Gulf of Mexico UFO Encounter
On December 6, 1952 the crew (three men) of a USAF B-29 was flying over the Gulf of Mexico just before dawn when several unidentified targets appeared on the bomber radar's scopes.
The targets maneuvered around the bomber at speeds at 5240 mph. The crew members had visual contact with the objects as they streaked past their aircraft.
After several minutes of maneuvering around the B-29, the five objects, still moving over 5000 mph, merged with a larger object which appeared on radar as a huge blip and began to accelerate and flashed across the three radar scopes at a speed computed to be over 9000 mph.
https://www.ufocasebook.com/gulfmexico.html
RB-47 UFO Encounter
An Air Force RB-47, equipped with electronic countermeasures (ECM) gear and manned by six officers, was followed by an unidentified object for a distance of well over 700 miles, and for a time period of 1.5 hr., as it flew from Mississippi, through Louisiana and Texas and into Oklahoma.
The object was, at various times, seen visually by the cockpit crew as an intensely luminous light, followed by ground-radar and detected on ECM monitoring gear aboard the RB-47.
Of special interest in this case are several instances of simultaneous appearances and disappearances on all three of those physically distinct "channels," and rapidity of maneuvers beyond the prior experience of the aircrew.
Introduction
In the early morning hours of July 17, 1957, an RB-47 was flying out of Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas, on a composite mission that included gunnery exercises over the Texas-Gulf area, navigation exercises over the open Gulf, and finally ECM exercises scheduled for the return trip across the south-central United States.
The RB-47 was carrying a sixman crew, of whom three were electronic warfare officers manning ECM gear in the aft portion of the aircraft. Their names are as follows: Lewis D. Chase, pilot; James H. McCoid, copilot; Thomas H. Hanley, navigator; John J. Provenzano, No. 1 monitor; Frank B. McClure, No. 2 monitor; Walter A. Tuchscherer. No. 3 monitor.
I shall draw upon my interview with the crew as well as case files which I finally located.
The files consist of a three-page TWX filed from the 745th ACWRON, Duncanville, Texas, at 1557Z on July 17, 1957, and a four-page case summary prepared by E.T. Piwetz, Wing Intelligence Officer, 55th Reconnaissance Wing, Forbes AFB, and transmitted to ADC Hq., Ent AFB, Colorado, in compliance with a request of August 15, from Col. F. T. Jeep, Director of Intelligence, ADC. That summary, plus a 12-page Airborne Observer's Data Sheet, was forwarded on November 17 from ADC to Blue Book, and was evidently the first notification Project Blue Book received concerning this case.
The 12-page Data Sheet (AISOP #2) was prepared by Major Chase on September 10, and contains a number of points of relevance not covered in other parts of the case file. There is very relevant information in the case file as to precise times, locations, and other circumstances, and the case file does have the great virtue of representing a summary account prepared while all of the details were fresh in the minds of the crew.
Before describing the first ECM contact, it is necessary to explain briefly the nature of the ECM gear involved in this case. (Details are no longer classified, although all of the basic case-file documents were initially SECRET.)
This RB-47 had three passive direction-finding (DF) radarmonitors for use in securing coordinate information and pulse characteristics on enemy ground-based radar.
The #2 monitor, manned by McClure, was an ALA-6 DF-receiver with back-to-back antennas in a housing on the belly of the RB-47 near the tail spun at 150 or 300 rpm as it scanned an azimuth. (Note that this implies ability to scan at 10/sec past a fixed ground radar in the distance.)
It's frequency range was 1000-7500 MHz. Inside the aircraft, the signals from the ALA-6 were processed in an APR-9 radar receiver and an ALA-5 pulse-analyzer. All subsequent references to the #2 monitor imply that system.
Number 1 Monitor
The #1 monitor, manned by Provenzano, was an APD-4 DF system, with a pair of antennas permanently mounted on either wing tip. It was working at a higher frequency. The #3 monitor, with a frequency range from 30-1000 MHz, was manned by Tuchscherer.
It was not affected and will not be described here. VHF communications were likewise not affected.
For emphasis, it needs to be stressed that the DF receivers are not radars and do not emit a signal for reflection off a distant target. They only listen passively to incoming radar signals and analyze signatures and other characteristics. When receiving a distant radar set's signal, the scope displays a pip or strobe at an azimuthal position corresponding to the relative bearing in the aircraft coordinate system.
For the case of a fixed ground radar, approached from one side, the strobe is initially seen in the upper part of the scope and moves down-scope, a point to be carefully noted in interpreting the following discussion.
Having completed the navigational exercises over the Gulf, Chase headed across the Mississippi coastline, flying at an altitude of 34,500 ft, at about Mach 0.75 (258 kt IAS=500 mph TAS).
The weather was perfect and practically cloudless under the influence of a large high-pressure area extending throughout the troposphere.
There were no showers or thunderstorms anywhere along the flight route. Shortly after the coast near Gulfport was crossed at a point marked A on the map on page 00, McClure detected on the #2 monitor a signal painting at their 5 o'clock position (aft of the starboard beam). It looked to him as if he were receiving a legitimate ground-radar signal.
Upon noting that the strobe was moving up-scope, McClure tentatively decided that it must be a ground radar off to their northwest painting with 180 deg ambiguity for some electronic reason.
But when the strobe, after sweeping up-scope on the starboard side, crossed the flight path of the RB-47 and proceeded to move down-scope on the port side McClure said he gave up the hypothesis of 180 deg ambiguity as incapable of explaining such behavior.
Fortunately, he had examined the signal characteristics on his ALA-5 pulse-analyzer, before the signal left his scope on the port side aft.
In discussing it with me, his recollection was that the frequency was near 2800 mcs, and he recalled that what was particularly odd was that it had a pulse-width and pulse repetition frequency (PRF) much like that of a typical S-band, ground-based, search radar.
He even recalled that there was a simulated scan rate that was normal. Perhaps because of the strong similarities to ground-based sets such as the CPS-6B, widely used at that time, McClure did not, at that juncture, call this signal to the attention of anyone else in the aircraft.
The #1 monitor was not working the frequency in question, it later developed. The #3 monitor was incapable of working the frequency in question, McClure and the others indicated to me.
I next quote information transcribed from the summary report prepared by the Wing Intelligence Officer, COMSTRATRECONWG 55, Forbes Air Force Base, concerning this part of the incident that involved this aircraft (call sign "Lacy 17"):
ECM reconnaissance operator #2 of Lacy 17, RB-47H aircraft, intercepted at approximately Meridian, Mississippi, a signal with the following characteristics: frequency 2995 mc to 3000 mc; pulse width of 2.0 microseconds; pulse repetition frequence of 600 cps; sweep rate of 4 rpm; vertical polarity. Signal moved rapidly up the D/F scope indicating a rapidly moving signal source; i.e an airborne source. Signal was abandoned after observation ...
The RB-47 UFO Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaBBA3gkZTc
