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Many years ago I started my career working for the Ministry of Defence which meant moving to the South of England to be stationed at a large research airfield which I won't name but it is famous for its biannual airshows. An excitiing time for a seventeen year old living away from home for the first time. Having an interest in aviation made the experience all the more interesting.
I had been there about a year when rumours and reports of UFO activity in the vicinity began to be heard, the base had a history of such activity but being very secret not much information made it into the public domain. Local newspapers reported sightings of a glowing cigar shaped object, I myself nor colleagues had witnessed anything like this but a memo was circulated to all departments suggesting that should we see anything unusual it was not to be spoken about and especially not the press.
Much as there were a lot of aircraft movements the airfield was close to civilian housing so flying hours were restricted and never at night. I lived in the old officer's quarters which was inside the base and one night I was woken up by what sounded like an aircraft going supersonic overhead, strictly forbidden at any time over the mainland. Despite complaints from civilians around the area nobody knew what was happening except that we were not responsible. A couple of nights later the same thing happened again.
My research facility was located away from the main site as the equipment we used constituted an explosion risk, it was also close to the apron and hangers where the various aircraft operated from, I love the view from my office. We would occasionally get visiting aircraft from other air forces which I love to go out to where they parked and get a close up look at the planes and chat to the pilots. One afternoon two Royal Air Force F4 Phantoms arrived so I duly went out to 'greet' them only to watch them taxi past me and straight into a hanger something that rarely happened. Being so close I noticed that both F4's were armed with air to air missiles and not training types either but the real thing which was unheard of.
A couple of nights later woken up again by something going supersonic over the airfield, within minutes I heard engines spooling up and looking out of my window soon saw the twin flames from each F4 as they took off with full afterburner, they returned within the hour. This happened twice more and as acivity ceased they returned to their squadron which I think might have been 111 based at RAF Leuchars in Scotland. As you can imagine the rumours mill was cranking up to a fever pitch as we all wondered what had happened but not much information came our way, no surprise on a facility where all projects were top secret.
Months go by and I'm continuing flying training at a civilian airfield nearby, at that time air traffic controllers were being encouraged to learn to fly and many did take up the offer of the free training. One Saturday hanging around the club house waiting for the weather to clear I got talking with the other guy waiting over a coffee, he was an air traffic controller and when I told him where I worked he went quiet for a bit then with some humming and hawing got around to the subject of weird things happening in the sky recently, of course I was intrigued and encouraged him to open up on the subject. Seems he was on duty the first night the F4's had been scrambled to intercept an object moving across Southern England at high speeds and was being tracked on radar both ground based and the F4's onboard radar. On the occasions they got close to the object (dark, no lights), it then accelerated through Mach 5 then went vertical still accelerating and lost to radar. Nothing could do that then and probably even now.
Still a mystery and I can't find any information about it but it was a long time ago, We all had to sign the Official Secrets Act which meant no wagging tongues or get locked up for a long time. I eventually finished up there and moved on with my career but for a six month stint I was trained and operated as a Flight Test Officer, this fact will be relevant when I post a much shorter story about my only encounter with a UFO.
I had been there about a year when rumours and reports of UFO activity in the vicinity began to be heard, the base had a history of such activity but being very secret not much information made it into the public domain. Local newspapers reported sightings of a glowing cigar shaped object, I myself nor colleagues had witnessed anything like this but a memo was circulated to all departments suggesting that should we see anything unusual it was not to be spoken about and especially not the press.
Much as there were a lot of aircraft movements the airfield was close to civilian housing so flying hours were restricted and never at night. I lived in the old officer's quarters which was inside the base and one night I was woken up by what sounded like an aircraft going supersonic overhead, strictly forbidden at any time over the mainland. Despite complaints from civilians around the area nobody knew what was happening except that we were not responsible. A couple of nights later the same thing happened again.
My research facility was located away from the main site as the equipment we used constituted an explosion risk, it was also close to the apron and hangers where the various aircraft operated from, I love the view from my office. We would occasionally get visiting aircraft from other air forces which I love to go out to where they parked and get a close up look at the planes and chat to the pilots. One afternoon two Royal Air Force F4 Phantoms arrived so I duly went out to 'greet' them only to watch them taxi past me and straight into a hanger something that rarely happened. Being so close I noticed that both F4's were armed with air to air missiles and not training types either but the real thing which was unheard of.
A couple of nights later woken up again by something going supersonic over the airfield, within minutes I heard engines spooling up and looking out of my window soon saw the twin flames from each F4 as they took off with full afterburner, they returned within the hour. This happened twice more and as acivity ceased they returned to their squadron which I think might have been 111 based at RAF Leuchars in Scotland. As you can imagine the rumours mill was cranking up to a fever pitch as we all wondered what had happened but not much information came our way, no surprise on a facility where all projects were top secret.
Months go by and I'm continuing flying training at a civilian airfield nearby, at that time air traffic controllers were being encouraged to learn to fly and many did take up the offer of the free training. One Saturday hanging around the club house waiting for the weather to clear I got talking with the other guy waiting over a coffee, he was an air traffic controller and when I told him where I worked he went quiet for a bit then with some humming and hawing got around to the subject of weird things happening in the sky recently, of course I was intrigued and encouraged him to open up on the subject. Seems he was on duty the first night the F4's had been scrambled to intercept an object moving across Southern England at high speeds and was being tracked on radar both ground based and the F4's onboard radar. On the occasions they got close to the object (dark, no lights), it then accelerated through Mach 5 then went vertical still accelerating and lost to radar. Nothing could do that then and probably even now.
Still a mystery and I can't find any information about it but it was a long time ago, We all had to sign the Official Secrets Act which meant no wagging tongues or get locked up for a long time. I eventually finished up there and moved on with my career but for a six month stint I was trained and operated as a Flight Test Officer, this fact will be relevant when I post a much shorter story about my only encounter with a UFO.
