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Sighting record / 1957

The Dover Strait Radar Object and the Javelin Scramble

April 29, 1957 · St Margaret's Bay, Kent, and the English Channel (tracks over Somerset and out past Land's End), United Kingdom
40Partially documented UAP Unknown 9 sources

Monday 29 April 1957. Evening on the south coast of England. RAF radar picked up fast returns, and the press would later place the object near St Margaret's Bay, Kent, heading due west over the Channel. Ventnor radar measured one track at 800 knots and declared it an X-raid. Hostile. Javelin all-weather fighters from RAF Odiham were sent to intercept. They made no contact. The London Evening News reported about 1,000 mph and asked whether this was a new Russian long-range bomber. On 15 May, the Air Secretary gave Parliament a far plainer answer.

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Context

Spring 1957. Britain's air defence radar watched the coast. The ROTOR early-warning station at St Margaret's Bay stood near Dover. Another station sat at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.

Sources (9, most influential first)

  1. Unidentified Flying Objects, HC Deb 15 May 1957 vol 570 cc391-2 · Hansard (UK Parliament)· 1957-05-15 · Official document · gov doc
  2. British Government UFO Research in the 1950's · Roger J. Morgan / Xenophon · Research organisation · org report
  3. Sources for Historical Ground: UK UFO teletypes 1957 · Project 1947 / SHG · Research organisation · org report
  4. UFO sightings in the United Kingdom · Wikipedia · Wiki, blog, podcast · wiki
  5. 1957 chronology · NICAP · Research organisation · org report