Four documented cases from the second half of May 1952.
1952: May 16th–31st
UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
The back half of May 1952 keeps pace with the front — a South African radar tracking an object at over 1,250 mph, a top CIA official watching a light climb and dive over Virginia, and Orfeo Angelucci’s famous Burbank contact experience — before closing with a night refueling mission’s green-sphere sightings and a two-minute radar-and-visual pursuit over Korea. This page covers May 16th through 31st; see the companion page for May 1st–15th.
Date: May 19, 1952
Location: 30 miles southwest of San Angelo, Texas
Time: 7:48 p.m.
Summary: The crew of a USAF 31st Strategic Recon Sq RB-36, flying at 18,000 ft, saw seven bright white circular or doughnut-shaped contrails stacked vertically like lenticular clouds, roughly 50–75 miles distant at 25,000–60,000 ft, about one mile wide. Sighted through 6x binoculars and photographed in six frames, also seen by a ground radar station. Contrails persisted 15–20 minutes, possibly up to an hour.
Source: Jan Aldrich
Date: May 20, 1952
Location: George AFB, California
Time: 1:25 p.m.
Summary: Unknown
Source: McDonald list; FUFOR Index
Date: May 20, 1952 (BBU 1219)
Location: Houston, Texas
Time: 10:10 p.m.
Summary: Sighted from the ground, USAF pilots Capt. J. Spurgin and Capt. B. Stephan saw a bright or white oval object move side to side while making a gradual turn.
Source: Berliner; FUFOR Index
Date: May 22, 1952
Location: Falls Church (or Alexandria), Virginia
Time: Between 1 and 2 a.m.
Summary: A top CIA official and several dinner guests, including a retired general, watched a noiseless red light approach from the west at roughly 5,000 ft, climb almost vertically to the southeast, level out briefly, dive nearly vertically, level off again, and disappear to the east.
Source: Ruppelt pp. 135–6; BB Status Rpt 7; Jan Aldrich
Date: May 23, 1952
Location: Union of South Africa (Cape area)
Time: Unknown
Summary: South African military headquarters announced that radar had tracked an unidentified object passing over the Cape six times at a speed exceeding 1,250 mph, within radar range for 16 seconds per pass, at distances of 35,000–50,000 feet and altitudes between 5,000 and 17,000 feet.
Source: Michel/McDonald; Prescott Evening Courier, May 22; UFOE, VIII
Date: May 23, 1952
Location: Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 4:00–4:45 p.m.
Summary: The USAF commanding officer of the 135th AC&W Sq ADC radar site, Lt. Col. Orlando W. Stephenson Jr., along with Senior Director Lt. William J. Hopkins, Capt. Clarence R. Holloway, Lt. Edwin G. Kenyon, Philco radar tech rep John B. Cooper, and at least one other witness, saw a silvery/aluminum object, flat on the bottom and slightly rounded on top, roughly 1,000–3,000 ft up at 10–20 miles distance, viewed through a transit telescope and binoculars. It reflected sunlight at irregular intervals for 3 seconds to 2–3 minutes at a time before descending below the horizon. Radar tracking and an F-86D interception attempt were unsuccessful.
Source: Jan Aldrich
Date: May 23, 1952
Location: Burbank, California
Time: Afternoon
Summary: Orfeo Angelucci was driving home from work when he began experiencing a tingling sensation. A luminous disc appeared ahead of him, then shot away, leaving two glowing spheres in front of his car. A voice called to him from his vehicle, and a man and woman of striking appearance materialized before him. They offered him a goblet to drink from, which relieved his unpleasant sensation; after a brief conversation, they promised to return and vanished. [Full Report]
Source: Orfeo Angelucci, “Secret of the Saucers”
Date: May 24, 1952
Location: Zuni, New Mexico
Time: 1:27 a.m.
Summary: The pilot of a TWA airliner saw two reddish torpedo-shaped objects appear in front of the aircraft.
Source: Project 1947; FUFOR Index
Date: May 25, 1952
Location: Randolph AFB, Texas
Time: 9:27 p.m.
Summary: A USAF navigator, his wife, and a pilot saw about 12 orange-white teardrop-shaped lights, points forward, in three groups of four, moving west to east at high speed (roughly 2,000 mph) at 10,000 ft, 70° elevation. A deep, soft, intermittent noise was heard.
Source: McDonald files; Jan Aldrich; cf. Ruppelt p. 140; FUFOR Index
Date: May 25, 1952 (BBU 1227)
Location: Walnut Lake, Michigan
Time: 9:15 p.m.
Summary: John Hoffman, family, and friends saw a large white circular object with dark sections on its rim fly straight and level, appearing red when passing behind a cloud. This appears to be the same witness family reported again in the April 27 and June 18, 1952 entries elsewhere in this archive.
Source: Berliner
Date: May 25, 1952
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 11:30 p.m.
Summary: Radiation was detected. Earlier, at 09:58 hours, an unknown object was tracked on radar at 1,800 mph at Tierra Amarilla AFS, New Mexico, passing directly across the Los Alamos area.
Source: Unknown
Date: May 26, 1952
Location: North Korea
Time: 3:20 a.m.
Summary: A USAF pilot and radar observer flying an F-94C jet fighter saw and radar-tracked a bright white object that accelerated to high speed; also tracked by ground radar.
Source: Weinstein; FUFOR Index
Date: May 28, 1952 (BBU 1232)
Location: Saigon, French Indo-China
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Summary: A large crowd watching a ceremony saw a white-silver disc-shaped object fly straight and fast.
Source: Berliner, Dan Wilson
Date: May 28, 1952 (BBU 1233)
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 1:45–2:40 p.m.
Summary: City fire department employees Romero and Atterbury saw two circular objects — one shiny silver, one orange or light brown — perform fast maneuvers three times.
Source: Berliner
Date: May 28, 1952 (BBU 1233b)
Location: East of Albuquerque, New Mexico (with additional sightings near Tulsa, Oklahoma and Enid, California)
Time: 8:10 p.m. and later that night
Summary: During a night refueling mission, USAF crews of five B-29 bombers reported green spherical objects. The primary sighting near Albuquerque involved three B-29s at 15,000 ft; a second sighting occurred around 11:30 p.m. ten miles southwest of Tulsa, Oklahoma (25,000 ft); a third, three hours later, near Enid, California, also at 25,000 ft. Aircrews stated the objects were not meteorites, in their opinion.
Source: Project 1947; FUFOR Index
Date: May 29, 1952
Location: Near the Florida Keys
Time: Approximately 1700 hours
Summary: Two elliptical objects larger than a fighter aircraft, each appearing to have a bubble on top and leaving a white vapor trail, were observed from the USS Oriskany (CV-34) — one visually through a telescope, the other on the ship’s radar scope by the Radar Officer. The objects’ course paralleled that of the carrier.
Source: Blue Book Microfilm
Date: May 29, 1952 (BBU 1236)
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Time: 7 p.m.
Summary: USAF pilot Maj. D. W. Feuerstein, observing from the ground, saw a bright tubular object tilt from horizontal to vertical over 8 minutes, slowly return to horizontal, tilt vertical again, accelerate, appear to lengthen, and turn red.
Source: Berliner; FUFOR Index
Date: May 30, 1952
Location: Japan Sea, south of Oshima island, Japan
Time: 7 p.m.
Summary: Three USAF crew members of a C-54 transport plane saw a round black object, first motionless then moving rapidly to the west.
Source: Project 1947; FUFOR Index
Date: May 31, 1952
Location: South of Chorwon, South Korea
Time: 3:45–3:55 a.m.
Summary: A bright object to the northeast fell from about 3,500–3,600 ft to 2,000–2,600 ft, then ascended to 3,000–4,000 ft, moved east about half a mile with jerky motion, stopped, reversed course to the northeast, reversed again heading east, then climbed away accelerating with jerky motion over 3–4 seconds. A second guard at a different post also saw the object and heard a pulsating sound, describing a disc shape; duration about 2 minutes. Around 3:50 a.m. a 319th FI Sq F-94 intercepted a white-bluish round object on airborne radar for 9 minutes at 500 mph, 6,000 ft, maneuvering down to 1,000 ft then up to 28,000 ft before disappearing.
Source: Hynek UFO Report
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
South African Radar, a CIA Official’s Sighting, and Angelucci’s Burbank Contact
The month’s second half is anchored by three especially notable cases: South African military radar’s six-pass tracking of an object exceeding 1,250 mph off the Cape, a senior CIA official’s own witnessed sighting over Virginia — recorded directly in Ruppelt’s book — and Orfeo Angelucci’s widely retold Burbank, California contact experience. Around these sit a steady stream of military radar and pilot reports from Korea to the Pacific, including a carrier-based radar-and-visual sighting from the USS Oriskany and a night refueling mission’s green-sphere reports spanning three states.
“Radar operators picked up an unknown object which passed over the Cape six times at a speed definitely exceeding 1,250 miles an hour.”
— South African military headquarters statement, May 23, 1952
