--- 09203_2005_001_a.jpg --- \K MAGAZINE ARTICLE GIVING “SOLUTION” LIFE magazine ARTICLE L

--- 09203_2005_001_a.jpg --- \K MAGAZINE ARTICLE GIVING “SOLUTION” LIFE magazine ARTICLE Look waoazine aRriCU JLICIZEO INCIOENT AT WASHINGTON 0. "E65 CONFERENCE ON UNIDENTIFIED FL FREQUENCY OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT REPORTS: --- 09475_2005_001_a.jpg --- —CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION UNCLASSIFIED STATUS REPORT PROJECT BLUE BOOK - REPORT NO. 8 FORMERLY PROJECT GRUDGE PROJECT NO. 10073 31 DECEMBER 1952 ‘DECLASSIFIED ory 8D Pet06-7. ra ones AIR TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OHIO CONFIDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIED --- 09475_2005_002_a.jpg --- 1, Information conflicting with or pertinently affecting ed in this publication should be forwarded by the Air Techaical Iatelligeace Center Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio This in no way abrogates or alters responsibility for sending such information or any pertinent intelligence data through already established intelligence collection channels of the various services or agencies of the U.S, government. 2, WARNING: This document contains information af- fecting the ai defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Law, Title 18, U.S.C., Sections 793 ‘and 794, Its transmission or the revelation of its contents in ny manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by I --- 09475_2005_003_a.jpg --- IED. ONFIDENTIAL This report is the eighth of a series of Status Reports of Project Blue Book. Normally each report is written on or near the last of each month and Anchides all project activities for that month. This procedure has not been followed during the months of June, July, August, September and October duo to an extrenely heavy workload caused by an increase in reports. The procs dure of listing all reported sightings will also be eliminated in this report since 886 reports were received during the period covered by this report and compiling such a list would not be feasible at the prosent tine. ‘Any additional information may be obtained on any incident by directing requests to the Commanding General, Air Technical Intelligence Center, Attn: ATIAA-5, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. CONF IDEN TIAL UNCLASS| --- 09475_2005_004_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL STATUS OF PROJECT BLUE BOOK I. OVERALL staTus ‘The period since the last status report of this project was published (Project Blue Book Status Report #7, 31 May 1952) has produced a volune of reports exceeding the total number of reports received in the period 197 to 31 Dec 51. For the month of Jul 52, the total was over 40 reports. During the period 1 Jun 52 to 31 Oct 52, the period covered by this status report, 886 reports have been received, evaluated, cross~indexed and filed. This total of 88 represents 1:9 more reports than had been received during the previous five-year period this project has been in existance. It should be noted that these reports are those coming through official channels to ATIC and do not include the approximately 600 letters received from the public during this period. A noticeable increase in reports started in Jun 52 and reached a peak on 28 Jul 52 when 43 reports were received (see Appendix I). kuch of the Increased volume of reports can be accredited to the widespread publicity given by Life, Tine, Took and many other magazines and newspapers. One no- ticeable characteristic of the reports is that in general the quality has improved, a factor which resulted fron the distribution of Air Force Letter 200-5, Subjects "Reporting of Unidentified Flying Objects", and to wide- spread briefings given by Project Bluo Book briefing teans. In Jul 52 the workload of project personnel had risen to the point that the mmber of personnel was increased to a total of four officers, two air nen; and two secretaries, For a period of 5 days, a weather officer was on DY to the project. 411 reports received were screened and evaluated as soon as possitle after they were received. A breakdown as to the evaluations of the reports ds given below, The categories used in the evaluation of reports are as follows: A. Unknown These are reports that contain relatively enough data to eval— uate, but cannot be associated with any known phenomenon or object. There is a possibility that some of these reported objects or phenomena in this cate- gory could be identified if more background data on balloon tracks, aircraft movements, cte., were available. B, Insufficient Data ‘This category represents reports which do not contain enough data to evaluate, A great many of the cases are due to poor reporting on the UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL --- 09475_2005_005_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED, CONFIDEN HAL part of the reporting agency, All cases where there is only a single observer, unless his or her reliability is unquestionable, are put in this category. AMroraft This category of reports varies from those reports of objects that were definitely proven to be aircraft to those that were possibly aircraft. In evaluating reports as aircraft, a great deal of importance is put on any com nents by the reporting officer about local air traffic. Another criterion is the elevation of the reported object. It has been found that if an observer sees an aircraft above a 60° angle fron the horizon and is in a relatively quiet 1o- cation, he can hear the sound of the aircraft. Thus all reports of moving Lights at night or "shiny" objects in the daytime, moving at moderately fast speeds (ise., in view for 2-5 minutes), and observed below 60° could be aircraft and are evaluated as aircraft. Conversely, any object that passes directly overs or within 30° of the zenith of an observer, at moderately fast speeds and if no sound is heard, is not likely to be an aircraft. D. Balloons Several criteria are used to determine whether a reported object was or possibly was a balloon, Objects that are reported to hover or move very slowly could be balloons. In this type of report, the times are checked. All weather balloons in the United States are launched at 03002, 09002, 15002 and 21002. If an object is reported near a balloon launch site within an hour after ‘these scheduled launch times, it is classed as a balloon, If the object is mov- ing and a track is reported, the track is checked against winds aloft for that area. If the reported movement is with the wind at any altitude, the object could be a balloon, Many balloons are tracked by radio and radar and in these cases, the actual track of the balloon can be correlated with the data obtained from the observers. The possibility of observers seeing balloons that have developed slow leaks and have drifted long distances is always present. In cases where the description of the object is identical to that of a balloon and yet no bal~ Joons can be positively determined as having been in that area, the report is ‘evaluated as possibly a balloon on the chance that a balloon has become "lost and has drifted into the area. B, Astronomical. Reports in this category are those that are proven to be or are similiar in all respects to know astronomical bodies such as meteors, fireballs, planets, or stars. The estimated azimuth and elevation of a reported object and the time of the observation can be checked to determine the known location of astronomical bodies. In some cases, this is done by project personnel and in more difficult cases by an astronomer. UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL --- 09475_2005_006_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL Meteors are identified mainly by the observer's description as to size, shape, and manouvers, In some cases, exceptionally large meteors or fireballs are plotted by observatories and these plots are obtained. F, Other ‘This eategory contains reports that have been proven to be know objects or phenomena, or the descriptions of the reported objects are similiar to reports of known objects that do not fall into the above categories. Ex- amples of these are birds, anomalous radar phenomena, bugs, otc. ‘A percentage breakdown of the evaluation of reports is as follows: ‘A. June Category, Nos Reports % Total Unknown 57 38.77 Insufficient Data 3 15.64 Mreraft uy 9.52 Balloons 22 14.96 Astronomical 22 Us.96 Other wy Be July Unknown % Insufficient Data 18 ‘AMroratt 52 Balloons 207 Astronomical 57 Other zB Cy August Unknown 3h 15.59 Insufficient Data 55 25.23 Mroraft 28 12.2, Balloons 70 52.1 Astronomical, 22 10.09 Other 9 1 as 100.00; UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL --- 09475_2005_007_a.jpg --- ee TDENTIAL selon ome UNCLASSIFIED Category No. Reports £ Total » September Unknown 22 21685 Insufficient Data 20 25.32 Mireraft 7 8.86 Balloons 12 219 Astronomical 2 15.19 Other 6 79 cro E. Cumlative total for June, July, August, and September Unknown, 206 23425 Insufficient Data 216 2038 Mroraft 101 11.39 Balloons al 23.81 Astronomical, a3 12.75 ‘Other 39 L490 BBG (Note: No breakdown for the month of October 1952 is included since at the time this report was written all October reports had not been evaluated.) TI. SPECIAL REPORT ON CONFERENCE WITH ld PROFESSTONAL ASTRONOMERS Daring tho past sumer a professional astronomer, under contract with ATIC as a consultant on Project Shue Book, held conferences with hh profos- sional astrononers in tho U.S.A, and sulmittod a roport of his findings. Those people were either contacted on trips or at professional society moat ings. Of these, 5 had observed objects or phenomena they could not readily explain, The feolings of the lj astrononers toward the investigation of un identified flying objects were as follows: & Total Number Completely Indifferent oR Tr Mildly Indifferent 18 1 Mildly Interested Log Ww Very Interested 17% BS “iooz- The Although the report is too lengthy to reproduce in total, an excerpt fron the summary of the report is as follows: UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDEN HAL --- 09475_2005_008_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL "Over 110 astronomers wore interviewed, of which five had made sight ings of one sort or another, This is a higher percentage than anong the pop lace at large. Perhaps this is to be expected, since astrononers do, after all, watch the skies. On the other hand, thoy will not likely be fooled by balloons, aircraft, and similiar objects, as may the general populace. Tt is interesting to renark upon the attitude of the astronomers interviewed. The great majority were neither hostile nor overly interested; they gave one the general feeling that all flying saucer reports could be explained as misrepresentations of well-known objects and. that there was nothing intrinsic in the situation to cause concern. I took the time to talk rather seriously with a few of them, and to acquaint then with the fact that some of the sightings were truly puzzling and not at all easily explainable. Their interest was almost immediately aroused, indicating that their general lethargy is due to lack of information on the subject. And certainly another contributing factor to their desire not to talk about these things is their overwhelming fear of publicity. One headline in the nation's papers to the effect that "Astronomer Sees Flying Saucer® would be enough to brand the as— ‘tronomer as questionable among his colleagues. Since I was able to talk with the men in confidence, I was able to gather very much more of their inner ‘thoughts on the subject than a reporter or an interrogator would have been able todo. Actual hostility is rare; concern with their om immediate scientific problens is too great. There seems to be no convenient method by which problems can be attacked, and rost astronomers do not wish to become involved, not only because of the danger of publicity but because the data seens tenuous and unreliable.” III. PRESS CONFERENCE On 29 Jul 52 a press conference was held in the Pentagon to answer the many questions that were being directed to the Mir Force by the press. The conference was held by Major General John A. Sanford, Director of Intelligence, USAF. Others participating were Major General Roger M. Ramey, Director of Operations, USAF, and officers of the Air Technical Intelligence Centers In essence General Sanford stated that to date there were no indications that any of the reported objects that could not be identified constitute a menace to the United States. However, the Air Force would contime to give the subject "adequate, but not frantic attention". IV. PROPOSED THEORTES AS TO THE NATURE OF THE REPORTS Several widely publicized theories as to the nature of the reported ob- jects or phenomena have been advanced in recent months. ‘These theories have been discussed with authorities on the subject of atmospheric physics and they have agreed that none of the theories so far proposed would account for more than a very snall percentage of the reports, if any. 5 CONFIDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIED --- 09475_2005_009_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL V. STATUS OF STATISTICAL ANALYSIS In the spring of 1952 the Air Technical Intelligence Center established a project with a civilian contractor to make a statistical analysis of all incidents. As of 31 Oct 52, all reports for 197, 1948, 199, 1950, and 1952 had been reviewed and coded for IBM punch cards. By the end of October the data to date on 1952 incidents will be on punch cards ready for a preliminary analysis by statisticians. When this is completed, the contractor will begin work on the coding of the 1952 reports. No completion date has been established for this phase. It is not contemplated that the 1952 reports will be completed in the near future, because, as was stated in Section I of this report, the total for the year of 1952 exceeds the total mmber of reports for all previous years. VI. TECHNICAL INFORMATION SHEET ‘A questionnaire or technical infomation sheet to be filled out by ob- servers making a visual sighting was completed in Oct 52, Preliminary work on this questionnaire began in May 52, A panel consisting of Blue Book per- sonnel and several civilian scientists and engineers met and drafted a list of questions whose answers would be needed in evaluating reports. These questions were then given to a panel of psychologists who reworded them and made then into questionnaire for, Test samples of these questionnaires were reproduced and sent to persons reporting sightings. As test quostionnaires were completed and returned by observers they were studied by the psychol— ogists and others, Several such test questionnaires were developed before a final form was established. The final questionnaire is inclosed in this re~ port as Appendix II. These questionnaires are now being sent directly from ATIC to all per— gons making reports, if a mailing address is in the report. This includes both reports made by military in accordance with AFL 200-5 and reports made directly to ATIC by civilians. VEL. COOPERATION OF ATR DEFENSE COMMAND xoellent cooperation has been received from the Air Defense Command in the utilization of their radar, fighter aircraft and the Ground Observer Corps. ADC has directed all their radar sites thst are equipped with operational radar scope caneras to keep these caneras on a dlj-hour alert basis. It has been found that scope photos are an extrenely valuable aid when it is neces- sary to evaluate reports of extremely high speed or umsual radar tracks. HAL UNCLASSIFIED --- 09475_2005_010_a.jpg --- CONFIDENTIAL UNCLASsiF}E,) A secondary duty of the Ground Observer Corps is the reporting of uniden tified aerial phenonena or objects. ‘This duty was established by ADC Regula- tion 55-31. VIII. NAVY REPORTING REGULATION On 26 Sep 52 the United States Navy published an OPNAV very similiar to AFL 200-5. This notice directs all naval units and installations to report sightings directly to Hq USAF, ATIC, ADC, and other agencies. TX, BALLOON AND WEATHER DATA In order to achieve more positive identification of unidentified flying objects, the Air Technical Intelligence Center has established channels of communication with the Air Weather Service, wheroby the track of any weather balloon released by the USAF, US Navy, or Weather Bureau, within the conti— nental limits of the United States or fron US ships at sea and overseas bases, can be obtained. Basically the system works as follows: If the analyst at ATIC concludes, ty reason of the description of a UFO, or the time and place of the sighting, that the UFO is possibly a weather balloon, he initiates and transmits to AWS a specific request for the tracks of all weather balloon re- eases at or near that tine and place. Comparison of these tracks with the Flyobrpt frequently completes the analysis of the report. Additionally, the US Navy and the USAF are currently engaged in the Jaunching of special project upper air research balloons. These balloons are plastic polyethylene, a highly reflective surface, and since they often are on the order of one-hundred feet in dianeter, they are visible to the naked eye under certain atuospheric conditions, even at extrene altitudes. Further, the loads carried are usually heavy and metallic, and electronic contact with these balloons can occur. In view of this situation, ATIC has, ‘through the Ent Weather Central, Ent AFB, Colorado, taken steps to obtain the tracks of all such balloon releases, and those tracks have often resulted in positive identification of a UFO, To cite cases in point, the tracks of sixteon flights released in July by a US Navy contractor resulted in four Positive, two probable, and four possible identifications of UFO's. Another factor having a great deal of bearing in the analysis of a Flyobrpt, though it may not be the actual cause, is the meteorological con- dition of the atmosphere at the time and place of sighting. ‘To obtain this data, the Air Technical Intelligence Center utilizes three sources. Firstly, when detailed information is necded imnediately, it can often be obtained from the Base Weather Office at W-P AFB, Secondly, since ATIC receives daily RAOB!s, constant pressure charts, surface charts and winds aloft charts, the necessary infornation is frequently on hand. Thirdly, when the data necded x CONFIDENTIAL — UNCLASSIFIED --- 09475_2005_011_a.jpg --- CONFIDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIED is voluminous and complex, and time is relatively unimportant, the Air Techni— cal Intelligence Center utilizes the records of the Air Weather Service in exactly the sane manner as that enployed in obtaining weather balloon release data. X. GAMBRAS In an effort to obtain technical infomation concerning UFO's, ATIO has underway a progran for tho distribution of a large mmber of stereo canoras equipped with a diffraction grating over one lens. The canora in question is called the "Videon", It contains two ¥.5 lenses with focal lengths of Mfmms As supplied by ATIC, the shutter speod and distance settings will be locked at 1/20th of 2 second and infinity, respectively. The "Wideon" utilizes stan- dard 36a cartridge film, and is oxtrencly simple to operate. The diffraction grating actually consists of a thin cellulose compound which contains 15,000 vertical "hairlines" to the linear inch. It is mounted botwoen two shoots of optical glass and placed over one lens of the Videon hy moana of a filter adapter ring. The grating operates on precisely the same principle as a prism; it separates a light into its component parts which will appear ae woll defined spectrin bands upon the film. Since each chemical @lenont eaits a avo of characteristic length, and the grating, so to speak, “picks up" these characteristics and shows then as significant’ bands on the film, comparative study of the film is expected to reveal much data concern ing the chanical composition of a given UF. Tbe Videon carera, equipped as described above, doos not represent the epitons of scientific equipment, hor over, actual conparicon with other models has revealed that it offers a cood probability for success in acconplishing the stated purpose, and this factor, along with the economy and availability factors, was responsible for ATIC!s decision to pirchase and distribute those caneras. Simitanoously with the experimentation involving ground cameras, ATIC mounted diffraction gratings over tho lenses of lénn gun cameras of F-86 aircraft of the 97th Fightor-Interceptor Squadron, W-P AFB. Theso fighters then undertook airair photography of known light sources, and the spectruns obtained were comparable to those obtained with the Videon; the smaller film surprisingly enough recorded equivalent definition and band separation, Therefore, as a part of the long range program, ATIC is considering the possi— bility of equipping certain USAF fighter-interceptor aircraft with diffraction gratings for air-air photographic coverage of UFO's. ‘Ab present, ATIC is negotiating with Hq ADC, a plan for the placement of a certain number of Videon caneras with AGM Squadrons. Similiarly, Videon cameras may be distributed to tover operators of AACS, Future plans allow for the procurement and placenent of more Videon cameras and the placement of the diffraction grids in aircraft, however, thes plans are entirely con ‘ingen upon the degree of success obtained in present operations, SONFIDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIED --- 09475_2005_012_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL XI. RECENT SIGHTINGS Appendix IIT gives sumaries of a few of the reports made to ATIC during the period covered by this report. 9 ¢ NTIAL UNCLASSIFIED --- 09475_2005_013_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL APPENDIX I ‘This chart shows the frequency of reports during the months of June, July, August, and September 1952. The dates of publication of several mag azine articles and widely publicized incidents are noted on the chart. --- 09475_2005_014_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL APPENDIX IT Tho final form of the questionnaire used for the interrogation of observers making visual sightings. CONFIDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIED --- 09475_2005_015_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL U.S. AIR FORCE TECHNICAL INFORMATION SHEET This questionnaire has been prepared s0 that you can give the U, S. Air Force os much Information ox possible concerning the unidentified cerial phenomenon that you have observed. Please try fo answer as many questions 8 you possibly can. The information that you give will fer research purposes, and will be regard .. Yeur name will not be used in connaction with any statements, conclusions, or publications without your permission. We request this personal informotion so that, if it is deemed necessery, we may contact you for J+ Whon did you see the object? 2, Time of doy: —— Day Yeu (Circle One: AM PAM Time zon (Circle One): a. Eastern (Circle One}: 0» Daylight Saving b Conteal by Standard . Mountein 4. Pacific @. Other 4, Where were you when you saw the object? Weoreet Postal Ad iy or Town Tate or Coury Additional remarks: '5, Estimate how long you saw the o ey Fours Winatew Second 5.1 Circle one of the following to indicate how certain you are of your enswer to Question 5, 2. C Not very sure b. Fairly certain 4. Justo quess 6, What was the eon: jen of the sky? (Circle One): . Bright daylight b, Dull daylight cc. Bright twilight 4, Just a trace of daylight ‘2, No trace of daylight f. Don't remember 7. IF you saw the object during DAYLIGHT, TWILIGHT, or DAWN, where wos the object? (Circle One): a, In front of you by In back of you €. To your right SUN located as you looked at 4d, To your left @, Overhead f. Don't remember ay Ue NS --- 09475_2005_016_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL 8. IF you saw the object at NIGHT, TWILIGHT, or DAWN, what did you notice concerning the STARS and MOON? 8.1 STARS (Circle One): 8.2 MOON (Circle One}: 2, None ‘2: Bright moonlight b. Afow ', Dull moonlight . Many + No moonlight — pitch dark 4, Don't remember |. Don't remember 9. Was the brighter than the background of the sky? (Circle On Ye b. No cc: Don’t remember 10, IF it was BRIGHTER THAN the sky background, was ( brightness like that of an automobile headlight?: ;cle One) a. A mile or more away (a distant cor)? b, Several blocks away? ec. Ablock away? 4. Several yards away? 8. Other ae! 11, Did the object: (Circlo One for each question) 9. Appoar to stand still at any time? No Don't Know Suddenly speed up and rush away ot any time? No. Don't Know €. Break up into parts or explode? No. Don't Know 4. Give off smoke? No Don't Know 2. Change brightness? No Don't Know £. Change shope? No Don't Know J+ Flicker, throb, or pulsate? Yes No Don't Know 12, Did the object move behind something at anytime, particularly a cloud? (Circle One): Yes -No.——_—Don't Know. IF you answered YES, then tell what it moved behind: 13, Did the object move in front of something ot anytime, particularly a cloud? (Circle One}: Ye No Don't Know. IF you answered YES, than tell what it moved in front oft 14, Did the object oppeor: (Circle One __a, Solid? b. Transparent? 1c, Don't Know. 15, Did you observe the object through any of the following? 2. Eyeglasses No. b. Sun glasses No. . Windshield No 4, Window gloss No --- 09475_2005_017_a.jpg --- UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL 16, Toll in o fow words the following things about the object. a, Sound b, Color 7, Draw @ picture that will show the shope of the object or objects. Label and Include in your sketch any details ‘of the object that you sow auch as wings, protrusions, etc, ond expecially exhaust trails or vapor trails, Place fon arrow beside the drawing to show the direction the object was moving. 18, The edges of the object were: (Circle One): a, Fuzzy or blurred 2. Other bi Like o bright stor ¢. Sharply outlined d, Don't remember 19. IF there wos MORE THAN ONE object, then how mony were there? Draw a picture of how they were orrenged, and put an arrow te show the direction that they were traveling, CONFIDENTIAL UNCLAS: