Annapolis, Maryland, July 12, 1952: four objects stop and turn.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
Annapolis, Maryland Four Elliptical Objects:
An Insurance Executive Watches a 90-Degree Turn, July 12, 1952
At 3:30 on a Saturday afternoon in July 1952, an insurance company president named William Washburn looked up over Annapolis, Maryland and saw four large, elliptical objects flying very fast. They stopped. They turned 90 degrees. They flew away. The whole sighting lasted seven to eight seconds. Project Blue Book logged it as Unidentified.
The Annapolis, Maryland UFO sighting came during the week the capital region began to fill with reports, a week before the first Washington National Airport weekend. It is one of only three July 10-14 reports on which Blue Book’s own evaluation list left no conventional explanation, along with Kirksville and Norfolk.
Date: July 12, 1952
Sighting Time: 3:30 p.m.
Day/Night: Day
Location: Annapolis, Maryland, United States
Urban or Rural: Urban
No. of Entity(‘s): Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: Daylight Disc (DD)
Duration: 7 to 8 seconds
No. of Object(s): 4
Description of the Object(s): Four large, elliptical-shaped objects that flew very fast, stopped, turned 90 degrees and flew away
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Elliptical; large; color not recorded
Distance to Object(s): Not recorded
Height & Speed: Very fast; altitude and exact speed not recorded
Number of Witnesses: 1 (William Washburn, an insurance company president)
Special Features/Characteristics: Abrupt stop and a 90-degree turn in a group of four objects
Case Status: Project Blue Book: Unidentified (BBU 1431)
Source: Berliner (BBU 1431); NICAP chronology; Project Blue Book evaluation list
Summary/Description: A businessman saw four large elliptical objects fly fast, stop, turn 90 degrees and leave in 7 to 8 seconds. Blue Book: Unidentified.
Related Cases: Kirksville, Missouri, July 12, 1952; Chesapeake Bay (Nash-Fortenberry), July 14, 1952; the Washington National Airport radar weekends
Detailed Report
The NICAP chronology and the Blue Book unknowns lists agree on the core of the report: at 3:30 p.m. on July 12, 1952, insurance company president William Washburn saw four large, elliptical-shaped objects over Annapolis, Maryland. The objects were seen to fly very fast, stop, turn 90 degrees and fly away. The observation lasted seven to eight seconds.
Project Blue Book carries the case as number 1431 on the Berliner list, and its July 10-12 evaluation list shows Annapolis as Unidentified. The sources I could reach do not give the objects’ color, size in feet, altitude, direction or the weather. Washburn’s account is the only one recorded.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
A Short Sighting with a Specific Maneuver
- The maneuver: Four objects that stop and turn 90 degrees without banking is the detail that matters. Balloons, birds and aircraft do not make square turns.
- One witness: Washburn is the only witness named. A single observer for seven to eight seconds is a thin record, and nothing in the sources lets a reader check his estimates.
- The Blue Book position: The July 10-12 evaluation list shows Annapolis as Unidentified, not as aircraft, balloon or astronomical. The list does not give the reasoning.
- Missing details: No color, altitude, distance or compass direction appear in the sources I used. Any additional detail on a live page should be checked against the Blue Book case file.
The Annapolis report is short and specific: four objects, a fast pass, a stop, a right-angle turn. It earned an Unidentified evaluation because nothing in the record explained it, not because it was well documented.
“Four large, elliptical-shaped objects were seen to fly very fast, stop, turn 90° and fly away in 7-8 seconds.”
— NICAP chronology, Annapolis, Maryland, July 12, 1952
