A B-29 Radar Return at 3,000 mph off Point Conception

The B-29 was on a routine mission over the Pacific, about 60 miles west of Point Conception at 34°30'N 121°30'W. It was flying at 25,000 feet and 200 mph on a heading of 270. At 16:45 Zulu on 24 March 1952 (08:45 Pacific time) the radar observer Lt Hancock saw a return on his APQ scope that he could not identify. It was clear and distinct. The navigator, Lt Cone, confirmed it. The return appeared due south of the aircraft and moved north-west below 25,000 feet. Worked out from the scope, its speed came to 3,000 mph. It stayed in view for 20 to 30 seconds.

No one saw a shape. The weather was clear and radar conditions were good.

What is on the record

Project Blue Book holds the case as Unknown 1077, on its official Unidentified list. The crew came from the 106th Bomb Wing at March AFB, and both officers were combat veterans rated highly reliable. The papers differ in small ways. The teletype gives the speed in knots and the time in view as 20 to 35 seconds.

The file carries its own ordinary explanation. Machine guns were being fired intermittently for training while the return was on the scope, and the file raises an electronic effect from the gunfire as an alternative. A comment on a status report begins "Similiar phenomena due to interference of" and is cut off there. The case stayed Unidentified all the same. NICAP's catalogue lists it as "Airborne Radar Tracks 3,000 MPH Object".

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. Two officers are identified, Lt Hancock and Lt Cone. What they saw was a radar return and not an object. Neither officer's account survives anywhere else in the archive. What put that trace on the scope is not resolved here.