at 8:15 p.m. on saturday, july 26, 1952, a pilot and stewardess on a national airlines flight into washington observed some strange lights above their plane. within minutes, both radar centers at national airport, and the radar at andrews afb, were tracking more unknown objects. usaf master sergeant charles e. cummings visually observed the objects at andrews, he later said that "these lights did not have the characteristics of shooting stars. there was [sic] no trails . . . they traveled faster than any shooting star i have ever seen."