595507

—CONFIDENTIAL — inronmanon UNCLASSIFIED STATUS REPORT PROJECT BLUE BOOK - REPORT NO. 8 FORMERLY PROJECT GRUDGE PROJECT NO, 10073 31 DECEMBER 1952 DECLASSIFIED Athornity NSD 723007 staan NARA Wht AIR TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE OHIO fed CONFIDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIED 1, Information conflicting with or pertinently affecting that contained in this publication should be forwarded by the recipienc directly to; Commanding General Air Techaical latelligence 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 national 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 any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law, ASSIFIED ‘CONFIDENTIAL 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 includes all project activities for that month. This procedure has not been followed during the months of June, July, August, September and October due to an extremely heavy workload caused by an increase in reports. The proce- dure of listing all reported sightings will also be eliminated in this report since 8&6 reports were received during the period covered by this report and compiling such a list would not be feasible at the present time. 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, cone oe HAL UNC UNCLASSIFIED 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 volume 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 10 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 486 represents 149 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. qi 2h A noticeable increase in reports started in Jun 52 and reached a peak i on 28 Jul 52 when 43 reports were received (see Appendix I), Much of the increased volume of reports can be accredited to the widespread publicity given by Life, Time, Look and many other magazines and newspapers. One no~- ticeable characteristic of the reports is that in general the quality has 4 improved, a factor which resulted from the distribution of Air Force Letter 4 200-5, Subjects: "Reporting of Unidentified Flying Objects", and to wide- if spread briefings given by Project Blue Book briefing teams. + In Jul 52 the workload of project personnel had risen to the point that the number of personnel was increased to a total of four officers, two air- men, and two secretaries. For a period of 5 days, a weather officer was on < TDY to the project. All reports received were screened and evaluated as soon as possible after they were received. A breakdown as to the evaluations of the reports is 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, stc,, were available. : Be Insufficient Data 4 This category represents reports which do not contain enough t data to evaluate. A great many of the cases are due to poor reporting on the ; UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL ry UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL 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. G. Aircraft 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- ments 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 from the horizon and is in a relatively quiet lo- 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 (i,e., 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 0300Z, 0900Z, 1500Z and 21002. If an object is reported near a balloon launch site within an hour after these scheduled leunch 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 tha 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- lloons 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. E. Astronomical Reports in this category are those that are proven to be or are Similiar in all respects to known 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 dons by project personnel and in more difficult cases by an astronomers UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL size, shape, and maneuvers. U NCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL Meteors are identified mainly by the observer's description as to In some cases, exceptionally large meteors or fireballs are plotted by observatories and these plots are obtained. F Other This category contains reports that have been proven to be known 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, etc. A percentage breakdown of the evaluation of reports is as follows: Ae B. c, June Category Unknown Insufficient Data Aircraft Balloons Astronomical Other July Unknown Insufficient Data Aircraft Balloons Astronomical Other August Unknown Insufficient Data Aircraft Balloons Astronomical Other No, Reports 57 23 wy 22 22 U7 93 118 52 107 57 we 3h 55 26 70 22 9 ag UNCLASSIFIED % Total 38477 15.64 9.52 14.96 14096 6,12 100,003 21.0); 26.69 11.76 21,,21* 12.89 5005008 15259 25.23 12.84 32.11 10,09 100. CONFIDENTIAL DECLA Athory BMP 723007 Sr Msi IDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIED Category Noe ts Total De September Unknown 22 27.85 Insufficient Data 20 25.32 Aircraft 7 8.86 Balloons 12 15.19 Astronomical 12 15.19 Other 6: 79 E. Cumulative total for June, July, August, and September Unknown 206 23025 Insufficient Data 216 2),,38 Aircraft 101 11,39 Balloons 211 23.61 Astronomical 113 12.75 (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.) II. SPECIAL REPORT ON CONFERENCE WITH 1, PROFESSIONAL ASTRONOMERS During the past summer a professional astronomer, under contract with ATIC as a consultant on Project Blue Book, held conferences with |) profes= sional astronomers in the U.S.A, and submitted a report of his findings, Those people were either contacted on trips or at professional society meet- ings. Of these, 5 had observed objects or phenomena they could not readily explain. The feelings of the 1; astronomers toward the investigation of un- identified flying objects were as follows: % Total Number Completely Indifferent 6% 7 Mildly Indifferent 274% 12 Mildly Interested a 17 Very Interested 1 & “Too a he Although the report is too lengthy to reproduce in total, an excerpt from the summary of the report is as follows: UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDEN THAL— UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL "Over 40 astronomers were interviewed, of which five had made sight- ings of one sort or another. This is a higher percentage than among the pop— ulace at large. Perhaps this is to be expected, since astronomers do, after all, watch the skies. On the other hand, they will not likely be fooled by balloons, aircraft, and similiar objects, as may the general populace. {Tt is interesting to remark 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-knowm 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 them 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 own immediate scientific problems is too great. There seems to be no convenient method by which problems can be attacked, and most astronomers do not wish to become involved, not only because of the danger of publicity but because the data seems 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 Air Force by the press. The conference was held by Major General John A. Samford, Director of Intelligence, USAF, Others participating were Major General Roger M. Ramey, Director of Operations, USAF, and officers of the Air Technical Intelligence Center. In essence General Samford 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 continue to give the subject "adequate, but not frantic attention", IV. PROPOSED THEORIES 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 small percentage of the reports, if any. 5 TIAL UNCLASSIFIED ba i k a | ip lr 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, 19%, 1949, 1950, and 1951 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 mimber of reports for all previous years. VI. TECHNICAL INFORMATION SHEET A questionnaire or technical information 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 them into questionnaire form. Test samples of these questionnaires were reproduced and sent to persons reporting sightings. As test questionnaires 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- sons 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. VII. COOPERATION OF ATR DEFENSE COMMAND Excellent 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 that are equipped with operational radar scope cameras to keep these cameras on a 2lj~-hour alert basis, It has been found that scope photos are an extremely valuable aid when it is neces- sary to evaluate reports of extremely high speed or unusual radar tracks. UNCLASSIFIED a peta CONFIDENTIAL U i NCLASSIF}g\) . A secondary duty of the Ground Observer Corps is the reporting of uniden~ ‘ tified aerial phenomena or objects. This duty was established by ADC Regula- J 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 a objects, the Air Technical Intelligence Center has established channels of : communication with the Air Weather Service, whereby the track of any weather 4 balloon released by the USAF, US Navy, or Weather Bureau, within the conti- } nental limits of the United States or from US ships at sea and overseas bases, ; can be obtained. Basically the system works as follows: If the analyst at { ATIC concludes, by reason of the description of a UFO, or the time and place of tha 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=- leases at or near that time 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 launching 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 diameter, they are visible to the naked sye under certain atmospheric conditions, even at extreme 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 these tracks have often resulted in positive identification of a UFO. To cite cases in point, the tracks of sixteen flights released in July by a US Navy contractor resulted in four positive, two probable, and four possible identifications of UFO's. I 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 needed immediately, it can often be obtained 4 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 information is frequently on hand, Thirdly, when the data needed 7 + UNCLASSIFIED Perches: — 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 same manner as that employed in obtaining weather balloon release datas X. CAMERAS In an effort to obtain technical information concerning UFO's, ATIC has underway a program for the distribution of a large number of stereo cameras equipped with a diffraction grating over one lens. The camera in question is called the "Videon"., It contains two F3.5 lenses with focal lengths of 45m, As supplied by ATIC, the shutter speed and distance settings will be locked at 1/20th of a second and infinity, respectively. The "Videon" utilizes stan- dard 35mm cartridge film, and is extremely 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 between two shaets of optical glass and placed over one lens of the Videon by means 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 as well defined spectrum bands upon the film. Since each chemical element emits a wave of characteristic length, and the grating, so to speak, "picks up" these characteristics and shows them as significant bands on the film, comparative study of the film is expected to reveal much data concern— ing the chemical composition of a given UM). The Videon camera, equipped as described above, does not represent the epitome of scientific equipment, how- ever, actual comparison with other models has revealed that it offers a good probability for success in accomplishing the stated purpose, and this factor, along with the economy and availability factors, was responsible for ATIC's decision to purchase and distribute these cameras. Similtaneously with the experimentation involving ground cameras, ATIC mounted diffraction gratings over the lenses of lémm gun cameras of F-86 aircraft of the 97th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, WP AFB. These fighters then undertook air-air photography of known light sources, and the spectrums obtained were comparable to those obteined 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, At present, ATIC is negotiating with Hq ADC, a plan for the placement of a certain number of Videon cameras with ACKW Squadrons. Similiarly, Videon cameras may be distributed to tower operators of AACS, Future plans allow for the procurement and placement of more Videon cameras and the placement of the diffraction grids in aircraft, however, these plans are entirely con- tingent upon the degree of success obtained in present operations. CONFIDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL XI. RECENT SIGHTINGS Appendix III gives summaries of a few of the reports made to ATIC during the period covered by this report. 9 C NTIAL UNCLASSIFIED 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. APPENDIX IT The final form of the questionnaire used for the interrogation of observers. making visual sightings. UNCLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL U.S. AIR FORCE TECHNICAL INFORMATION SHEET This questionnaire has been prepared so that you can give the U. S. Air Force os much information os possible concerning the unidentified cerial phenomenon that you hove observed, Please try to answer os many questions os you possibly con. The information that you give will be used for research purposes, and will be regarded as confidential material. Your name will not be used in connection with any statements, conclusions, or publications without your permission. We request this personal information so that, if it is deemed necessary, we may contact you for further details, | When did you see the object? 2. Time of day: . Hour Minutes Day Month Yeor (Circle One): AM o P.M. 3, Time zone: (Circle One): a, Eastern (Circle One): 9, Daylight Saving b. Central b. Standard ¢. Mountain d. Pacific oe. Other 4. Where were you when you saw the object? Necrest Postol Address City or Town Stete or Country Additional remarks: 5. Estimate how long you saw the object. Hours Minutes Seconds 5.1 Circle one of the following to indicate how certain you are of your answer to Question 5, a. Certain c, Not very sure b. Fairly certain d, Justo quoss 6. What was the condition of the sky? (Circle One): a. Bright daylight d, Just a trace of daylight b, Dull daylight e. No trace of daylight c. Bright twilight f, Don't remember 7, IF you saw the object during DAYLIGHT, TWILIGHT, or DAWN, where was the SUN located os you looked ot the object? (Circle One): a, In front of you d. To your loft b. In back of you e, Overhead ¢, To your right f, Don't remember 14 CONFIDENTIAL UNCLAS : 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 (Cirele One): 8.2 MOON (Circle One): a. None a. Bright moonlight b. A fow b, Dull moonlight c, Many ¢. No moonlight — pitch dork d. Don't romember d. Don't remember 9. Wos the object brighter than the background of the sky? {Circle One): a. Yes b. No c. Don’t remember 10. IF it was BRIGHTER THAN the sky background, was the brightness like that of an outomobile headlight?: (Circle One) a, A mile or more away (a distant car)? b. Several blocks awoy? c, Ablock away? d. Several yards away? octet 11, Did the object: (Circle One for each question) o. Appear to stand still at any time? Yes No Don't Know b. Suddenly speed up and rush oway at any time? Yes No Don’t Know c. Break up into parts or explode? Yes No Don't Know d. Give off smoke? Yes No Don't Know e. Change brightness? Yes No Don't Know f, Change shape? Yes No Don't Know de 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 at anytime, particularly a cloud? (Circle One): Yes No Don’t Know. IF you answered YES, than tell what it moved in front of: 14, Did the object oppeor: (Circle One): a. Solid? b. Transparent? c. Don't Know. 15. Did you obsorve the object through any of the following? a, Eyeglasses Yes No e. Binoculars Yes No b. Sun glosses Yes No f. Telescope Yes No c. Windshield Yes No g. Theodolite Yos No d. Window glass Yes No h, Other 15 A: UNCLASSIFIED CONAIDENTIAL— 16, Tell inc fow words the following things about the object. Cae) b. Color 17, Drow a picture that will show the shape of the object or objects, Label and include In your sketch ony details of the object that you sow such os wings, proirusions, etc., ond especially exhaust trails or vapor trails. Place on orrow beside the drawing to show the direction the object was moving. 18, The edges of the object were: (Circle One): a, Fuzzy of blurred oe. Other b. Like o bright star c. Sharply outlined d, Don't remember 19, IF there was MORE THAN ONE object, then how mony were there? Drow a picture of how they were orrangad, and put an arrow to show the direction that they were traveling, 16 CONFIDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIE!