Ottawa

  • U is for UFOs in Ottawa: The truth is (still) out there
    U is for UFOs in Ottawa: The truth is (still) out there0

    One fine summer evening in 1953, with Bank Street bustling as thousands of ball fans headed to Lansdowne Park to watch a game, Wilbert B. Smith, a senior radio engineer with the Department of Transport, and his research team released a weather balloon over the area. Not just any weather balloon, this one was covered with aluminum to make it disk-shaped, while fastened to its centre was a large aircraft flare timed to ignite when the balloon reached 5,000 feet, or 1,524 metres.