFICIENT DATA UPON WHICH TO MAKE A FIRM EVALUATION, AND ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WOULD BE WELCOMED. THIS IS A VERY INTERESTING REPORT, WELL PREPARED, AND THE INCIDENTS WHICH HAPPENED CANNOT BE SATISFACTORILY EXPLAINED. - --------------------- THERE IS A SIX PAGE AIR INTELLIGENCE REPORT THAT DEBRIEFS THE F-86D PILOT AND GROUND RADAR PERSONNEL. ((PROJECT BLUE BOOK - RADAR TARGETS/GROUND & AIR/TOKYO, JAPAN - 20 MAR 55)) BT #4525 NNNN Terry W. Colvin Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/ [Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site] ------------------------------ End of skunk-works-digest V16 #11 ********************************* To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@netwrx1.com". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. Administrative requests, problems, and other non-list mail can be sent to georgek@netwrx1.com. 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