Unidentified flying object

An unidentified flying object (usually abbreviated to UFO or U.F.O.) is any unusual apparent object in the sky whose cause cannot be identified by the observer, or (in a narrower definition) by investigators; though in popular usage it more loosely means alien spacecraft, being one explanation (among several) offered for such sightings.Sony VAIO VGN-NW21EF/S Battery

Though UFO sightings have occurred throughout history, modern interest in them dates from World War II, since when governments have investigated UFO reports, often from a military perspective, and UFO researchers have investigated, written about and created organizations devoted to the subject. Sony VAIO VGN-NW21JF Battery

One such investigation, The UK's Project Condign report, notes that Russian, Former Soviet Republics, and Chinese authorities have made a co-ordinated effort to understand the UFO topic and that State military organizations, particularly in Russia, have done "considerably more work (than is evident from open sources)" on military applications which have stemmed from their UFO research.Sony VAIO VGN-NW21MF Battery

Studies have established that the majority of UFOs are observations of some real but conventional object—most commonly aircraft, balloons, noctilucent clouds, nacreous clouds, or astronomical objects such as meteors or bright planets – that have been misidentified by the observer as anomalies, while a small percentage of reported UFOs are hoaxes.Sony VAIO VGN-NW21MF/W Battery

However, after excluding these incorrect reports, between 5% and 20% of the total remain unexplained, and so can be classified as unidentified in the strictest sense. Many such reports have been made by trained observers such as pilots, police and the military; some involve radar traces, so not all reports are visual.Sony VAIO VGN-NW21ZF Battery

Proponents of an extraterrestrial hypothesis believe that these unidentified reports are of alien spacecraft, though various other hypotheses have been proposed.

While UFOs have been the subject of extensive investigation by various governments, and some scientists support the extraterrestrial hypothesis, few scientific papers about UFOs have been published in peer-reviewed journals.Sony VAIO VGN-NW31EF/W Battery

There has been some debate in the scientific community about whether any scientific investigation into UFO sightings is warranted.

UFOs have become a prominent theme in modern culture,[12] and this cultural phenomenon has been the subject of academic research. Sony VAIO VGN-NW31JF Battery

Terminology

The first widely publicized U.S. sighting, reported by private pilot Kenneth Arnold in June 1947, gave rise to the popular terms "flying saucer" and "flying disc", of which the former is still sometimes used, even though Arnold said the most of the objects he saw were not totally circular and one was crescent-shaped (see Kenneth_Arnold_UFO_sighting for details).Sony VAIO VGN-NW320F/B Battery

The term "UFO" was first suggested in 1952 by Cpt. Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of UFOs. Ruppelt felt that "flying saucer" did not reflect the diversity of the sightings. He suggested that UFO should be pronounced as a word – you-foe. Sony VAIO VGN-NW320F/TC Battery

However it is now usually pronounced by forming each letter: U.F.O. His term was quickly adopted by theUnited States Air Force , which also briefly used "UFOB". The Air Force initially defined UFOs as those objects that remain unidentified after scrutiny by expert investigators, though today the term UFO is often used for any unexplained sighting regardless of whether it has been investigated.Sony VAIO VGN-NW35E Battery

Because the term UFO is ambiguous – referring either to any unidentified sighting, or in popular usage to alien spacecraft – and the public and media ridicule sometimes associated with the topic, some investigators now prefer to use other terms such as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP).Sony VAIO VGN-NW380F/S Battery

The equivalent acronym for UFO in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian is OVNI (Objeto Volador No Identificado, Objeto Voador Não Identificado, Objet volant non identifié or Oggetto Volante Non Identificato).Sony VAIO VGN-NW380F/T Battery

Early history

Unexplained aerial observations have been reported throughout history. Some were undoubtedly astronomical in nature: comets, bright meteors, one or more of the five planets that can be seen with the naked eye, planetary conjunctions, or atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia and lenticular clouds. Sony VAIO VGN-NW50JB Battery

An example is Halley's Comet, which was recorded first by Chinese astronomers in 240 B.C. and possibly as early as 467 B.C. Such sightings throughout history were often treated as supernatural portents, angels, or other religious omens. Some current-day UFO Sony VAIO VGN-NW51FB/N Battery

researchers have noticed similarities between some religious symbols in medieval paintings and UFO reports though the canonical and symbolic character of such images is documented by art historians placing more conventional religious interpretations on such images.Sony VAIO VGN-NW51FB/W Battery

• Shen Kuo (1031–1095), a Song Chinese government scholar-official and prolific polymath inventor and scholar, wrote a vivid passage in his Dream Pool Essays (1088) about an unidentified flying object. He recorded the testimony of eyewitnesses in 11th-century Anhui and Jiangsu (especially in the city of Yangzhou), Sony VAIO VGN-NW70JB Battery
• who stated that a flying object with opening doors would shine a blinding light from its interior (from an object shaped like a pearl) that would cast shadows from trees for ten miles in radius, and was able to take off at tremendous speeds. Sony VAIO VGN-NW71FB/N Battery
• On January 25, 1878, The Denison Daily News wrote that local farmer John Martin had reported seeing a large, dark, circular flying object resembling a balloon flying "at wonderful speed." Martin also said it appeared to be about the size of a saucer, the first known use of the word "saucer" in association with a UFO.Sony VAIO VGN-NW71FB/W Battery
• On February 28, 1904, there was a sighting by three crew members on the USS Supply 300 miles west of San Francisco, reported by Lt. Frank Schofield, later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Battle Fleet. Schofield wrote of three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects flying in echelon formation that approached beneath the cloud layer,Sony VAIO VGN-NW91FS Battery
• then changed course and "soared" above the clouds, departing directly away from the earth after two to three minutes. The largest had an apparent size of about six suns.
• 1916 and 1926: The three oldest known pilot UFO sightings, of 1305 cataloged by NARCAP.Sony VAIO VGN-NW91GS Battery
• On January 31, 1916, a UK pilot near Rochford reported a row of lights, like lighted windows on a railway carriage, that rose and disappeared. In January 1926, a pilot reported six "flying manhole covers" between Wichita, Kansas and Colorado Springs, Colorado.Sony VAIO VGN-NW91VS Battery
• In late September 1926, an airmail pilot over Nevada was forced to land by a huge, wingless cylindrical object.
• On August 5, 1926, while traveling in the Humboldt Mountains of Tibet's Kokonor region, Nicholas Roerich reported that members of his expedition saw "something big and shiny reflecting the sun, like a huge oval moving at great speed. Sony VAIO VPC CW2MFX/PU Battery
• Crossing our camp the thing changed in its direction from south to southwest. And we saw how it disappeared in the intense blue sky. We even had time to take our field glasses and saw quite distinctly an oval form with shiny surface, one side of which was brilliant from the sun.”Sony VAIO VPC S11V9E/B Battery
• Another description by Roerich was, "...A shiny body flying from north to south. Field glasses are at hand. It is a huge body. One side glows in the sun. It is oval in shape. Then it somehow turns in another direction and disappears in the southwest."Sony VAIO VPCB119GJ/B Battery
• In the Pacific and European theatres during World War II, "Foo-fighters" (metallic spheres, balls of light and other shapes that followed aircraft) were reported and on occasion photographed by Allied and Axis pilots. Some proposed Allied explanations at the time included St. Elmo's Fire, the planet Venus,Sony VAIO VPCB11AGJ Battery
• hallucinations from oxygen deprivation, or German secret weapon.
• On February 25, 1942, U.S. Army observers reported unidentified aircraft both visually and on radar over the Los Angeles, California region. Sony VAIO VPCB11AVJ Battery
• Antiaircraft artillery was fired at what was presumed to be Japanese planes. No readily apparent explanation was offered, though some officials dismissed the reports of aircraft as being triggered by anxieties over expected Japanese air attacks on California.Sony VAIO VPCB11V9E Battery
• However, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson insisted real aircraft were involved. The incident later became known as the Battle of Los Angeles, or the West coast air raid.
• In 1946, there were over 2000 reports, collected primarily by the Swedish military, Sony VAIO VPCB11X9E Battery
• of unidentified aerial objects in the Scandinavian nations, along with isolated reports from France, Portugal, Italy and Greece, then referred to as "Russian hail", and later as "ghost rockets", because it was thought that these mysterious objects were possibly Russian tests of captured German V1 or V2rockets. Sony VAIO VPCCW18FJ/P Battery
• Although most were thought to be natural phenomena like meteors, over 200 were tracked on radar and deemed to be "real physical objects" by the Swedish military. In a 1948 top secretdocument, the Swedish military told the USAF Europe in 1948 that some of their investigators believed them to be extraterrestrial in origin.Sony VAIO VPCCW18FJ/R Battery

The Kenneth Arnold sightings

The post World War II UFO phase in the United States began with a famous sighting by American businessman Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947 while flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, Washington. He reported seeing nine brilliantly bright objects flying across the face of Rainier.Sony VAIO VPCCW18FJ/W Battery

Although there were other 1947 U.S. sightings of similar objects that preceded this, it was Arnold's sighting that first received significant media attention and captured the public's imagination. Arnold described what he saw as being "flat like a pie pan", Sony VAIO VPCCW19FJ/W Battery

"shaped like saucers and were so thin I could barely see them… ", "half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. … they looked like a big flat disk" (see Arnold's drawing at right), and flew "like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water". (One of the objects, however, he would describe later as crescent-shaped, as shown in illustration at left.) Sony VAIO VPCCW1AFJ Battery

Arnold’s descriptions were widely reported and within a few days gave rise to the terms flying saucerand flying disk. Arnold’s sighting was followed in the next few weeks by hundreds of other reported sightings, mostly in the U.S., but in other countries as well.Sony VAIO VPCCW1AHJ Battery

After reports of the Arnold sighting hit the media, other cases began to be reported in increasing numbers. In one instance a United Airlines crew sighting of nine more disc-like objects over Idaho on the evening of July 4. At the time, this sighting was even more widely reported than Arnold’s and lent considerable credence to Arnold’s report.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E Battery

American UFO researcher Ted Bloecher, in his comprehensive review of newspaper reports (including cases that preceded Arnold's), found a sudden surge upwards in sightings on July 4, peaking on July 6–8. Bloecher noted that for the next few days most American newspapers were filled with front-page stories of the new "flying saucers" or "flying discs".Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/B Battery

Speculation as to what the flying saucers were was rampant in the newspapers. Theories ranged from hallucinations, mass hysteria, optical illusions, hoaxes, reflections off airplanes, unusual atmospheric conditions, and weather balloons to byproducts of atomic testing or U.S./Russian secret weapons, to even more esoteric interdimensional or interplanetary visitors.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/L Battery

Reports began to rapidly tail off after July 8, when officials began issuing press statements on the Roswell UFO incident, in which they explained debris found on the ground by a rancher as being that of a weather balloon.

Over several years in the 1960s, Bloecher (aided by physicist James E. McDonald) discovered 853 flying disc sightings that year from 140 newspapers from Canada, Washington D.C, and every U.S. state except Montana.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/P Battery

Investigations

UFOs have been subject to investigations over the years that vary widely in scope and scientific rigor. Governments or independent academics in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Peru, France, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain, and the Soviet Union are known to have investigated UFO reports at various times.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/R Battery

Among the best known government studies are the ghost rockets investigation by the Swedish military (1946–1947), Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by theUnited States Air Force from 1947 until 1969, the secret U.S.Sony VAIO VPCCW1S1E/W Battery

Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951), the secret USAF Project Blue Book Special Report #14 by the Battelle Memorial Institute, and Brazilian Air Force Operation Saucer (1977). France has had an ongoing investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN) within its space agency CNES since 1977, as has Uruguay since 1989.Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/B Battery

Project Sign in 1948 wrote a highly classified opinion (see Estimate of the Situation) that the best UFO reports probably had an extraterrestrial explanation, as did the private but high-level FrenchCOMETA study of 1999. Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/L Battery

A top secret Swedish military opinion given to the USAF in 1948 stated that some of their analysts believed the 1946 ghost rockets and later flying saucers had extraterrestrial origins. (see Ghost rockets for document). In 1954, German rocket scientist Hermann Oberth revealed an internal West German government investigation, which he headed, Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/R Battery

that arrived at an extraterrestrial conclusion, but this study was never made public. Classified, internal reports by the Canadian Project Magnet in 1952 and 1953 also assigned high probability to extraterrestrial origins. Publicly, however, Project Magnet, nor later Canadian defense studies, ever stated such a conclusion.Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/W Battery

Project Sign was dismantled and became Project Grudge at the end of 1948. Angered by the low quality of investigations by Grudge, the Air Force Director of Intelligence reorganized it as Project Blue Book in late 1951, placing Ruppelt in charge. Sony VAIO VPCCW26EC Battery

Blue Book closed down in 1970, using the Condon Commission's negative conclusion as a rationale, ending the official Air Force UFO investigations. However, a 1969 USAF document, known as the Bolender memo, plus later government documents revealed that nonpublic U.S. government UFO investigations continued after 1970. Sony VAIO VPCCW26FX/B Battery

The Bollender memo first stated that "reports of unidentified flying objects that could affect national security… are not part of the Blue Book system," indicating that more serious UFO incidents were already handled outside of the public Blue Book investigation.Sony VAIO VPCCW28EC Battery

The memo then added, "reports of UFOs which could affect national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this purpose." In addition, in the late 1960s, there was a chapter on UFOs at the U.S. Air Force Academy in their Space Sciences course, giving serious consideration to possible extraterrestrial origins. Sony VAIO VPCCW28FJ/P Battery

When word of the curriculum became public, the Air Force in 1970 put out a statement the book was outdated and that cadets were now being informed of Condon's negative conclusion instead.

The initially classified USAF Regulation 200-2, first issued in 1953 after the Robertson Panel, which first defined UFOs and how information was to be collected,Sony VAIO VPCCW28FJ/R Battery

stated explicitly that the two reasons for studying the unexplained cases were for national security reasons and for possible technical aspects involved, implying physical reality and concern about national defense, but without opinion as to origins. (For example, such information would also be considered important if UFOs had a foreign or domestic origin.) Sony VAIO VPCCW28FJ/W Battery

The first two known classified USAF studies in 1947 also concluded real physical aircraft were involved, but gave no opinion as to origins. (See American investigations immediately below) These early studies led to the creation of the USAF's Project Sign at the end of 1947, the first semi-public USAF study.Sony VAIO VPCCW29FJ/W Battery

Air Force Regulation 200-2,[33] issued in 1953 and 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object ("UFOB") as "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Sony VAIO VPCCW2AFJ Battery

The regulation also said UFOBs were to be investigated as a "possible threat to the security of the United States" and "to determine technical aspects involved." As to what the public was to be told, "it is permissible to inform news media representatives on UFOB's when the object is positively identified as a familiar object,Sony VAIO VPCCW2AHJ Battery

" but "For those objects which are not explainable, only the fact that ATIC [Air Technical Intelligence Center] will analyze the data is worthy of release, due to many unknowns involved."

Allen Hynek was a trained astronomer who participated in Project Bluebook after doing research as a federal government employee.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E Battery

He formed the opinion that some UFO reports could not be scientifically explained. Through his founding of the Center for UFO Studies and participation at CUFOs he spent the rest of his life researching and documenting UFOs. The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind had a character loosely based on Hynek. Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/B Battery

Another group studying UFOs is Mutual UFO Network. MUFON is a grass roots based organization known for publishing one of the first UFO investigators handbooks. This handbook went into great detail on how to document alleged UFO sightings.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/L Battery

Jacques Vallée, a scientist and prominent UFO researcher, has argued that most UFO research is scientifically deficient, including many government studies such as Project Blue Book, and that mythology and cultism are frequently associated with the phenomenon. Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/P Battery

Vallée states that self-styled scientists often fill the vacuum left by the lack of attention paid to the UFO phenomenon by official science, but also notes that several hundred professional scientists continue to study UFOs in private, what he terms the "invisible college".Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/R Battery

He also argues that much could be learned from rigorous scientific study, but that little such work has been done.

There has been little mainstream scientific study of UFOs, and the topic has received little serious attention or support in mainstream scientific literature. Sony VAIO VPCCW2S1E/W Battery

Official studies ended in the U.S. in December 1969, subsequent to the statement by Edward Condon that the study of UFOs probably could not be justified in the expectation that science would be advanced. The Condon report and these conclusions were endorsed by the National Academy of Scientists, of which Condon was a member.Sony VAIO VPCCW2S5C CN1 Battery

However, a scientific review by the UFO subcommittee of the AIAA disagreed with Condon's conclusion, noting that at least 30% of the cases studied remained unexplained, and that scientific benefit might be gained by continued study.Sony VAIO VPCEA20 Battery

It has been claimed that all UFO cases are anecdotal and that all can be explained as prosaic natural phenomena. On the other hand, it has been argued that there is limited awareness among scientists of observational data, other than what is reported in the popular press.Sony VAIO VPCEB10 Battery

No official government investigation has ever publicly concluded that UFOs are indisputably real, physical objects, extraterrestrial in origin, or of concern to national defense. These same negative conclusions also have been found in studies that were highly classified for many years, such as the UK's Flying Saucer Working Party, Sony VAIO VPCEB11FM Battery

Project Condign, the US CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel, the US military investigation into the green fireballs from 1948 to 1951, and the Battelle Memorial Institute study for the USAF from 1952 to 1955 (Project Blue Book Special Report #14).Sony VAIO VPCEB11FM/BI Battery

Some public government conclusions have indicated physical reality but stopped short of concluding extraterrestrial origins, though not dismissing the possibility. Examples are the Belgian military investigation into large triangles over their airspace in 1989–1991 and the recent 2009 Uruguay Air Force study conclusion (see below).Sony VAIO VPCEB11FM/T Battery

Some private studies have been neutral in their conclusions, but argued the inexplicable core cases called for continued scientific study. Examples are the Sturrock Panel study of 1998 and the 1970AIAA review of the Condon Report.

United States

US investigations into UFOs include:Sony VAIO VPCEB11FM/WI Battery

• The Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit (IPU), established by the US Army sometime in the 1940s, and about which little is known. In 1987, British UFO researcher Timothy Good received a letter confirming the existence of the IPU from the Army Director of Counter-intelligence, in which it was stated,Sony VAIO VPCEB11FX Battery
• "… the aforementioned Army unit was disestablished during the late 1950s and never reactivated. All records pertaining to this unit were surrendered to the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations in conjunction with operation BLUEBOOK." The IPU records have never been released.Sony VAIO VPCEB11FX/BI Battery
• Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by the United States Air Force from 1947 until 1969
• The secret U.S. Army/Air Force Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951)
• Ghost rockets investigations by the Swedish, U.K., U.S., and Greek militaries (1946–1947)Sony VAIO VPCEB11FX/T Battery
• The secret CIA Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) study (1952–53)
• The secret CIA Robertson Panel (1953)
• The secret USAF Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 by the Battelle Memorial Institute (1951–1954)Sony VAIO VPCEB11FX/WI Battery
• The Brookings Report (1960), commissioned by NASA
• The public Condon Committee (1966–1968)
• The private, internal RAND Corporation study (1968)
• The private Sturrock Panel (1998) Sony VAIO VPCEB11GX Battery

Thousands of documents released under FOIA also indicate that many U.S. intelligence agencies collected (and still collect) information on UFOs, including the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), FBI,CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), as well as military intelligence agencies of the Army and Navy, in addition to the Air Force.Sony VAIO VPCEB11GX/BI Battery

The investigation of UFOs has also attracted many civilians, who in the U.S formed research groups such as National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP, active 1956–1980), Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO, 1952–1988), Mutual UFO Network (MUFON, 1969–), and Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS, 1973–).Sony VAIO VPCEB11GX/T Battery

After 1947 sightings

Following the large U.S. surge in sightings in June and early July 1947, on July 9, 1947, Army Air Force (AAF) intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI, began a formal investigation into selected best sightings with characteristics that could not be immediately rationalized, which included Kenneth Arnold’s and that of the United Airlines crew. Sony VAIO VPCEB11GX/WI Battery

The AAF used "all of its top scientists" to determine whether or not "such a phenomenon could, in fact, occur". The research was "being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial phenomenon," or that "they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled."Sony VAIO VPCEB12FX Battery

Three weeks later in a preliminary defense estimate, the air force investigation decided that, "This ‘flying saucer’ situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around."

A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field reached the same conclusion,Sony VAIO VPCEB12FX/BI Battery

that "the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious," that there were objects in the shape of a disc, metallic in appearance, and as big as man-made aircraft. They were characterized by "extreme rates of climb [and] maneuverability," general lack of noise, absence of trail, Sony VAIO VPCEB12FX/BIC Battery

occasional formation flying, and "evasive" behavior "when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar," suggesting a controlled craft. It was thus recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up to investigate the phenomenon.Sony VAIO VPCEB12FX/T Battery

It was also recommended that other government agencies should assist in the investigation.

Project Sign

This led to the creation of the Air Force’s Project Sign at the end of 1947, one of the earliest government studies to come to a secret extraterrestrial conclusion. Sony VAIO VPCEB14FX Battery

In August 1948, Sign investigators wrote a top-secret intelligence estimate to that effect. The Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg ordered it destroyed. The existence of this suppressed report was revealed by several insiders who had read it, such as astronomer and USAF consultant J. Allen Hynek and Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of the USAF's Project Blue Book. Sony VAIO VPCEB14FX/BI Battery

Another highly classified U.S. study was conducted by the CIA's Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) in the latter half of 1952 after being directed to do so by the National Security Council (NSC). They concluded UFOs were real physical objects of potential threat to national security.Sony VAIO VPCEB14FX/T Battery

One OS/I memo to the CIA Director (DCI) in December read, "...the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention... Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. Sony VAIO VPCEB14FX/WI Battery

defense installations are of such a nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or any known types of aerial vehicles." The matter was considered so urgent, that OS/I drafted a memorandum from the DCI to the NSC proposing that the NSC establish an investigation of UFOs as a priority project throughout the intelligence and the defense research and development community.Sony VAIO VPCEB15FM Battery

They also urged the DCI to establish an external research project of top-level scientists to study the problem of UFOs, now known as the Robertson Panel, to further analyze the matter. The OS/I investigation was called off after the Robertson Panel's negative conclusions in January 1953.Sony VAIO VPCEB15FM/BI Battery

Condon Committee

A public research effort conducted by the Condon Committee for the USAF, which arrived at a negative conclusion in 1968, marked the end of the US government's official investigation of UFOs, though documents indicate various government intelligence agencies continue unofficially to investigate or monitor the situation.Sony VAIO VPCEB15FM/T Battery

Controversy has surrounded the Condon report, both before and after it was released. It has been claimed that the report was "harshly criticized by numerous scientists, particularly at the powerful AIAA… [who] recommended moderate, but continuous scientific work on UFOs".Sony VAIO VPCEB15FM/WI Battery

In an address made to the AAAS, James E. McDonald stated that he believed science had failed to mount adequate studies of the problem, criticizing the Condon report and prior studies by the US Air Force for being scientifically deficient. He also questioned the basis for Condon's conclusions and argued that the reports of UFOs have been "laughed out of scientific court."Sony VAIO VPCEB15FX Battery

J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer whose position as USAF consultant from 1948 made him perhaps the most knowledgeable scientist connected with the subject, sharply criticized the report of the Condon Committee and later wrote two nontechnical books that set forth the case for investigating seemingly baffling UFO reports.Sony VAIO VPCEB15FX/BI Battery

Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book in his memoir, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956).

Notable cases

• The Battle of Los Angeles in 1942, where unidentified flying objects were sequently thought to be part of a Japanese airstrike.Sony VAIO VPCEB15FX/T Battery

• The Roswell Incident (1947) involved New Mexico residents, local law enforcement officers, and the US military, the latter of whom allegedly collected physical evidence from the UFO crash site.

• The Mantell UFO Incident January 7, 1948 Sony VAIO VPCEB15FX/WI Battery

• The Betty and Barney Hill abduction (1961) was the first reported abduction incident.

• In the Kecksburg Incident, Pennsylvania (1965), residents reported seeing a bell shaped object crash in the area. Police officers, and possibly military personnel, were sent to investigate.Sony VAIO VPCEB16FX Battery

• The Travis Walton abduction case (1975): The movie Fire in the Sky was based on this event, but embellished greatly the original account.

• The "Phoenix Lights" March 13, 1997 Sony VAIO VPCEB16FX/B Battery

Canada

In Canada, the Department of National Defence has dealt with reports, sightings and investigations of UFOs across Canada. In addition to conducting investigations into crop circles in Duhamel, Alberta, it still considers "unsolved" the Falcon Lake incident in Manitoba and the Shag Harbour incident in Nova Scotia.Sony VAIO VPCEB16FX/G Battery

Early Canadian studies included Project Magnet (1950–1954) and Project Second Story (1952–1954), supported by the Defence Research Board. These studies were headed by Canadian Department of Transport radio engineer Wilbert B. Smith, who later publicly supported extraterrestrial origins.Sony VAIO VPCEB16FX/L Battery

In the Shag Harbour incident, a large object sequentially flashing lights was seen and heard to dive into the water by multiple witnesses. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and many local residents also witnessed a light floating on the water immediately afterward, and a large patch of unusual yellow foam when a water search was initiated. Sony VAIO VPCEB16FX/P Battery

Multiple government agencies were eventually involved in trying to identify the crashed object and searching for it. Canadian naval divers later purportedly found no wreckage. In official documents, the object was called a "UFO" because no conventional explanation for the crashed object was discovered.Sony VAIO VPCEB16FX/W Battery

Around the same time, both the Canadian and US military were involved in another UFO-related search at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, approximately 30 miles from Shag Harbour.

France

On March 2007, the French Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) published an archive of UFO sightings and other phenomena online.Sony VAIO VPCEB17FX Battery

French studies include GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN (1977–), within the French space agency CNES, the longest ongoing government-sponsored investigation. About 14% of some 6000 cases studied remained unexplained. The official opinion of GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN has been neutral or negative,Sony VAIO VPCEB17FX/B Battery

but the three heads of the studies have gone on record in stating that UFOs were real physical flying machines beyond our knowledge or that the best explanation for the most inexplicable cases was an extraterrestrial one. Sony VAIO VPCEB17FX/G Battery

The French COMETA panel (1996–1999) was a private study undertaken mostly by aerospace scientists and engineers affiliated with CNES and high-level French Air Force military intelligence analysts, with ultimate distribution of their study intended for high government officials. Sony VAIO VPCEB17FX/L Battery

The COMETA panel likewise concluded the best explanation for the inexplicable cases was the extraterrestrial hypothesis and went further in accusing the United States government of a massive cover-up.

United Kingdom

The UK's Flying Saucer Working Party published its final report in 1951, which remained secret for over 50 years. Sony VAIO VPCEB17FX/P Battery

The Working Party concluded that all UFO sightings could be explained as misidentifications of ordinary objects or phenomena, optical illusions, psychological delusions or hoaxes. The report stated: "We accordingly recommend very strongly that no further investigation of reported mysterious aerial phenomena be undertaken, Sony VAIO VPCEB17FX/W Battery

unless and until some material evidence becomes available."

Eight file collections on UFO sightings, dating from 1978 to 1987, were first released on May 14, 2008, to the UK National Archives by the Ministry of Defence.Sony VAIO VPCEB190X Battery

Although kept secret from the public for many years, most of the files have low levels of classification and none are classified Top Secret. 200 files are set to be made public by 2012. The files are correspondence from the public sent to government officials, such as the MoD and Margaret Thatcher. Sony VAIO VPCEB19FX Battery

The MoD released the files under the Freedom of Information Act due to requests from researchers.These files include, but are not limited to, UFOs over Liverpool and the Waterloo Bridge in London.

On October 20, 2008 more UFO files were released. Sony VAIO VPCEB19GX Battery

One case released detailed that in 1991 an Alitalia passenger aircraft was approaching Heathrow Airport when the pilots saw what they described as a "cruise missile" fly extremely close to the cockpit. The pilots believed that a collision was imminent. UFO expert David Clarke says that this is one of the most convincing cases for a UFO he has come across.Sony VAIO VPCEB1AFX Battery

A secret study of UFOs was undertaken for the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1996 and 2000 and was code-named Project Condign. The resulting report, titled "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Defence Region", was publicly released in 2006, but the identity and credentials of whomever constituted Project Condign remains classified. Sony VAIO VPCEB1AFX/B Battery

The report confirmed earlier findings that the main causes of UFO sightings are misidentification of man-made and natural objects. The report noted: "No artefacts of unknown or unexplained origin have been reported or handed to the UK authorities, despite thousands of UAP reports.Sony VAIO VPCEB1AGX Battery

There are no SIGINT, ELINT or radiation measurements and little useful video or still IMINT." It concluded: "There is no evidence that any UAP, seen in the UKADR [UK Air Defence Region], are incursions by air-objects of any intelligent (extraterrestrial or foreign) origin, or that they represent any hostile intent."Sony VAIO VPCEB1AGX/BI Battery

A little-discussed conclusion of the report was that novel meteorological plasma phenomenon akin to Ball Lightning are responsible for "the majority, if not all" of otherwise inexplicable sightings, especially reports of Black Triangle UFOs.Sony VAIO VPCEB1BGX Battery

In August 2009 The Black Vault internet archive announced the release by the British government of more than 4,000 pages of declassified records.[58] The records include information on theRendlesham Forest incident, crop circles, a UFO attack on a cemetery and even reports of alien abduction claims.Sony VAIO VPCEB1BGX/BI Battery

On December 1, 2009, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) quietly closed down its UFO investigations unit. The unit's hotline and email address were suspended by the Ministry of Defense on that date. The MoD said there was no value in continuing to receive and investigate sightings in a release, stating .Sony VAIO VPCEB1CGX Battery

Sony VAIO VPCEB1CGX/BI Battery"... in over fifty years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom. The MoD has no specific capability for identifying the nature of such sightings. There is no Defence benefit in such investigation and it would be an inappropriate use of defence resources.
Furthermore, responding to reported UFO sightings diverts MoD resources from tasks that are relevant to Defence."

The Guardian reported that the MoD claimed the closure would save the Ministry around £50,000 a year. The MoD said that it would continue to release UFO files to the public through the National Archives.[60]Sony VAIO VPCEB1DGX Battery

Notable cases

• According to records released on August 5, 2010, British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill banned the reporting for 50 years of an alleged UFO incident because of fears it could create mass panic.Sony VAIO VPCEB1DGX/BI Battery

• Reports given to Churchill claimed the incident allegedly involved an RAF reconnaissance plane returning from a mission in France or Germany toward the end of the Second World War. It was over or near the English coastline when it was allegedly suddenly intercepted by a strange metallic object that matched the aircraft's course and speed for a time before accelerating away and disappearing.Sony VAIO VPCEB1EGX Battery

• The plane's crew were reported to have photographed the object, which they said had "hovered noiselessly" near the aircraft, before moving off. According to the documents, details of the coverup emerged when the man wrote to the government in 1999 seeking to find out more about the incident.Sony VAIO VPCEB1EGX/BI Battery

• He described how his grandfather, who had served with theRoyal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World War, was present when Churchill and U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO encounter. Sony VAIO VPCEB1FGX Battery

• The files come from more than 5,000 pages of UFO reports and letters and drawings from members of the public, as well as questions raised by MPs in Parliament. They are available to download for free for a month from The National Archives website.Sony VAIO VPCEB1FGX/BI Battery

• In April 1957 the West Freugh Incident (named after RAF West Freugh in Scotland, the principal military base involved) occurred. Two unidentified objects flying very high over the UK were tracked by radar operators. The objects were reported to operate at speeds and perform manuveres beyond the capability of any known craft.Sony VAIO VPCEB1GGX Battery

• Also significant is their alleged size which – based on the radar returns – was closer to that of a ship than an aircraft.
• In the Rendlesham Forest incident of December 1980, US military personnel witnessed UFOs in the forest near the air base at Woodbridge, Suffolk, over a period of three nights. The sighting was the subject of an official memo to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.Sony VAIO VPCEB1GGX/BI Battery

Uruguay

The Uruguayan Air Force has been conducting an ongoing UFO investigation since 1989 and analyzed 2100 cases, of which they regard only 40 (about 2%) as definitely lacking any conventional explanation. All files have recently been declassified.Sony VAIO VPCEB1HGX Battery

The unexplained cases include military jet interceptions, abductions, cattle mutilations, and physical landing trace evidence. Colonel Ariel Sanchez, who currently heads the investigation, summarized its findings as follows: "The commission managed to determine modifications to the chemical composition of the soil where landings are reported.Sony VAIO VPCEB1HGX/BI Battery

The phenomenon exists. It could be a phenomenon that occurs in the lower sectors of the atmosphere, the landing of aircraft from a foreign air force, up to the extraterrestrial hypothesis. It could be a monitoring probe from outer space, much in the same way that we send probes to explore distant worlds.Sony VAIO VPCEB1JFX Battery

The UFO phenomenon exists in the country. I must stress that the Air Force does not dismiss an extraterrestrial hypothesis based on our scientific analysis."

Astronomer reports

The United States Air Force's Project Blue Book files indicate that approximately 1?% of all unknown reports came from amateur and professional astronomers or other users of telescopes (such as missile trackers or surveyors).Sony VAIO VPCEB1JFX/B Battery

In 1952, astronomer J. Allen Hynek, then a consultant to Blue Book, conducted a small survey of 45 fellow professional astronomers. Five reported UFO sightings (about 11%). In the 1970s, astrophysicist Peter A. Sturrock conducted two large surveys of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and American Astronomical Society.Sony VAIO VPCEB1JFX/G Battery

About 5?% of the members polled indicated that they had had UFO sightings.

Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who admitted to six UFO sightings, including three green fireballs, supported the Extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) for UFOs and stated he thought scientists who dismissed it without study were being "unscientific".Sony VAIO VPCEB1JFX/L Battery

Another astronomer was Lincoln LaPaz, who had headed the Air Force's investigation into the green fireballs and other UFO phenomena in New Mexico. LaPaz reported two personal sightings, one of a green fireball, the other of an anomalous disc-like object. (Both Tombaugh and LaPaz were part of Hynek's 1952 survey.)Sony VAIO VPCEB1JFX/P Battery

Hynek himself took two photos through the window of a commercial airliner of a disc-like object that seemed to pace his aircraft. Even later UFO debunker Donald Menzel filed a UFO report in 1949.Sony VAIO VPCEB1JFX/W Battery

In 1980, a survey of 1800 members of various amateur astronomer associations by Gert Helb and Hynek for the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) found that 24?% responded "yes" to the question "Have you ever observed an object which resisted your most exhaustive efforts at identification?"Sony VAIO VPCEB1KGX Battery

Identification of UFOs

Studies show that after careful investigation, the majority of UFOs can be identified as ordinary objects or phenomena (see Identification studies of UFOs). The most commonly found identified sources of UFO reports are:Sony VAIO VPCEB1KGX/B Battery

• Astronomical objects (bright stars, planets, meteors, re-entering man-made spacecraft, artificial satellites, and the moon)
• Aircraft (Aerial advertising and other aircraft, missile launches)
• Balloons (weather balloons, prank balloons, large research balloons)Sony VAIO VPCEB1KGX/W Battery

• Other atmospheric objects and phenomena (birds, unusual clouds, kites, flares)
• Light phenomena (mirages, Fata Morgana, moon dogs, searchlights and other ground lights, etc.)
• HoaxesSony VAIO VPCEB1LFX Battery

A 1952–1955 study by the Battelle Memorial Institute for the US Air Force included these categories as well as a "psychological" one. However, the scientific analysts were unable to come up with prosaic explanations for 21.5?% of the 3200 cases they examined and 33?% of what were considered the best cases remained unexplained, double the number of the worst cases.Sony VAIO VPCEB1LFX/BI Battery

(See full statistical breakdown in Identification studies of UFOs). Of the 69?% identifieds, 38?% were deemed definitely explained while 31?% were thought to be "questionable." About 9?% of the cases were considered to have insufficient information to make a determination.Sony VAIO VPCEB1LFX/WI Battery

The official French government UFO investigation (GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN), run within the French space agency CNES between 1977 and 2004, scientifically investigated about 6000 cases and found that 13.5?% defied any rational explanation, 46?% were deemed definitely or likely identifiable, while 41?% lacked sufficient information for classification.Sony VAIO VPCEB1MFX Battery

An individual 1979 study by CUFOS researcher Allan Hendry found, as did other investigations, that only a small percentage of cases he investigated were hoaxes (<1?%) and that most sightings were actually honest misidentifications of prosaic phenomena. Hendry attributed most of these to inexperience or misperception.Sony VAIO VPCEB1MFX/BI Battery

However, Hendry's figure for unidentified cases was considerably lower than many other UFO studies such as Project Blue Book or theCondon Report that have found rates of unidentified cases ranging from 6?% to 30?%. Hendry found that 88.6?% of the cases he studied had a clear prosaic explanation,Sony VAIO VPCEB1NFX Battery

and he discarded a further 2.8?% due to unreliable or contradictory witnesses or insufficient information. The remaining 8.6?% of reports could not definitively be explained by prosaic phenomena, although he felt that a further 7.1?% could possibly be explained, leaving only the very best 1.5?% without plausible explanation.Sony VAIO VPCEB1NFX/B Battery

UFO hypotheses

To account for unsolved UFO cases, several hypotheses have been proposed.

• The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) is defined by Edward U. Condon in the 1968 Condon Report as "The idea that some UFOs may be spacecraft sent to Earth from another civilization,Sony VAIO VPCEB1NFX/L Battery

• or on a planet associated with a more distant star", further attributing the popularity of the idea to Donald Keyhoe's UFO book from 1950,[71] though the idea clearly predated Keyhoe, appearing in newspapers and various government documents (see immediately below).Sony VAIO VPCEB1NFX/P Battery

• This is probably the most popular theory among Ufologists. Some private or governmental studies, some secret, have concluded in favor of the ETH, or have had members who disagreed with official conclusions against the conclusion by committees and agencies to which they belonged.Sony VAIO VPCEB1NFX/W Battery

• The UFO Hostility Hypothesis is inside the extraterrestrial hypothesis. It says that the extraterrestrial beings that travel in the UFOs, or most of them, are hostile. The hypothesis comes because of the Cattle Mutilations and the observations made by Wilhelm Reich amd Jerome Eden during their experiments with the Cloudbuster.Sony VAIO VPCEB1PFX Battery

• The interdimensional hypothesis (IDH or IH) says that UFOs are objects crossing over from other dimensions or parallel universe, popularly proposed by Jacques Vallée,[80] though also predating him.
• The paranormal/occult hypothesis is a variant of the interdimensional hypothesis, invoked to explain so-called paranormal aspects sometimes associated with UFO reports.Sony VAIO VPCEB1PFX/B Battery

• The psychosocial hypothesis, that what people report as UFO experiences is the result of psychological misperception mechanisms and is strongly influenced by popular culture.
• That UFOs represent poorly understood or still unknown natural phenomena, such as ball lightning or sprites.Sony VAIO VPCEB1QGX Battery

• The earthquake lights/tectonic strain hypothesis: UFOs are caused by strains in Earth's crust near earthquake faults, which can also supposedly induce hallucinations.
• That UFOs are military flying saucers, top secret or experimental aircraft unfamiliar to most people.Sony VAIO VPCEB1QGX/BI Battery

Associated claims

Besides anecdotal visual sightings, reports sometimes include claims of other kinds of evidence, including cases studied by the military and various government agencies of different countries (such asProject Blue Book, the Condon Committee, the French GEPAN/SEPRA, and Uruguay's current Air Force study).Sony VAIO VPCEB1RGX Battery

A comprehensive scientific review of cases where physical evidence was available was carried out by the 1998 Sturrock UFO panel, with specific examples of many of the categories listed below.

• Radar contact and tracking, sometimes from multiple sites.Sony VAIO VPCEB1RGX/BI Battery

• These have included military personnel and control tower operators, simultaneous visual sightings, and aircraft intercepts. One such recent example were the mass sightings of large, silent, low-flying black triangles in 1989 and 1990 over Belgium, tracked by NATO radar and jet interceptors, and investigated by Belgium's military (included photographic evidence).Sony VAIO VPCEB20 Battery

• Another famous case from 1986 was the JAL 1628 case over Alaska investigated by the FAA.
• Photographic evidence, including still photos, movie film, and video.
• Claims of physical trace of landing UFOs, including ground impressions, burned and/or desiccated soil, burned and broken foliage, magnetic anomalies[specify], increased radiation levels, and metallic traces.Sony VAIO VPCEC20 Battery

• See, e. g. Height 611 UFO Incident or the 1964 Lonnie Zamora's Socorro, New Mexico encounter of the USAF Project Blue Book cases). A well-known example from December 1980 was the USAF Rendlesham Forest Incident in England.Sony VAIO VPCEE20 Battery

• Another occurred in January 1981 in Trans-en-Provence and was investigated by GEPAN, then France's official government UFO-investigation agency. Project Blue Book head Edward J. Ruppelt described a classic 1952 CE2 case involving a patch of charred grass roots.Sony VAIO VPCEF20 Battery

• Physiological effects on people and animals including temporary paralysis, skin burns and rashes, corneal burns, and symptoms superficially resembling radiation poisoning, such as the Cash-Landrum incident in 1980.
• Animal/cattle mutilation cases, that some feel are also part of the UFO phenomenon.Sony VAIO VPCF112FX/B Battery

• Biological effects on plants such as increased or decreased growth, germination effects on seeds, and blown-out stem nodes (usually associated with physical trace cases or crop circles)
• Electromagnetic interference (EM) effects.Sony VAIO VPCF115FG/B Battery

• A famous 1976 military case over Tehran, recorded in CIA and DIA classified documents, was associated with communication losses in multiple aircraft and weapons system failure in an F-4 Phantom II jet interceptor as it was about to fire a missile on one of the UFOs.Sony VAIO VPCF116FGBI Battery

• Apparent remote radiation detection, some noted in FBI and CIA documents occurring over government nuclear installations at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1950, also reported by Project Blue Book director Ed Ruppelt in his book.Sony VAIO VPCF117FJ/W Battery

• Claimed artifacts of UFOs themselves, such as 1957, Ubatuba, Brazil, magnesium fragments analyzed by the Brazilian government and in the Condon Report and by others. The 1964 Socorro/Lonnie Zamora incident also left metal traces, analyzed by NASA.Sony VAIO VPCF117HG/BI Battery

• A more recent example involves "the Bob White object" a tear drop shaped object recovered by Bob White and was featured in the TV show UFO Hunters.
• Angel hair and angel grass, possibly explained in some cases as nests from ballooning spiders or chaff.Sony VAIO VPCF118FJ/W Battery

Reverse engineering

Attempts have been made to reverse engineer the possible physics behind UFOs through analysis of both eyewitness reports and the physical evidence, on the assumption that they are powered vehicles.Sony VAIO VPCF119FC Battery

Examples are former NASA and nuclear engineer James McCampbell in his book Ufology, NACA/NASA engineer Paul R. Hill in his book Unconventional Flying Objects, and German rocketry pioneer Hermann Oberth. Among subjects tackled by McCampbell, Hill, and Oberth was the question of how UFOs can fly at supersonic speeds without creating a sonic boom.Sony VAIO VPCF119FC/BI Battery

McCampbell's proposed solution is microwave plasma parting the air in front of the craft. In contrast, Hill and Oberth believed UFOs utilize an as yet unknown anti-gravity field to accomplish the same thing as well as provide propulsion and protection of occupants from the effects of high acceleration.Sony VAIO VPCF119FJ/BI Battery

Categorization

Some ufologists recommend that observations be classified according to the features of the phenomenon or object that are reported or recorded. Typical categories include:

• Saucer, toy-top, or disk-shaped "craft" without visible or audible propulsion. (day and night)
• Large triangular "craft" or triangular light pattern, usually reported at night.Sony VAIO VPCF11AFJ Battery

• Cigar-shaped "craft" with lighted windows (Meteor fireballs are sometimes reported this way, but are very different phenomena).
• Other: chevrons, (equilateral) triangles, crescent, boomerangs, spheres (usually reported to be shining, glowing at night), domes, diamonds, shapeless black masses, eggs, pyramids and cylinders, classic "lights".Sony VAIO VPCF11AGJ Battery

Popular UFO classification systems include the Hynek system, created by J. Allen Hynek, and the Vallée system, created by Jacques Vallée.

Hynek's system involves dividing the sighted object by appearance, subdivided further into the type of "close encounter" (a term from which the film director Steven Spielberg derived the title of his UFO movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind").Sony VAIO VPCF11AHJ Battery

Jacques Vallée's system classifies UFOs into five broad types, each with from three to five subtypes that vary according to type.

Scientific skepticism

A scientifically skeptical group that has for many years offered critical analysis of UFO claims is the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).Sony VAIO VPCF11JFX/B Battery

Responding to local beliefs that "extraterrestrial beings" in UFOs were responsible for crop circles appearing in Indonesia, the government and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan) described them as "man-made". Thomas Djamaluddin, research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Lapan stated:Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E Battery

"We have come to agree that this 'thing' cannot be scientifically proven. A professor at the Indonesian National Aeronautics and Space Agency put UFOs in the category of pseudoscience."Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E/H Battery

Conspiracy theories

UFOs are sometimes an element of conspiracy theories in which governments are allegedly intentionally "covering up" the existence of aliens or sometimes collaborating with them. There are many versions of this story; some are exclusive, while others overlap with various other conspiracy theories.Sony VAIO VPCF11MFX/B Battery

In the U.S., an opinion poll conducted in 1997 suggested that 80?% of Americans believed the U.S. government was withholding such information. Various notables have also expressed such views. Some examples are astronauts Gordon Cooper and Edgar Mitchell,Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E Battery

Senator Barry Goldwater, Vice Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter (the first CIA director), Lord Hill-Norton (former British Chief of Defense Staff and NATO head), the 1999 high-level French COMETA report by various French generals and aerospace experts,Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E/B Battery

and Yves Sillard (former director of the French space agency CNES, new director of French UFO research organization GEIPAN).

It has also been suggested by a few paranormal authors that all or most human technology and culture is based on extraterrestrial contact. See also ancient astronauts.Sony VAIO VPCF11Z1E Battery

Allegations of evidence suppression

There have been allegations of suppression of UFO related evidence for many decades. There are claims that physical evidence might have been removed and/or destroyed/suppressed by some governments.Sony VAIO VPCF11Z1E/BI Battery

Famous hoaxes

• The Maury Island incident
• The Ummo affair, a decades-long series of detailed letters and documents allegedly from extraterrestrials. The total length of the documents is at least 1000 pages, and some estimate that further undiscovered documents may total nearly 4000 pages.Sony VAIO VPCF127HGBI Battery

• A José Luis Jordan Pena came forward in the early nineties claiming responsibility for the phenomenon, and most[who?]consider there to be little reason to challenge his claims.
• George Adamski over the space of two decades made various claims about his meetings with telepathic aliens from nearby planets.Sony VAIO VPCF137HG/BI Battery

• He claimed that photographs of the far side of the moon taken by a Soviet orbital probe in 1959 were fake, and that there were cities, trees and snow-capped mountains on the far side of the moon. Among copycats was a shadowy British figure named Cedric Allingham.Sony VAIO VPC-P111KX/B Battery

• Ed Walters, a building contractor, in 1987 allegedly perpetrated a hoax in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Walters claimed at first having seen a small UFO flying near his home and took some photographs of the craft. Walters reported and documented a series of UFO sightings over a period of three weeks and took several photographs.Sony VAIO VPC-P111KX/D Battery

• These sightings became famous and were called Gulf Breeze UFO incident. Three years later, in 1990, after the Walters family had moved, the new residents discovered a model of a UFO poorly hidden in the attic that bore an undeniable resemblance to the craft in Walters' photographs.Sony VAIO VPC-P111KX/G Battery

• Most investigators like the forensic photo expert William G. Hyzer now consider the sightings to be a hoax.
• Warren William "Billy" Smith is a popular writer and confessed hoaxster.

In popular culture

UFOs constitute a widespread international cultural phenomenon of the last 60 years.Sony VAIO VPC-P111KX/P Battery

Gallup polls rank UFOs near the top of lists for subjects of widespread recognition. In 1973, a survey found that 95 percent of the public reported having heard of UFOs, whereas only 92 percent had heard of U.S. President Gerald Ford in a 1977 poll taken just nine months after he left the White House.Sony VAIO VPC-P111KX/W Battery

A 1996Gallup poll reported that 71 percent of the United States population believed that the government was covering up information regarding UFOs. A 2002 Roper poll for the Sci Fi Channel found similar results, but with more people believing that UFOs are extraterrestrial craft.Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/B Battery

In that latest poll, 56 percent thought UFOs were real craft and 48 percent that aliens had visited the Earth. Again, about 70 percent felt the government was not sharing everything it knew about UFOs or extraterrestrial life. Another effect of the flying saucer type of UFO sightings has been Earth-made flying saucer craft in space fiction,Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/D Battery

for example the Earth spacecraft Starship C-57D in Forbidden Planet, the Jupiter Two in Lost in Space, and the saucer section of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek, and many others. For an excellent analysis of the interrelationship between popular culture and UFOs consult the research by psychologist Armando Simon,Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/G Battery

especially his contribution in Richard Haines' book,UFO Phenomena and the Behavioral Scientist.

1. No UFO reported, investigated and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of threat to our national security;Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/P Battery

1. There was no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge; and
2. There was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" were extraterrestrial vehicles.Sony VAIO VPC-P112KX/W Battery

Previous projects

Public USAF UFO studies were first initiated under Project Sign at the end of 1947, following many widely publicized UFO reports (see Kenneth Arnold). Project Sign was initiated specifically at the request of General Nathan Twining, chief of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.Sony VAIO VPCP113KX/B Battery

Wright-Patterson was also to be the home of Project Sign and all subsequent official USAF public investigations.

Sign was officially inconclusive regarding the cause of the sightings. However, according to US Air Force Captain Edward J.Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/B Battery

Ruppelt (the first director of Project Blue Book), Sign's initial intelligence estimate (the so-called Estimate of the Situation) written in the late summer of 1948, concluded that the flying saucers were real craft, were not made by either the Russians or US, and were likelyextraterrestrial in origin. (See also extraterrestrial hypothesis.)Sony VAIO VPCP113KX/D Battery

This estimate was forwarded to the Pentagon, but subsequently ordered destroyed by Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, USAF Chief of Staff, citing a lack of physical proof. Vandenberg subsequently dismantled Project Sign.

Project Sign was succeeded at the end of 1948 by Project Grudge, which had a debunking mandate.Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/D Battery

Ruppelt referred to the era of Project Grudge as the "dark ages" of early USAF UFO investigation. Grudge concluded that all UFOs were natural phenomena or other misinterpretations, although it also stated that 23 percent of the reports could not be explained.Sony VAIO VPCP113KX/G Battery

The Captain Ruppelt era

According to Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, by the end of 1951, several high-ranking, very influential USAF generals were so dissatisfied with the state of Air Force UFO investigations that they dismantled Project Grudge and replaced it with Project Blue Book in early 1952. One of these men was Gen.

Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/G Battery

Charles P. Cabell. Another important change came when General William Garland joined Cabell's staff; Garland thought the UFO question deserved serious scrutiny because he had witnessed a UFO.

The new name, Project Blue Book, was selected to refer to the blue booklets used for testing at some colleges and universities.

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The name was inspired, said Ruppelt, by the close attention that high-ranking officers were giving the new project; it felt as if the study of UFOs was as important as a college final exam. Blue Book was also upgraded in status from Project Grudge, with the creation of theAerial Phenomenon Branch.Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/P Battery

Ruppelt was the first head of the project. He was an experienced airman, having been decorated for his efforts with the Army Air Corps during World War II, and having afterwards earned an aeronautics degree. He officially coined the term "Unidentified Flying Object",Sony VAIO VPCP113KX/W Battery

to replace the many terms ("flying saucer" "flying disk" and so on) the military had previously used; Ruppelt thought that "unidentified flying object" was a more neutral and accurate term. Ruppelt resigned from the Air Force some years later, and wrote the book The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,Sony VAIO VPC-P113KX/W Battery

which described the study of UFOs by United States Air Force from 1947 to 1955. Swords writes that "Ruppelt would lead the last genuine effort to analyze UFOs".

Ruppelt implemented a number of changes: He streamlined the manner in which UFOs were reported to (and by) military officials,Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/B Battery

partly in hopes of alleviating the stigma and ridicule associated with UFO witnesses. Ruppelt also ordered the development of a standard questionnaire for UFO witnesses, hoping to uncover data which could be subject to statistical analysis. He commissioned theBattelle Memorial Institute to create the questionnaire and computerize the data.Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/D Battery

Using case reports and the computerized data, Battelle then conducted a massive scientific and statistical study of all Air Force UFO cases, completed in 1954 and known as "Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14" (see summary below).Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/G Battery

Knowing that factionalism had harmed the progress of Project Sign, Ruppelt did his best to avoid the kinds of open-ended speculation that had led to Sign’s personnel being split among advocates and critics of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. As Michael Hall writes, "Ruppelt not only took the job seriously but expected his staff to do so as well.Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/P Battery

If anyone under him either became too skeptical or too convinced of one particular theory, they soon found themselves off the project."[6] In his book, Ruppelt reported that he fired three personnel very early in the project because they were either "too pro" or "too con" one hypothesis or another.Sony VAIO VPC-P114KX/W Battery

Ruppelt sought the advice of many scientists and experts, and issued regular press releases (along with classified monthly reports for military intelligence).

Each U.S. Air Force Base had a Blue Book officer to collect UFO reports and forward them to Ruppelt.Sony VAIO VPCP115JC Battery

During most of Ruppelt's tenure, he and his team were authorized to interview any and all military personnel who witnessed UFOs, and were not required to follow the chain of command. This unprecedented authority underlined the seriousness of Blue Book's investigation.Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/B Battery

Under Ruppelt's direction, Blue Book investigated a number of well-known UFO cases, including the so-called Lubbock Lights, and a widely publicized 1952 radar/visual case over Washington D.C.. According to Jacques Vallee, Ruppelt started the trend, largely followed by later Blue Book investigations,Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/D Battery

of not giving serious consideration to numerous reports of UFO landings and/or interaction with purported UFO occupants.

Astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek was the scientific consultant of the project, as he had been with Projects Sign and Grudge.Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/G Battery

He worked for the project up to its termination and initially created the categorization which has been extended and is known today as Close encounters. He was a pronounced skeptic when he started, but said that his feelings changed to a more wavering skepticism during the research, after encountering a minority of UFO reports he thought were unexplainable.Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/P Battery

Ruppelt left Blue Book in February 1953 for a temporary reassignment. He returned a few months later to find his staff reduced from more than ten, to two subordinates. Frustrated, Ruppelt suggested that an Air Defense Command unit (the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron) be charged with UFO investigations.Sony VAIO VPCP115JC/W Battery

Robertson panel

In July 1952, after a build-up of hundreds of sightings over the previous few months, a series of radar detections coincident with visual sightings were observed near the National Airport in Washington, D.C. (see 1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident).Sony VAIO VPCP115KG Battery

Future Arizona Senator and 2008 presidential nominee John McCain is alleged to be one of these witnesses .

After much publicity, these sightings led the Central Intelligence Agency to establish a panel of scientists headed by Dr. H. P.Sony VAIO VPCP116KG Battery

Robertson, a physicist of the California Institute of Technology, which included various physicists, meteorologists, and engineers, and one astronomer (Hynek). The Robertson Panel first met on January 14, 1953 in order to formulate a response to the overwhelming public interest in UFOs.Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/B Battery

Ruppelt, Hynek, and others presented the best evidence, including movie footage, that had been collected by Blue Book. After spending 12 hours reviewing 6 years of data, the Robertson Panel concluded that most UFO reports had prosaic explanations, and that all could be explained with further investigation, which they deemed not worth the effort.Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/D Battery

In their final report, they stressed that low-grade, unverifiable UFO reports were overloading intelligence channels, with the risk of missing a genuine conventional threat to the U.S. Therefore, they recommended the Air Force de-emphasize the subject of UFOs and embark on a debunking campaign to lessen public interest.Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/G Battery

They suggested debunkery through the mass media, including The Walt Disney Company, and using psychologists, astronomers, and celebrities to ridicule the phenomenon and put forward prosaic explanations. Furthermore, civilian UFO groups "should be watched because of their potentially great influence on mass thinking…Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/P Battery

The apparent irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive purposes should be kept in mind."

It is the conclusion of many researchers that the Robertson Panel was recommending controlling public opinion through a program of official propaganda and spying.Sony VAIO VPC-P116KX/W Battery

They also believe these recommendations helped shape Air Force policy regarding UFO study not only immediately afterwards, but also into the present day. There is evidence that the Panel's recommendations were being carried out at least two decades after its conclusions were issued (see the main article for details and citations).Sony VAIO VPCP118JC Battery

In December 1953, Joint Army-Navy-Air Force Regulation number 146 made it a crime for military personnel to discuss classified UFO reports with unauthorized persons. Violators faced up to two years in prison and/or fines of up to $10,000.Sony VAIO VPCP118JC/B Battery

Aftermath of Robertson panel

In his book (see external links) Ruppelt described the demoralization of the Blue Book staff and the stripping of their investigative duties following the Robertson Panel.Sony VAIO VPCP118JC/P Battery

As an immediate consequence of the Robertson Panel recommendations, in February 1953, the Air Force issued Regulation 200-2, ordering air base officers to publicly discuss UFO incidents only if they were judged to have been solved, and to classify all the unsolved cases to keep them out of the public eye.Sony VAIO VPCP118JC/W Battery

The same month, investigative duties started to be taken on by the newly formed 4602nd Air Intelligence Squadron (AISS) of the Air Defense Command. The 4602nd AISS was tasked with investigating only the most important UFO cases with intelligence or national security implications.Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/B Battery

These were deliberately siphoned away from Blue Book, leaving Blue Book to deal with the more trivial reports.

General Nathan Twining, who got Project Sign started back in 1947, was now Air Force Chief of Staff. In August 1954, he was to further codify the responsibilities of the 4602nd AISS by issuing an updated Air Force Regulation 200-2.Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/D Battery

In addition, UFOs (called "UFOBs") were defined as "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object."Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/G Battery

Investigation of UFOs was stated to be for the purposes of national security and to ascertain "technical aspects." AFR 200-2 again stated that Blue Book could discuss UFO cases with the media only if they were regarded as having a conventional explanation. If they were unidentified, the media was to be told only that the situation was being analyzed.Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/P Battery

Blue Book was also ordered to reduce the number of unidentified to a minimum.

All this was done secretly. The public face of Blue Book continued to be the official Air Force investigation of UFOs, but the reality was it had essentially been reduced to doing very little serious investigation, and had become almost solely a public relations outfit with a debunking mandate.Sony VAIO VPC-P118KX/W Battery

To cite one example, by the end of 1956, the number of cases listed as unsolved had dipped to barely 0.4 percent, from the 20 to 30% only a few years earlier.

Eventually, Ruppelt requested reassignment; at his departure in August 1953, his staff had been reduced from more than ten (precise numbers of personnel varied) to just two subordinates and himself.Sony VAIO VPCP119JC/BI Battery

His temporary replacement was a noncommissioned officer. Most who succeeded him as Blue Book director exhibited either apathy or outright hostility to the subject of UFOs, or were hampered by a lack of funding and official support.Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/B Battery

UFO investigators often regard Ruppelt's brief tenure at Blue Book as the high-water mark of public Air Force investigations of UFOs, when UFO investigations were treated seriously and had support at high levels.[9] Thereafter, Project Blue Book descended into a new "Dark Ages" from which many UFO investigators argue it never emerged.Sony VAIO VPC-P11S1E/B Battery

However, Ruppelt later came to embrace the Blue Book perspective that there was nothing extraordinary about UFOs; he even labeled the subject a "Space Age Myth."

The Captain Hardin era

In March 1954, Captain Charles Hardin was appointed the head of Blue Book.Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/D Battery

However, most UFO investigations were conducted by the 4602nd, and Hardin had no objection. Ruppelt wrote that Hardin "thinks that anyone who is even interested [in UFOs] is crazy. They bore him."Sony VAIO VPC-P11S1E/D Battery

In 1955, the Air Force decided that the goal of Blue Book should be not to investigate UFO reports, but rather to reduce the number of unidentified UFO reports to a minimum. By late 1956, the number of unidentifed sightings had dropped from the 20-25% of the Ruppelt era, to less than 1%.Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/G Battery

The Captain Gregory era

Captain George T. Gregory took over as Blue Book's director in 1956. Clark writes that Gregory led Blue Book "in an even firmer anti-UFO direction than the apathetic Hardin."[10] The 4602nd was dissolved, and the 1066th Air Intelligence Service Squadron was charged with UFO investigations.Sony VAIO VPC-P11S1E/G Battery

In fact, there was actually little or no investigation of UFO reports; a revised AFR 200-2 issued during Gregory's tenure emphasized that unexplained UFO reports must be reduced to a minimum.

One way that Gregory reduced the number of unexplained UFOs was by simple reclassification.Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/P Battery

"Possible cases" became "probable", and "probable" cases were upgraded to certainties. By this logic, a possible comet became a probable comet, while a probable comet was flatly declared to have been a misidentified comet. Similarly, if a witness reported an observation of an unusual balloon-likeobject, Blue Book usually classified it as a balloon,Sony VAIO VPCP11S1E/W Battery

with no research and qualification. These procedures became standard for most of Blue Book's later investigations; see Hynek's comments below.

The Major Friend era

Major Robert J. Friend was appointed the head of Blue Book in 1958. Friend made some attempts to reverse the direction Blue Book had taken since 1954.Sony VAIO VPC-P11S1E/W Battery

Clark writes that "Friend's efforts to upgrade the files and catalog sightings according to various observed statistics were frustrated by a lack of funding and assistance."

Heartened by Friend's efforts, Hynek organized the first of several meetings between Blue Book staffers and ATIC personnel in 1959.Sony VAIO VPCP11Z9E/B Battery

Hynek suggested that some older UFO reports should be reevaluated, with the ostensible aim of moving them from the "unknown" to the "identified" category. Hynek's plans came to naught.

During Friend's tenure, ATIC contemplated passing oversight Blue Book to another Air Force agency,Sony VAIO VPCS111FM/S Battery

but neither the Air Research and Development Center, nor the Office of Information for the Secretary of the Air Force was interested.

In 1960, there were U.S. Congressional hearings regarding UFOs. Civilian UFO research group NICAP had publicly charged Blue Book with covering up UFO evidence, and had also acquired a few allies in the U.S. Congress.Sony VAIO VPCS115EC Battery

Blue Book was investigated by the Congress and the CIA, with critics—most notably the civilian UFO group NICAP[9] asserting that Blue Book was lacking as a scientific study. In response, ATIC added personnel (increasing the total personnel to three military personnel, plus civilian secretaries) and increased Blue Book's budget.Sony VAIO VPCS115FG Battery

This seemed to mollify some of Blue Book's critics,[9] that but it was only temporary. A few years later (see below), the criticism would be even louder.

By the time he was transferred from Blue Book in 1963, Friend thought that Blue Book was effectively useless and ought to be dissolved, even if it caused an outcry amongst the public.Sony VAIO VPCS117GG Battery

The Major Quintanilla era

Major Hector Quintanilla took over as Blue Book's leader in August 1963. He largely continued the debunking efforts, and it was under his direction that Blue Book received some of its sharpest criticism. UFO researcher Jerome Clark goes so far as to write that, by this time, Blue Book had "lost all credibility."

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Physicist and UFO researcher Dr. James E. McDonald once flatly declared that Quintanilla was "not competent" from either a scientific or an investigative perspective.[12] However, McDonald also stressed that Quintanilla "shouldn't be held accountable for it", as he was chosen for his position by a superior officer, and was following orders in directing Blue Book.Sony VAIO VPCS118EC Battery

Blue Book’s explanations of UFO reports were not universally accepted, however, and critics — including some scientists — suggested that Project Blue Book was engaged in questionable research or, worse, perpetrating cover up.[9] This criticism grew especially strong and widespread in the 1960s.Sony VAIO VPCS119FJ/B Battery

Take for example, the many mostly nighttime UFO reports from the midwestern and southeastern United States in the summer of 1965: Witnesses in Texas reported "multicolored lights" and large aerial objects shaped like eggs or diamonds. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported that Tinker Air Force Base (near Oklahoma City) had tracked up to four UFO’s simultaneously,Sony VAIO VPCS119GC Battery

and that several of them had descended very rapidly: from about 22000 feet to about 4000 feet in just a few seconds,[9] an action well beyond the capabilities of conventional aircraft of the era. John Shockley, ameteorologist from Wichita, Kansas, reported that, using the state Weather Bureau radar,Sony VAIO VPCS11AFJ Battery

he tracked a number of odd aerial objects flying at altitudes between about 6000 and 9000 feet.[9] These and other reports received wide publicity.

Project Blue Book officially determined[9] the witnesses had mistaken Jupiter or bright stars (such as Rigel or Betelgeuse) for something else.Sony VAIO VPCS11AGJ Battery

Blue Book’s explanation was widely criticized as inaccurate. Robert Riser, director of the Oklahoma Science and Art Foundation Planetarium offered a strongly worded rebuke of Project Blue Book that was widely circulated: “That is as far from the truth as you can get.Sony VAIO VPCS11AHJ Battery

These stars and planets are on the opposite side of the earth from Oklahoma City at this time of year. The Air Force must have had its star finder upside-down during August."[9]

A newspaper editorial from the Richmond News Leader opined that "Attempts to dismiss the reported sightings under the rationale as exhibited by Project Bluebook (sic) won’t solve the mysterySony VAIO VPCS11AVJ Battery

… and serve only to heighten the suspicion that there’s something out there that the air force doesn't want us to know about",[9] while a Wichita-based UPI reporter noted that "Ordinary radar does not pick up planets and stars."Sony VAIO VPCS11J7E/B Battery

Another case that Blue Book's critics seized upon was the so-called Portage County UFO Chase, which began at about 5.00am, near Ravenna, Ohio on April 17, 1966. Police officers Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff spotted what they described as a disc-shaped, silvery object with a bright light emanating from its underside, at about 1000 feet in altitude.Sony VAIO VPCS11M1E/W Battery

They began following the object (which they reported sometimes descended as low as 50 feet), and police from several other jurisdictions were involved in the pursuit. The chase ended about 30 minutes later near Freedom, Pennsylvania, some 85 miles away.Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E Battery

The UFO chase made national news, and the police submitted detailed reports to Blue Book. Five days later, following brief interviews with only one of the police officers (but none of the other ground witnesses), Blue Book's director, Major Hector Quintanilla, announced their conclusions:Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E/B Battery

The police (one of them an Air Force gunner during the Korean War) had first chased a communications satellite, then the planet Venus.

This conclusion was widely derided, and was strenuously rejected by the police officers. In his dissenting conclusion,Sony VAIO VPCS11X9E/B Battery

Hynek described Blue Book's conclusions as absurd: in their reports, several of the police had unknowingly described the moon, Venus and the UFO, though they unknowingly described Venus as a bright "star" very near the moon. Ohio Congressman William Stanton said thatSony VAIO VPCS123FGB Battery

"The Air Force has suffered a great loss of prestige in this community … Once people entrusted with the public welfare no longer think the people can handle the truth, then the people, in return, will no longer trust the government."

In September 1968, Hynek received a letter from Colonel Raymond Sleeper of the Foreign Technology Division.Sony VAIO VPCS125EC Battery

Sleeper noted that Hynek had publicly accused Blue Book of shoddy science, and further asked Hynek to offer advice on how Blue Book could improve its scientific methodology. Hynek was to later declare that Sleeper's letter was "the first time in my 20 year association with the air force as scientific consultant that I had been officially asked for criticism and advice [regarding] … the UFO problem."Sony VAIO VPCS128EC Battery

Hynek wrote a detailed response, dated October 7, 1968, suggesting several areas where Blue Book could improve. In part, he wrote:

1. ... neither of the two missions of Blue Book [determining if UFOs are a threat to national security and using scientific data gathered by Blue Book] are being adequately executed.Sony VAIO VPCS129GC Battery

1. The staff of Blue Book, both in numbers and in scientific training, is grossly inadequate...
2. Blue Book suffers … in that it is a closed system ... there is virtually no scientific dialogue between Blue Book and the outside scientific world...
3. The statistical methods employed by Blue Book are nothing less than a travesty.Sony VAIO VPCS12C7E/B Battery

1. There has been a lack of attention to significant UFO cases ... and too much time spent on routine cases ... and on peripheral public relations tasks. Concentration could be on two or three potentially scientific significant cases per month [instead of being] spread thin over 40 to 70 cases per month.Sony VAIO VPCS12L9E/B Battery

1. The information input to Blue Book is grossly inadequate. An impossible load is placed on Blue Book by the almost consistent failure of UFO officers at local air bases to transmit adequate information...
2. The basic attitude and approach within Blue Book is illogical and unscientific...Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B Battery

1. Inadequate use had been made of the Project scientific consultant [Hynek himself]. Only cases that the project monitor deems worthwhile are brought to his attention. His scope of operation ... has been consistently thwarted ... He often learns of interesting cases only a month or two after the receipt of the report at Blue Book.Sony VAIO VPCW111XX/P Battery

Despite Sleeper's request for criticism, none of Hynek's commentary resulted in any substantial changes in Blue Book.

Quinatnilla's own perspective on the project is documented in his manuscript, "UFOs, An Air Force Dilemma.” Lt. Col Quintanilla wrote the manuscript in 1975, but it was not published until after his death.Sony VAIO VPCW111XX/PC Battery

Quintanilla states in the text that he personally believed it arrogant to think human beings were the only intelligent life in the universe. Yet, while he found it highly likely that intelligent life existed beyond earth, he had no hard evidence of any extra terrestrial visitation.Sony VAIO VPCW111XX/T Battery

The Condon Committee

From 1947 to 1969, the Air Force investigated Unidentified Flying Objects under Project Blue Book. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was terminated December 17, 1969. Of a total of 12,618 sightings reported to Project Blue Book, 701 remained "unidentified."Sony VAIO VPCW111XX/W Battery

The decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled, "Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects;" a review of the University of Colorado's report by the National Academy of Sciences; previous UFO studies and Air Force experience investigating UFO reports during 1940 to 1969.Sony VAIO VPCW111XXP Battery

As a result of these investigations, studies and experience gained from investigating UFO reports since 1948, the conclusions of Project Blue Book were:

1. No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security.Sony VAIO VPCW111XXT Battery

1. There has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present day scientific knowledge.
2. There has been no evidence indicating the sightings categorized as "unidentified" are extraterrestrial vehicles.Sony VAIO VPCW111XXW Battery

With the termination of Project Blue Book, the Air Force regulation establishing and controlling the program for investigating and analyzing UFOs was rescinded. Documentation regarding the former Blue Book investigation was permanently transferred to the Modern Military Branch, National Archives and Records Service, and is available for public review and analysis.Sony VAIO VPCW115XG Battery

Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations by the Air Force.

There are a number of universities and professional scientific organizations that have considered UFO phenomena during periodic meetings and seminars.Sony VAIO VPCW115XGP Battery

A list of private organizations interested in aerial phenomena may be found in "Encyclopaedia of Associations", published by Gale Research. Interest in and timely review of UFO reports by private groups ensures that sound evidence is not overlooked by the scientific community.Sony VAIO VPCW115XW/P Battery

Persons wishing to report UFO sightings should be advised to contact local law enforcement agencies.Sony VAIO VPCW115XW/T Battery,Sony VAIO VPCW115XW/W Battery