PROJECT BLUE BOOK

1952
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STANDARD BLUE BOOK BR

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USAF Historical Archives
ASI(ASHAF-A)

Maxwell AFB, Ala 36112

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they may be clusters of these weather balloons, or they may be large polyethylene
balloons that are 100 ft. in diameter. With the present emphasis on cosmic ray
study many different types of balloons are being launched in the United States.

The other category is the regularly launched weather balloons. These are
launched from known locations in the United States at definite times.

Project Blue Book gets data on the large research type balloons either through
ADC or, if necessary, direct from the launching agency. Due to the nature of this
problem, ATIC is familiar with most of the agencies in the country who are launching
research balloons and can go directly to these people to get information on their
balloon tracks.

On the regularly scheduled weather balloon launches, Blue Book has data on
all launch sites and knows the approximate time of launch each day. We have the
authority to go directly to these stations to obtain data on their balloons or,
if the time element is not critical, to go through Air Weather Service to get it from
their central files. Fortunately, many of these balloons are tracked, either by
radar or by radio DF and it is possible to get the extact tracks of the balloons.

(Slide of Weather Balloon Launch Sites)

Balloons do not give us any trouble when they look like balloons, it is when
they don't look like balloons that they give us trouble and they can take on many
odd appearances. In the daytime a balloon will appear to be a very bright star in
the sky. What is happening is that the sun's rays are diffusing into the balloon
and causing it to glow. Under ideal conditions a balloon can be seen as high as
90,000 ft, but under more adverse conditions a balloon possibly cannot be seen
over ,000 to 6,000 ft. It depends a great deal on the haze. During the daytime
a balloon at very high altitude will appear to be stationary or traveling very
Slowlye At night balloons that are lighted will appear to be a radically moving

light. This light may even appear to change color, due to the atmospheric conditions.

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The balloon will change direction with wind and will appear to be ona jerky,

2ig-zagey course. Since most people observing these balloons do not have any
reference point in the sky, the balloons appear to be moving very much faster
than they really are. At dawn or dusk a balloon can appear to be a fiery red,
circular shaped object in the sky. The reason for this is that the balloon is
picking up the slanted rays of the sun, exactly the same as a cloud will pick up
the sun's rays in a sunset. It may be that if the balloon is high enough, it can
be dark on the ground but it will be sunset at altitude.

Some balloons carry radar reflectors or metallic loads capable of giving a
radar return. The clue to this is that they will be traveling with and at the

same speed as the wind at their altitude.

Aircraft

Aircraft, as aircraft, do not give us a great deal of trouble, it is when they
are high and reflecting sunlight or leaving a vapor trail that they are most often
misrecognized. Similar to the situation with balloons, a vapor trail will appear
to glow at dawn or dusk. Many times the aircraft leaving the vapor trail cannot
even be seen, however, the vapor will appear to be a bright fiery red streak of
flame in the sky. Formations of aircraft reflecting the sunlight can very often
appear as a formation of disc-shaped objects. At times the reflection will suddenly
diminish causing the objects to look like they were either moving rapidly out of
Sight or just disappearing.

ATIC does not have a satisfactory system for checking aircraft. This is
because Flight Service and CAA does not keep a permanent record of aircraft flights
very long after the aircraft has landed. Therefore, it is up to the officer receiving
the report from the observer to thoroughly check aircraft movements immediately. He

may check these through the control tower, through Flight Service, through CAA radio

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stations, or many various ways, but he should check thoroughly to see whether or

not there were any aircraft flights in the area of the sighting.

Astronomical Bodies

As far as astronomical bodies are concerned, ATIC has a professional astronomer
under contract to review sightings that they believe to be caused by astronomical
bodies. By astronomical bodies we mean bright stars, planets, or meteors. The most
valuable information in the analysis of an unidentified flying object that is sus-
pected of being an astronomical body is the bearing, the azimuth, and the time.
From this we can check back through almanacs and determine the locations of certain
bright stars. Stars that give us trouble are Venus, Jupiter, Capella and several
others.

Meteors are not too difficult to evaluate because they seem to have a standard
description. If someone reports an object similar to a rocket going across the sky
at high speed and leaving a trail behind it, chances are it is a meteor. However,
in certain instances we have had very unusual meteors reported. We have found that
there are certain classes of meteors that astronomers call fireballs. These are
so rare that there is a good chance that you may see only one in your life, if any.
This has probably accounted for many reports by pilots who state that they met a
huge ball of fire coming directly at their aircraft and at times have even racked
up the aircraft to get out of its path. Many times these are reported as missiles.
We have had pilots who have complained to the Air Force about shooting rockets, or
experimental missiles, through the airways and endangering their aircraft. (This
is a rather foolish statement, however, when you get to thinking about it. One,
if a missile appeared anywhere outside the proving grounds chances are it would
be enemye However, if you have studied missiles you will note that the burning
time, or the time before fuel cvt-off, is only a relatively short period during the

missile's flight. If we would say, hypothetically, a rocket was shot from some

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foreign country into the United States, chances are very good that the fuel shut-

off point would have come long before the rocket ever reached the United States

and it would not be emitting a flame.

Other Causes of Reports

Naturally balloons, aircraft and astronomical bodies do not account for all
the sightings. We have a smaller percentage of other things, such as ducks flying
over drive-in theaters at night, searchlights on clouds, blimps, pieces of paper
caught in an updraft, and many other things that cause reports. These are very
difficult to check and to check them we normally go back to old sightings. For
example, sometime back, approximately a year ago, the city of Fargo, North Dakota,
was somewhat disturbed by glowing objects that flew over the city on various nights.
Finally, some of the more enterprising souls in the city took enough interest in the
subject to attempt to determine what they were. All it was were flocks of ducks or
geese reflecting the city's lights. We will take a case like this and mentally file
ite When we come across a similar report, we'll go back and compare the two reports.
If they are similar enough, we will write the new report off as being the same thing.
This is about the only method we have of checking such things.
Radar Sightings

We receive quite a few radar sightings and we are very aware of the fact
that weather effects and interference between the two radars can give many odd
returns. In some cases we are definitely able to show how these radar signals
occurred, other times we are not able to definitely show how it happened. We
hope that as more study is put on the subject of radar anomalies that more and
more of our reports will be explainable.

There are no reports of radar sightings in our file that cannot be questioned.

to some degreee In none of the cases of erratic or high speed (above Mach 1) that

we have on file can it be shown that the track was actually that of a material
objecte One rare exception to this is when radars have happened to track meteors.
More of our unknown high speed tracks might be meteors but unless we get reports
of a meteor track to correlate with the radar track it is difficult to separate
out these reports. Lightning is another possibility but a very vague one.
Radar Scope Photos

A large number of Air Defense Command radar stations are equipped with radar
scope camerase ADC Regulation 200-5 authorizes the use of these cameras for photo-
graphing abnormal returnse These scope cameras should be ready to operate at all
times since scope photos are an absolute necessity for the accurate evaluation of
reports involving radar. In addition, they give valuable data for the study of
weather and interference effects.
Simultaneous Radar Visual Sightings

Reports of simultaneous visual reports that supposedly correlate with unusual,
high speed or erratic radar tracks, with the rare exceptions of meteors and light-
ning, are a different story. No presently knowm phenomena or condition will give
this situation. If it can be show that the object sighted visually and the radar
track are the same, the report warrants a detailed investigation. So far, this has
not happened in any of our unknown casese We have good reports of simultaneous
visual-radar sightings but again there are always factors that shed varying degrees
of doubt as to whether or not the observations involved the same object.

The first factor in establishing a correlation is to check the flight path
or location of the visually observed object with that shown on radar. If this
correlates closely the next step is to establish that the time was the same,

sometimes a difficult task. Other checks can also be made but these two are basic.

* Other Simultaneous Sightings

Any report of an object seen from two separated locations is relatively
important. These include two locations on the ground, from the ground and air,
etc. Of these the best way to gather very accurate data is to utilize two theo-
dolites or a theodolite combined with a plain visual sighting. The use of a
theodolite is considered an instrumented observation. For those who are not
familiar with the term a theodolite is a device for accurately measuring the
azimuth and elevation angles during weather balloon flights. Nearly every air
base and large civilian airport has one. It can be put into use by merely calling
the weather station and requesting that they try to observe the reported object.
The data needed are the time, elevation, and azimth at one minute intervals for
as long as the object is in view or for at least 20 minutes if it appears to be
hovering. If an adjacent air base can be contacted and requested to do the same,

* preferably at the same time, you've hit the jackpot as far as good data are concerned.

(Show Triangulation Slide)

Reporting Solutions
If, during an investigation of a sighting, after a TWX has been sent report-

ing the incident, the investigating officer should identify the reported object,

ATIC should be immediately notified as to the solution.

Popular Theories
i Many theories have been advanced that all of the reports are due to mirages,
sun dogs, ice clouds and what-have-you. Some of our reports are caused by such
thingse We have received excellent photos of sun dogs and descriptions of mirages.
These are definitely in the minority, however, and cause only a small percentage of
the sightings.

Another popular solution is that all "flying saucers" are "skyhook" balloons.

3% To check this a study of about 25 cross-country balloon tracks were made. To

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remove any doubt, the tracks were taken of flights made during July and August
1952 when reports were coming in at the rate of 50 per day. These balloons were

seen and reported as "flying saucers" at only points.

(Slide - show typical balloon tracks)

Questionnaires

To increase the efficiency of the collection of data, ATIC has devised several
different types of questionnaires. One of these questionnaires is for use by ground
observers, or people who sight something from the ground, one is for people who

sight things from the air, one for radar sightings, and one for general background

information. These questionnaires have been made up after a great deal of study.
Approximately a year ago, ATIC arranged to have a group of scientists and profes-
sional people to design a questionnaire. These people studied all questionnaires
that had been previously used in this project, they studied our file of sightings,
. and arrived at a tentative version of our present questionnaire. This tentative
questionnaire was used for a period of approximately three months, the results
analyzed, revisions made, and a final questionnaire was made up.
It is believed that these questionnaires will accomplish two things: (1)
if the officer in the field receiving the report will use it, it will give hima
better idea as to what data is wanted and will make his collection much more
efficient and faster. These questionnaires can be attached to an AF Form 112 as
an inclosure or attached to a letter report. Although AF Letter 200-5 states
what information will be sent, it does not mean that this will be the only infor-
mation sent. If you are familiar with this letter, you will note that it says
that all information pertaining to the sighting will be sent. The questionnaires
contain all of the required data plus other, so it is legal to use theme Copies
of these questionnaires can be reproduced in your own unit, obtained from your

| * headquarters, or from ATIC.

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Statistics

You might be interested in a breakdown of our reports for 1952. In breaking
down these reports, we use several degrees of certainty under each category. We'll
take balloons, for example. We will classify them as a known balloon, a probable
balloon, or a possible balloone A known balloon means that we were definitely able
to correlate the facts of the sighting with the data on a balloon track and there
is no doubt that the object was a balloon. Probably a balloon means that we were
not able to correlate all the data, but there is no doubt in our minds but what
the reported object was a balloone A possible balloon is where we check the report
with balloon data and cannot find a correlation yet we still believe the object was
a balloon. This factor accounts for "lost" balloons, that is, balloons that may
have developed slow leaks and floated great distances. In all our categories of
balloons, aircraft, and astronomical bodies, we use these three breakdownse

(Slide showing Breakdown of Conclusions)

In analyzing 1021 reports, and those are reports that have been received through
military channels and do not include several hundred reports from civilians direct
to ATIC, as of 22 December 1952 a total of 18.51% of all our reports were balloons.
A further breakdown of this: 1.57% of the total were know balloons; 4.99% of the
total were probably balloons; and 11.95% were possible balloons. As far as air-
craft is concerned, 11.76% of all the reports were aircraft. Of these .98% were
known to be aircraft; 7.74% were probably aircraft; and 3.0l% were possibly aircraft.
Of the reports, 1.2% were analyzed as being astronomical bodies. Of these 2.55%
were known; 7.4% were probable and }.01% were possible astronomical. In the "other"
category, which includes ducks over drive-in's, paper in an updraft, etc., accounted
for 4.21% of the total reports, hoaxes were 1.67% = now by hoaxes we mean those

reports where the persons purposely set out to perpetrate a hoax, 6.6% were radar

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cameras, however, and consequently have not put them out in the field. The
grating is a rather touchy piece of equipment and we are having trouble getting

it to stand up under certain conditions.

We realize that this is not a fool-proof measure. These cameras are not a

piece of highly developed scientific equipment, but we do hope that we may be

able to obtain some information.

(Slides of Videon Camera and how it operates)

Other Instrumentation

The possibilities of more extensive instrumentation has been discussed in
detail. Many suggestions for more complete cameras, special aircraft instrumenta-
tion, and other detection devices have been studied. It is possible that a study
contract for such instrumentation may be let, but no actual program will be started
nowe The cost of such a program would out-weigh) the results.

a Conclusion

In concluding this briefing it can again be stated that in none of the
reports so far received are there any indications that the reported objects are
a direct threat to the United States, nor is there any proof that any of the
reports received have been reports of any radically new unknown material object.
We admit we cannot explain every report but we believe we know enough about the
unknowns to say they are not anything to invoke undue speculation.

The project will be continued. Even if a system for the fool proof explana-
tion of every sighting is developed it will continue because you never know what
may happen in the future.

The one threat that could come out of this problem of "flying saucers" is

a "wolf, wolf" situation. Some people take an exceedingly "dim view" of such

reports and use no logic in trying to explain them. We do not want to clutter

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reports that we could not definitely establish the cause, and 22.72% of our re-
ports were classified as having insufficient data and were not analyzed.
This leaves a balance of 20.1% of the reports which are classified as unknown.

At this point a definition of the term "unknown" is in order. Usually there is
more than one source or observere Again, this does not mean that just because a
person is alone, sees something he cannot explain to himself and reports it, his
account of what he saw is laughed off, Normally one person just cannot supply the
necessary data. For this reason, we dwell more on reports where the data can be
substantiated by others. To go a step farther, there can be no doubt as to the
reliability of the persons making the observation. If the report contains a re-
latively good amount of data, it is then checked against the location of known
objects, phenomena, etce If none of these explain the sighting, it is classed

as unknowne It might well be that if we had more data on the sighting, it could
easily be explained.

(Slide of Locations of Unknowns)
Videon Cameras
You may have heard about a camera that has been modified for use on this

project. At the present time, we have 100 of these cameras. They are a commercial
model stereo camera with one lens fitted with a diffraction grating. The grating
serves as a prism to separate the light source into its various components. Any
light source that is made up of an element or combination of elements has a dis-
tinctive spectrum. This spectrum is similar to a finger print. A file of the
spectra of known objects, stars, meteors, etc., is being assembled and this file
spectra can be compared to the spectra obtained from photos from the cameras. These
cameras will be placed in control towers and a few selected radar stations through-

out the United States. We are having some difficulty with the gratings on these

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Standard Project Blue Book Briefing

This is the standard briefing that is given on Project Blue
Book, the project for the investigation of reports of Unidentified

I a rine Objects . The briefir pt: touches on all aspects o
Jing J k
ineludin: r a brief history current situation, analysis and
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+ yes +. Corie pone wena
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ine. In instanees where certain of these a

the audience it is modified,to eliminate these unwanted portions.

9 February 1953

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communications channels with worthless reports. Jf you can logically explain a

report, fine, there is no need to waste your time and effort forwarding ite All

we ask is that you do use logic in writing it off a report as a "flying saucer",

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Standard Project Blue Book Briefing

Security Classification
First of all I would like to tell you about the security of this project.

The majority of the information is currently being carried das Reeeckioets This
is merely to protect the names of the people who have given us reports, it is

not any attempt to cover up any information that we have. The required security
classification for admittance to this briefing is Secret, however. The reason
for this is that in some instances we may get into a discussion of classified
equipment, classified location, or classified projects during the question and
answer period that follows this briefing. When the project was first started,

it was classified as Top Secret. This is probably the reason for the rumors that
the Air Force has Top Secret information on this subject; it does not. The only
reason for the original classification was that when the project first started the
people on the project did not know what they were dealing with and, therefore,
unknowingly put on this high classification.

We release all information to the press that they ask for, except the names
of persons involved in the sighting, methods used to obtain information when this
involves intelligence methods and Ca ie such as locations of radar sets,
types of radar sets, performance of aircraft, etc., that may be classified.

The Air Technical Intelligence Center
Many people are not familiar with the Air Technical Intelligence Center.

The Air Technical Intelligence Center was at one time part of Air Materiel Command,

however, in mid 1952 the command was changed and it is now a field activity of the

Directorate of Intelligence, Headquarters Air Force. Our chief, Brigadier General
Garland, is directly responsible to Major General Samford, the Director of Intelli-

gence, Headquarters USAF. The prime function of the Air Technical Intelligence

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Center is not to investigate "flying saucer" reports, it is charged with the
prevention of technological surprise by a foreign country. This means that all
enemy aircraft, guided missiles, etc., and any equipment related to these articles,
is studied at the Air Technical Intelligence Center.
Definitions
We normally do not like to use the term "flying saucer" in conjunction with
this project although it does seem to be an internationally recognized term. The
official term for these reported objects is Unidentified Flying Objects. They are
defined as being anything’ that by performance, aerodynamic characteristics or un-
usual features doses not conform to any presently known type of aircraft or missile,
or which cannot be identified as a known object.
History of the Project
To give you a brief history of this project, it started in 1917, when on
2); June 1947 a Mr. Kenneth Arnold sighted several disc-like objects near Mt.
Rainier in the State of Washington. From that time until August 199, 375 reports
were collected and analyzed. In August 1949, a report was written on these 375
incidents and it was concluded that all sightings were due to:
ae Mass hysteria or war nervese
b. Hoaxes or persons seeking purlicity.
Ce Psychopathlogical persons.
de Misinterpretation of known objects.
These conclusions have been given a great deal of study and it is now con-
cluded that the vast majority of the reports received are not due to hysteria,
war nerves, hoaxes, publicity seekers, psychopathlogical persons, etc., but they
are reports made by persons who have definitely seen something that they themselves

could not explain at the time of the sighting and have very sincerely made their

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report to the Air Force. This does not mean that these reports could not have
been misinterpretations of known objects, as not all of us are familiar with the
many different ways known objects can appear under various conditions.

In the aummer of 1951 the project was reviewed at the request of Headquarters
USAF and Project Blue Book was established. Between 1949 and 1951 the project had
not been dropped, but it was being carried on a low priority basis. The reason for
the renewed interest in the project was that between 199 and 195] very little pub-
licity had been given this subject, however, reports continued to come in. (These
reports were mainly from military personnel, and could be classed as good reports.
I would like to stop here a minute and explain what we mean by a good report. To
us, a good report is one in which several people were involved and the motives of
these people in making the report cannot be questioned. They have made comparatively
careful observations and have reported everything that they observed. Very few,
if any, of the reports in ATIC files could be classed as an excellent report, since
everyone is familiar with the frailties of human powers of observation and with the
necessity for obtaining readings by instruments to get exact calculations.)

After reorganization of the project in the summer of 1951, reports continued to
come in at the rate of about ten a month. In the spring of 1952 there was an in-
crease in the number of reports and they hit a peak of 70 per day in July 1952.

At the present time they have dropped off to about five a week. There is no doubt
that the emphasis placed on this subject by the press caused this big up-sweep in
reports. aA

Current Situation

iv It can be stated now that as far as the current situation is concerned, there
Vv are no indications that the reported objects are a direct threat to the United States

nor is there any proof that the reported objects are any foreign body over the United

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States or, as far as we know, the rest of the world. This always brings up the
question of space travel. We have gone into this with many people and it is the
opinion of most scientists or people that should know that it is not impossible for
some other planet to be inhabited and for this planet to send beings down to the
earth. However, there is no, and I want to emphasize and repeat the word "No",
evidence of this in any report the Air Force has received. I would like to go back
over that once more for the sake of the record. We have no evidence in any of our
reports that the earth is being visited by any people or beings from outer space.
We have arrived at the conclusion that these reported objects are no direct
threat to the United States for several different reasons. One, we have never
picked up any "hardware". By that we mean any pieces, parts, whole articles, or
anything that would indicate an unknown material or objecte We have received many

pieces of material to be analyzed but in every case there was no doubt as to what

this material was.

Photographs

We have photographs of some unusual things, but in all of those that show any
amount of detail, there is a varying amount of doubt as to their authenticity.
Still photographs are very easy to fake, without retouching the negative. Our
files contain many photos that were submitted in good faithe Some have turned out
to be/flaws in the negative, light flares or photos of some relatively rare known
natural phenomenae We have some that cannot be readily explained since they are
merely "blobs" of light and could be various things. None of the photos on file
that cannot be explained show any detail in the object or are cause for any undue
speculation.

Statistical Study
We have made a statistical study of the data that we have collected in order

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to attempt to determine whether or not there is any common pattern in the sight-
ings but we have had no success in finding any such pattern. The statistical
study made by ATIC was made on cross-index cards with 16 items, such as a reported
shape, a reported direction, color, etc., being cross-indexed in an attempt to find
a pattern, but we found none. In order to make a more detailed study, and since it
is very difficult to handle 2,000 reports on cross-index cards, an IBM study is now
being made. In this study approximately 60 items will be placed on the IBM cards.
These items will be cross-correlated and any patterns should be apparent. This has
not yet been completed. The results we will obtain will possibly help us in the
future planning for the project.

why Continue the Project

Two points that are of interest but are not in themselves greatly significant
are plots of the distribution of ovr unknown sightings and a plot of the frequency
of reportse A definition of the term "unknown" will be given later.

(Slide of Location of Unknowns)

You will notice that the unknown resorts do tend to cluster around critical
areas in the United States. One explanation might be that the people in these
areas are aware of the fact that they are in a critical area and are more aware

f unusual things.
(Slide on Frequency of Reports)

Agplot of the frequency of reports shows a series of peaks in July of each
year. We cannot account for this. Some people have offered the explanation that
there is better weather in July, more clear skies. We have checked this and there
seems to be no correlation.

The question arises then, why does the Air Force continue this project? I

might state now that the Air Force is continuing this project, is taking a great

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deal of interest in it, anc treating the subject seriously. There are several

reasons why it is being continued. One, there are reports that we cannot explain.
With the world situation what it is and the present advances in science, it behooves
the Air Force to have a system whereby they can receive reports of, evaluate, and

determine the identity of everything that is flying over the United States.

Two, there is no assurance that at some future date some foreign country may
not develop some object that by present day standards is unconventional. It may
be unconventional in appearance or performance. Due to the fact that the term
"flying saucer" has become almost a household word, it is possible that these
objects, if they should be developed, come across the United States and be seen,
would be reported as a "flying saucer". The Japanese balloons of WW II are an
example of this. We realize that Air Defense Command has the prime responsibility
for the detection and interception of any foreign intruders, but it would be the
function of ATIC to determine the nature and characteristics of such intruders.

The third reason is related to the first in that the Air Force is responsible
for the aerial protection of the United States and it is our responsibility to
assure ourselves and the public that these reported incidents, and we feel that
they will continue to be reported, are not a threat. ~ thi KF” fort frerk pane
Cperations of the Project

To give you a little better idea of the project, I would like to tell you how
we operate. Air Force Letter 200-5 is the basis for our operation. It states that
the Air Technical Intelligence Center is responsible for analyzing all reports of
Unidentified Flying Objects, and that each Air Force unit is responsible for for-

warding reports that they receive to the Air Technical Intellicence Center. It

further states that all reports will be forwarded by wire then followed up within

three days by a written AF Form 112. If AF Form 112's are not available, the

report can be made in letter form. This reporting requirement in AFL 200-5 does

not mean that the officer receiving the report from the source or the observer does
not have the prerogative to make his own evaluation and determine whether or not

the observation is worth forwarding. He may do this in two ways. He may be able

to identify the object, if he does, it is no longer an unidentified flying object,
and, therefore, does not have to be forwardede Secondly, he may evaluate the report
according to source and content and determine that it would be of no value as far as

analysis is concerned. To break this last point down further, the officer receiving

the report may believe the source is of doubtful character or it may be obvious that
the source did not make careful observations. In general, a report from only one
unexperienced observer is not too helpful. This is not because we doubt the observer's
word as to what he saw; it is because most people have difficulty estimating time,
angles, relative size, etc. If several people make an observation their estimates
can be arranged and the results are a little more accurate. It is a good idea,
however, to at least note the name and address or telephone number of such sources
since it might be tiat their observation would tie in with others and it would be
necessary to contact them again.
Project Operations

When we receive a report, the first thing that we check it for is the possi-
bility of its being a balloon, aircraft or astronomical body because these three
objects give us the most trouble. To go into each of them a little more specifically,
we will start with balloons.

Balloons: There are two different general categories of balloonse One is the
research type balloon. These balloons vary in shape and size and are released from
various points in the United States depending upon what projects are being conducted

and are not launched at any scheduled time. They may be small like weather balloons,