Within Huntingdonshire UFOs
The Landed UFO That Was A Restaurant
The saucer-shaped Megatron restaurant shows how a sincere local UFO report can begin with a perfectly earthly object.
On this page
- The saucer by the A1
- Police calls and local memory
- Why solved cases matter
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Introduction
The Megatron restaurant false UFO story is one of Huntingdonshire’s most useful solved “UFO” cases because the answer was not hidden in a secret file: it was sitting beside the road at Alconbury. On the evening of 26 March 1990, callers reportedly alerted police to a flying saucer near the village, only for officers to find the opening-night spectacle of a purpose-built, saucer-shaped restaurant lit up by lasers beside the A604, close to the A1 and RAF Alconbury. The incident matters because it shows how a sincere report can begin with a real, unusual-looking object and still be completely earthly. [tonyconn.com]tonyconn.comOpen source on tonyconn.com.
For a Huntingdonshire UFO history, Megatron is best treated as a misidentification case rather than an unexplained aerial event. It belongs in the record not because it strengthens claims of exotic craft, but because it explains how local setting, darkness, novelty architecture, road traffic and expectation can turn a restaurant launch into a short-lived “flying saucer” report. The later nostalgia around the site has kept the story alive long after the building itself was demolished in 2008. [Cambridge News]cambridge-news.co.ukspaceship mcdonalds a1 cambridgeshire alconbury 19089570spaceship mcdonalds a1 cambridgeshire alconbury 19089570
The saucer by the A1
Megatron stood just outside Alconbury, near Huntingdon, in the historic Huntingdonshire area now commonly reported in modern sources as Cambridgeshire. It was built in 1990 as a themed fast-food restaurant and was deliberately designed to resemble a classic flying saucer. Local and retrospective accounts describe a circular, silver, space-age building, a tunnel-like entrance, interior lighting effects, lasers, robot or alien performers, and touchscreen ordering that felt strikingly futuristic for the early 1990s. [Cambridge News+2Nostalgia Central]cambridge-news.co.ukOpen source on cambridge-news.co.uk.
The location was part of the story. The restaurant sat by major roads and close to RAF Alconbury, a long-established airbase with a strong American presence. A USAF history notes that RAF Alconbury had hosted American units from the Second World War onwards and that U-2 reconnaissance aircraft remained associated with the base into the early 1990s. Against that background, a bright saucer-shaped building near an airbase was almost designed to be noticed, especially by passing motorists seeing it at night rather than by diners arriving in daylight. [501csw.usafe.af.mil]501csw.usafe.af.miltri base historyTri-Base History > 501st Combat Support Wing > Article Display…
Megatron was also not a generic roadside diner with a gimmicky sign. Its concept was unusually elaborate: the founder, Danny Blundell, planned it as the first of a chain, and accounts describe a science-fiction dining experience aimed partly at American service personnel from nearby RAF Alconbury. Customers could reportedly pay in pounds or dollars, and the menu and décor leaned into the space theme. That makes the misidentification easier to understand: the building was not accidentally saucer-like; it was meant to look like a landed spacecraft. [tonyconn.com]tonyconn.comOpen source on tonyconn.com.
Police calls and local memory
The clearest version of the false UFO story centres on the launch event. Tony Conn’s account, first published in Fortean Times and later republished online, states that on the evening of 26 March 1990 the police control centre at Hinchingbrooke received multiple calls about a flying saucer outside Alconbury. When officers attended, the “saucer” turned out to be the illuminated Megatron restaurant. Nostalgia Central gives the same broad account: a laser light show visible for miles prompted members of the public in the Huntingdon area to report what they thought was a genuine UFO. [tonyconn.com]tonyconn.comOpen source on tonyconn.com.
This is not a case where later evidence deepened the mystery. Later reporting has mostly done the opposite: it has filled in the ordinary details. CambridgeshireLive described the building as the UFO-shaped diner just off the A1 at Alconbury, noted that it began as Megatron in 1990, and recorded that it was converted into a McDonald’s in 1993. Former employee testimony in that report gives a mundane picture of a busy, leaky, hard-to-maintain building rather than a mysterious site: computer ordering, a gloomy windowless interior, echo problems, traffic queues and high maintenance costs. [Cambridge News]cambridge-news.co.ukOpen source on cambridge-news.co.uk.
Local memory has kept the “UFO McDonald’s” name alive because the building was genuinely memorable. Articles published years after its closure describe former visitors recalling the entrance lights, the unusual interior and childhood trips to the site. One CambridgeshireLive retrospective says the building remained vacant for several years after McDonald’s left and was demolished in 2008; another notes that footage from 1993 shows the exterior and tunnel-like entrance shortly after its conversion. [Cambridge News]cambridge-news.co.ukspaceship mcdonalds a1 cambridgeshire alconbury 19089570spaceship mcdonalds a1 cambridgeshire alconbury 19089570
The useful caution is that memory and nostalgia can blur dates and details. Some accounts say the original Megatron restaurant closed in 1992; others describe the McDonald’s period ending around 2000 before the building lay derelict. Those differences do not affect the core UFO interpretation, because the reported police calls belong to the opening spectacle in March 1990, when the building was new, bright and unfamiliar. [tonyconn.com+2Cambridge News]tonyconn.comOpen source on tonyconn.com.
Why this was a false UFO report, not a weak mystery
Megatron is a strong solved case because the reported object, place and explanation line up closely. The reported “flying saucer” was not a distant light with no recovered context. It was a large saucer-shaped structure beside a known road, during a public launch event, using light effects, at a site where police could attend and identify what people had seen. The case therefore has the shape of a misidentification, not the shape of an unresolved aerial encounter. [tonyconn.com]tonyconn.comOpen source on tonyconn.com.
It also illustrates a wider point found in UK UFO records. The National Archives explains that Ministry of Defence UFO files contain many reports of shapes, lights and flashes, often with possible explanations such as Venus, aircraft, weather balloons, satellites, airships and re-entries; later files generally give no firm explanation for individual sightings unless a note or local event helped clarify them. Megatron is the kind of case researchers like to find: the local event is known, the object was real, and the mistaken interpretation is easy to reconstruct. [The National Archives]nationalarchives.gov.ukThe National Archives UFO reportsThe National Archives UFO reports
The case is also a reminder that “false” does not mean “fabricated”. The callers may have accurately reported what they experienced: an unexpected saucer-like form, bright lights and a strange roadside scene. The mistake lay in interpretation. In UFO history, that distinction matters. A report can be honest, vivid and locally important while still being explained by architecture, lighting and context.
Several factors made the misunderstanding plausible:
- Shape: the building was intentionally saucer-shaped, not merely vaguely unusual.
- Lighting: the opening event reportedly used lasers or bright effects visible over a wide area.
- Roadside viewing: passing motorists may have seen it briefly, from a poor angle, while moving.
- Airbase setting: RAF Alconbury gave the area an aviation association that could prime unusual interpretations.
- Novelty: in March 1990, the restaurant had not yet become a familiar local landmark.
What later reporting changed
Later reporting weakened any UFO mystery but strengthened the local-history value of the story. Instead of producing new evidence of an unexplained object, later accounts have made Megatron more concrete: its founder, design purpose, opening spectacle, American-base market, later McDonald’s conversion, closure and demolition are all part of the public record. [tonyconn.com+2Cambridge News]tonyconn.comOpen source on tonyconn.com.
The building’s afterlife is unusually rich for a failed restaurant. It appears in local nostalgia pieces, architecture-adjacent discussions of lost landmarks, and memory projects about demolished places. The Disappointed Tourist entry, for example, treats Megatron as a lost site of childhood memory and describes it as a flying saucer-shaped restaurant founded in 1990, designed by Graham Campbell to resemble a UFO, later converted to McDonald’s and demolished in 2008. [Disappointed Tourist]disappointedtourist.orgDisappointed Tourist MegatronDisappointed Tourist Megatron
That afterlife can slightly distort the UFO angle. Online retellings often emphasise the fun of the “UFO McDonald’s” rather than the evidential sequence: calls, police response, identification, and local memory. For a UFO-history page, the key is not that Megatron was quirky. The key is that it created a real-world test case for how a report can sound extraordinary at first contact and become ordinary once investigators reach the scene.
Why solved cases matter
Solved cases like Megatron are not filler beside more mysterious Huntingdonshire reports. They are essential controls. They show the kinds of mundane causes that can sit behind a dramatic first description, especially when the witness sees something briefly, at night, from a road, near aviation infrastructure, or amid bright artificial lighting.
Megatron also helps separate three categories that are often blurred in popular UFO discussion. An unresolved case lacks enough evidence to identify the cause. A weakly sourced case may be interesting but rests on thin, late or second-hand testimony. A solved case has a credible explanation that fits the known facts. Megatron sits firmly in the third category: the “landed UFO” was a restaurant.
For Huntingdonshire, the value of the story is local and practical. It does not prove that every UFO report in the area was a mistake, and it should not be used to dismiss witnesses automatically. It does show why a careful county-level history should ask basic questions before reaching exotic conclusions: what exactly was seen, from where, for how long, under what lighting, near what roads or airfields, and what else was happening locally that evening?
The Huntingdonshire takeaway
Megatron’s place in Huntingdonshire UFO history is modest but memorable. It was not a hidden craft, a military secret or a case that baffled investigators for decades. It was a spectacular piece of mimetic architecture — a building designed to look like something else — which briefly did its job too well.
That makes it one of the area’s clearest examples of misidentification. The story begins with alarmed calls about a flying saucer and ends with police finding a themed restaurant launch. In a county record that also includes brief official sighting entries, road-corridor observations and the shadow of RAF Alconbury, Megatron is a useful anchor: sometimes the most convincing-looking UFO is not in the sky at all.
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The UFO Experience
Provides context for evaluating UFO reports and misidentification cases such as the Megatron restaurant incident.
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Offers broader UFO-reporting context that helps readers compare unexplained cases with solved misidentifications.
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Endnotes
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Source: tonyconn.com
Link: https://tonyconn.com/2024/10/23/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe-the-megatron-story/ -
Source: 501csw.usafe.af.mil
Title: tri base history
Link: https://www.501csw.usafe.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/437404/tri-base-history/Source snippet
Tri-Base History > 501st Combat Support Wing > Article Display...
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Source: 501csw.usafe.af.mil
Title: mil501st Combat Support Wing > Home
Link: https://www.501csw.usafe.af.mil/ -
Source: 501csw.usafe.af.mil
Title: mil Inspiration From Our History
Link: https://www.501csw.usafe.af.mil/News/Commentaries/Article/2469923/inspiration-from-our-history/ -
Source: military.com
Link: https://www.military.com/base-guide/raf-alconbury-raf-molesworth -
Source: nostalgiacentral.com
Title: Nostalgia Central Megatron Restaurant – Nostalgia Central
Link: https://nostalgiacentral.com/blog/megatron-restaurant/ -
Source: cambridge-news.co.uk
Title: spaceship mcdonalds a1 cambridgeshire alconbury 19089570
Link: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/spaceship-mcdonalds-a1-cambridgeshire-alconbury-19089570 -
Source: disappointedtourist.org
Title: Disappointed Tourist Megatron
Link: https://disappointedtourist.org/megatron/ -
Source: cambridge-news.co.uk
Link: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/mcdonalds-ufo-spaceship-alconbury-restaurant-19971168 -
Source: cambridge-news.co.uk
Title: mcdonalds spaceship ufo a1 alconbury 17535543
Link: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/mcdonalds-spaceship-ufo-a1-alconbury-17535543 -
Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk
Title: The National Archives UFO reports
Link: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/explore-by-time-period/postwar/ufo-reports/ -
Source: GOV.UK
Title: UF O reports in the UK
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ufo-reports-in-the-uk -
Source: Wikipedia
Title: RAF Alconbury
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Alconbury -
Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Title: briefing guide 12 07 12
Link: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/briefing-guide-12-07-12.pdf -
Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Link: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/ufo-files-reveal-behind-the-scenes-of-the-ufo-desk.pdf -
Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Link: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/aug-2009-research-guide.pdf -
Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Link: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/the-ufo-files-extract.pdf -
Source: cambridge-news.co.uk
Title: former cambridgeshire mcdonalds people mistook 33569801
Link: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/history/former-cambridgeshire-mcdonalds-people-mistook-33569801 -
Source: cambridge-news.co.uk
Title: video inside spaceship mcdonalds cambridgeshire 19873474
Link: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/video-inside-spaceship-mcdonalds-cambridgeshire-19873474 -
Source: cambridge-news.co.uk
Title: 14 things you could 1990s 22738320
Link: https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/14-things-you-could-1990s-22738320 -
Source: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
Title: ufo report 2009
Link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7582c440f0b6397f35efcb/ufo_report_2009.pdf -
Source: instagram.com
Link: https://www.instagram.com/501csw/?hl=en -
Source: democracy.huntingdonshire.gov.uk
Link: https://democracy.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/moderngov/documents/g13738/Public%20reports%20pack%20Monday%2016-Dec-2013%2019.00%20Development%20Management%20Panel%20Decommissioned%2018052.pdf?T=10
Additional References
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Source: youtube.com
Title: UFO Mc Donalds
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRUXJUNPhgoSource snippet
Alconbury Airshow 1991 – Remastered VHS Footage of USAF & Cold War Jets...
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Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/501stCSW/?locale=en_GB -
Source: dvidshub.net
Link: https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/501CSW -
Source: stantec.com
Link: https://www.stantec.com/uk/projects/a/alconbury-weald -
Source: ahmm.co.uk
Link: https://www.ahmm.co.uk/assets/pdf/Alconbury%20Club_Info%20Pack-compressed.pdf -
Source: qolf.org
Link: https://www.qolf.org/wp-content/uploads/Alconbury-Weald.pdf -
Source: urbanandcivic.com
Link: https://www.urbanandcivic.com/portfolio/strategic-sites/alconbury-weald/ -
Source: davidlock.com
Link: https://www.davidlock.com/projects/alconbury-weald -
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/huntspost/posts/do-you-remember-the-old-megatron-spaceship-restaurant-at-alconbury/10159575586566907/ -
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/twochubbycubs/posts/east-anglians-can-anyone-remember-the-megatron-restaurant-in-alconbury-it-later-/1612164976943681/
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