Re: Operation Charlie
William Kent’s encounter with ‘Charlie’ over East Anglia continued for 20 minutes as the ground controller supplied instructions and the navigator tried to capture the object on the Mosquito’s radar.
Postcard sent to Aid & Abet.
Information by Dr David Clarke from www.uk-ufo.org/condign/histcharlie and http:www.project1947.com
The site continues: A Mosquito of No. 23 Sqdn scrambled at 2327 hrs with pilot F/L Kent. An attempt was made to close when contact was made at 18,000 feet but ‘the observer was unable to hold it as the target was jerking violently’. Further contacts were obtained as the target fell rapidly to 2,000 feet, when both the blip and the mosquito disappeared below radar coverage.
Dominique Rey
Posting
One of the real joys of this project is our being able to work with both the virtual (internet research and this blog) and the physical (visiting places and sending things to Aid and Abet for display).
The radar museum badge was posted to Aid and Abet today in a rather interesting envelope I found on my shelf.
Nicola Naismith
Following our visit to the Radar Museum, I feel inundated by a rather large amount of new information. All flashing and pulsating lights and turning, whirring machines. We are barely scratching the surface of what is out there in terms of UFO-sighting investigation, or X-Raids or Ghost Planes in East Anglia. There has been a lot and now, focussed on it, I keep hearing of more and more. Can it really be the expansivity of the skies and the historic proliferation of air fields?
I’m not sure where to start with blog posting of pictures and the like, so here is the quite subdued diagram of the (Charlie?) ghost plane trajectory. Also, I’ve been staring at different designs for the Touring Territories poster all day and have alien overload.
Dominique Rey
Radar
Dominique and i journeyed to the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum at Neatished in rural Norfolk today. On arrival a rotating mobile radar greeted us and we were immediately enthralled.
So eager were we to get there that Dominique forgot her purse and even though i raided the car for change we couldn’t quite raise the entrance fee. The very kind gentleman on the entrance desk said it would be fine to send a cheque and promptly arranged a brief tour for us. The museum has a strap-line – its bigger than you think – which is very true and the time we had flew by and we need a return visit at some point.
We were led to Neatished from details contained in Dr David Clarke & Andy Roberts text on operation charlie:
http://www.uk-ufo.org/condign/histcharlie.htm
Although Operation Charlie is dated as 1947, it was the Coldwar Operations Room (in use between 1973 – 1993 i think) that had us completely enthralled. Not least on my part by the knowledge that my dad would have spoken to radar operatives there when he was stationed at near by RAF Coltishall. Working in the control tower he would have spoken to pilots that would have been pursuing ‘unidentified’ or perhaps ‘univited’ aircraft from Russia. We were in danger of becoming diverted from our primary UFO focus as neither of us asked any of the numerous room guides about Operation Charlie or possible sightings – we asked ourselves why. Was it from a fear of appearing foolish? We have repeatedly questioned our approach to this project, are we believers or skeptics and how might this influence the research that we undertake? We have tried as much as possible to keep a neutral position, respectful of peoples experiences and opinions which ever side they fall on.
During the the post tour debrief in a local pub we explored the very expansive potential of this project but also how we might develop and fine tune this methodology in the future.
The low lighting levels in the Operations room made for some interesting photos. Dominique also has a rather lovely image of the East Anglian Territory with Ghost Plain markings which i hope she will add.
Nicola Naismith
Open Skies
When Dave Evans (the artist from Royal Standard) sent an email expressing an interest in our Touring Territories project he mentioned his initial curiosity ” to see if an area with a reputation for flatness looked to the sky as an speculative/imaginative space (much like deserts, new Mexico and Arizona in the U.S)”.
With this in mind we will (weather permitting) do some sky watching tomorrow either side of our visit to a museum dedicated to not looking at the sky directly with the eyes but monitoring movements through a radar machine.
Nicola Naismith
