Excerpt from 'Britain's Secret UFO Hunters' concerning 1950 Farnborough UFO case
1950 Farnborough, Hampshire, UK
Flying Saucer Sighting Made by Several Highly Trained Airmen
'The UFO Files' by David Clarke is certainly worth a read if only
for what is says about Farnborough.
Extract from this book: "On the morning of 15 August, a dry, clear summer’s day, Flight Lieutenant Hubbard was walking along the airfield runway towards his quarters. He later recalled his attention was attracted by what he described as ‘a strange distant humming sound’.
I had the chance to interview him in 2002 and he remembered then how, turning to investigate, he saw in the direction of Basingstoke an object that looked ‘for all the world like the edge-on view of a discus, the sort of discus we used to throw at sports day in school … and it was rocking from side to side very slightly … but maintaining a very straight approach. That was something that has stuck in my mind very clearly, vividly, to this day.’
As it approached the airfield the sound emanating from the object increased in intensity to become ‘a heavy, dominant humming with an associated subdued crackling-hissing … which reminded me strongly of the noise inside a large active electrical power station.’
He continued: ‘It was light grey in colour, a bit like mother of pearl, but blurred. It was obviously reflecting light because as it rocked it looked like a pan lid as you rotate it, with segments of light rotating around. And I could see that around the edge as it went overhead, it was a different colour, it had a definite edge to it... the whole of the edge was a mass of tiny crackling, sparkling lights. And associated with that, there was a real impact of a very strong ozone smell.
‘There were no windows or portholes or any other characteristics at all. It was featureless, and the remarkable thing about it was there was no sound of air movement … as the object was coming closer and then went overhead I tried to estimate its size, altitude and speed, but with the absence of any readily identifiable feature it was difficult to gauge these factors with any confidence… I guessed that its height above ground when first seen was probably between 700 and 1000 [ ft ] and since it certainly seemed to maintain altitude throughout the period of my observation, I guessed that it would have to be about 100 ft in diameter. It must have been travelling very fast, perhaps as high as 500 to 900 mph.’
Hubbard immediately reported this sighting to his commanding officer and soon afterwards received a visit from members of the Ministry of Defence’s Flying Saucer Working Party, which had been established that same month to look into the UFO mystery. Chaired by G.L. Turney, head of scientific intelligence at the Admiralty, it included five intelligence officers, two of whom were scientists, the other three representing the intelligence branches of the army, navy and RAF. Hubbard recalled the questions included: ‘“How high was it?” “How big was it?” “How fast was it?” “What was it?” …and one question which I think reflects the tenor of the interview was: “What do you suppose the object was, and where would it have come from?” I replied simply that in my opinion it was not something that had been designed and built on this Earth.
Clearly, from the effect it had on the team, it was the wrong answer.’ The working party’s visit to Farnborough would not be the last. On the afternoon of 5 September 1950, just two weeks after Hubbard’s first observation, he saw what he believes was the same object again. On this occasion he was standing with five other serving RAF airmen on the watch-tower waiting for a display by the Hawker P.1081 when he spotted the object in the sky to the south of the airfield, towards Guildford.
‘I grabbed hold of the chap next to me,’ he recalled, ‘and said:
“Hey, what do you think that is?” Pointing … and he shouted “My God! Go
get a camera quick! Go get some binoculars!”’ Hubbard and his
colleagues then watched an incredible performance of aerobatics by what
the official report describes as ‘a flat disc, light pearl in colour [
and ] about the size of a shirt button.’
Hubbard described it as ‘fluttering, as though bordering on instability, in a hovering mode, the object would swoop off in a slight dive at incredibly high speed and in quite stable flight, then stop abruptly and go into another fluttering hover mode.
This performance was repeated many times … and it appeared that all this was taking place some eight to ten miles south of us over the Farnham area.’ The UFO was under observation for some 10 minutes during which the little crowd had swelled to more than a dozen RAF personnel. ‘They were awestruck,’ Hubbard recalls, ‘but not one of them had a camera! I remember one of them saying “Sorry Stan, I didn’t believe those first stories.” It made my day.’
Within 24 hours they were all questioned by the Flying Saucer Working Party. ‘We were not given their names and we were strictly warned not to ask questions of them, nor make enquiries elsewhere in the Ministry’, Hubbard said. ‘We were also warned not to discuss the subject later, even amongst ourselves in private"...
Extract from 'The UFO Files' by David Clarke ©Text copyright David Clarke
