Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | Hunting the Snark (1959)

Starting point is 00:00:02 Welcome to bite-sized UFOs, a show where we break down lesser-known UFO cases in 20 minutes or less. And now here's your host, Graham Rendell. Welcome to episode 10 of bite-sized UFOs. In this installment, let's look at a case from March 1959, where the UFO reportedly pursued a snark missile under test from a launch site in Florida. The encounter was only observed on radar, but is nonetheless an extremely intriguing incident. Here's a quick history of the Northrop SM-62 Snark missile. After the first atom bombs were used in anger, United States Air Force attention turned to finding a better delivery method than a lumbering B-29 Super Fortress bomber, dropping these weapons free-fall style over their targets.

Starting point is 00:00:53 During the first round of American missile development in the late 1940s and early 1950s, design of guided missiles capable of delivering an atomic bomb to a Russian target, was restricted to employing air-breathing turbojet engines rather than liquid-fuelled rocket motors. Development delays, successive rounds of defence cuts and changes in mission parameters meant that development of the SNARC turned into a protracted affair. Initial flights of the original smaller version of the missile, designated the Northrop M25, took place at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, in 1951 and 1952. But when intercontinental range was required, a larger airframe was needed. This resulted in the N69 design, powered by a single Pratt and Whitney J-71 or J-57 turbojet. As the Holloman range area was not large enough to accommodate simulated intercontinental trials, test launches were moved to the Atlantic Missile Test Range at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Starting point is 00:02:01 Missiles been recovered to an air strip at the Joint. long-range proving ground there. By 1957, two long-range test flights had seen Snark's fly as far as Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, and the same year saw Strategic Air Command's 556th Strategic Missile Squadron start training on launching the weapon operationally. On 1st January 1959, the 702nd Strategic Missile Wing was formed at Prescott Isle Air Force Base, Maine, and would be the only unit to be equipped with the SM-62 Snark, finally reaching alert status in March 1960, a year after the UFO event detailed here occurred. Suffering from an inaccurate guidance system and with intercontinental ballistic missiles, such as the Atlas D already in service by 1957, the Snark's days had already been outnumbered

Starting point is 00:02:54 before it went into service. The 702nd wing was not fully operational until February 1961 and was deactivated just four months later. The description of the 10th March 1959 case is listed on the relevant Project Blue Book index card reads as follows. FPS 8 radar picked up object which maneuvered and followed missile subsonic test from Patrick Air Force Base at 0918 Zulu. Object converged on missile and scope, then received return of both missile and object. Weather clear and no interference. Blue Book's evaluation was that the UFO was probably an aircraft. but the source, i. identity and origin, were not known.

Starting point is 00:03:37 The case was filed away as having insufficient data, but what information did the evaluators have to go on? Snark test launches were being carried out from Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, throughout early 1959, and the one carried out at around 0400 hours local time on the morning of 10th March was initiated without any fuss. Patrick, located just a few miles south of Cape Canaveral, where Apollo 11 would be launched to the moon just over a decade later,

Starting point is 00:04:03 was an ideal launch site given its proximity to the ocean. Yet due to the number of missiles that went off course and crashed into the water there, that part of the sea was nicknamed Snark-infested waters. However, for all intents and purposes, the early morning 10th March test began as a routine operation. UFO discovered on FPS8 surveillance radar scope located in Grand Bahamas Island was the first line of the teletype message sent from the missile test center at Patrick Air Force Base on 12 March 1959.

Starting point is 00:04:36 According to the same message, the unknown object had manoeuvred some 50 to 70 miles south-south-east of Grand Bahama Auxiliary Air Force Base before completing two large circles at a speed of between 200 and 300 knots, then had carried out a figure-eight maneuver. At 09-13, Zulu,

Starting point is 00:04:56 a subsonic snark missile test passed the object. The latter then converged on the middle, flying an intercept course of 60 degrees. At one point, the blips corresponding to the missile and the UFO merged before the missile itself disappeared from the radar controller's plot on a south-southeast heading. The UFO faded away on the scope as it headed off on the same 60-degree heading. According to the witness, an experienced civilian contractor who was employed by the Air Force missile test center, the UFO was observed distinctly. He had experienced no problems with the FPS 8 system and the weather was clear offering no scope for interference with the radar.

Starting point is 00:05:37 No aircraft had been detected or were known to have entered the missile test range area at the time of the incident. Inquiries to local air bases came up with nothing, and Miami Air Route Traffic Control confirmed that no military or civilian aircraft were in the area at the time. An initial report of the incident was made at 10 o'clock local time the same morning, with range safety officers, the base commander, radar operator and the Grand Bahama auxiliary air base commander, all agreeing on details that would be submitted in the teletype to the air technical intelligence centre at Wright Pass and Air Force Base, home of Project Blue Book. Despite local air bases and civilian air traffic routing centres denying any aircraft

Starting point is 00:06:18 had been in the same area as the missile test on the morning of 10 March 1959, Blue Book's evaluation was that the UFO was probably been an aircraft. Their justification seems to have been that, since inquiries as to whether neighborly was involved had not been replied to, then it was likely that naval aircraft were the cause of the UFO detected within the restricted area. Major Robert Friend was the director of Project Blue Book at the time of the incident. A former Tuskegee Airman and a veteran of 142 combat missions over Italy and elsewhere in Europe during World War II, he had been posted to head of Blue Book in October 1958, replacing the totally ineffective Major Gregory. Although Friend no doubt signed off on the evaluation,

Starting point is 00:07:01 He was frustrated by Blue Book's inadequate procedures from the outset. Attempts to improve them were stalled by a lack of resources and funding. His request that UFO investigations should be conducted by a more scientific branch of the Air Force were also refused. Was the UFO simply a naval aircraft that had wandered off course and into a restricted missile test range area, or was it a truly anomalous object that showed interest in a subsonic cruise missile that had the potential to deliver a nucous. bomb halfway around the world. 65 years on, there is no clear answer to this question.

Starting point is 00:07:38 And that's it for this 10th installment of bite-sized UFOs. Remember, bite-sized UFOs is all about the facts. This has been bite-sized UFOs with your host, Graham Rendell. Be sure to rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. For a full video

Starting point is 00:07:55 version of this episode, subscribe to the bite-sized UFO's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening. Thank you.

Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | Hunting the Snark (1959)

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