USAF Histo . I. ASI(ASHAF-A} . rc . ves Mcxwell AFB, Ala means bhat we were n.ot ble to corre'l te all tb da.t .a, ut th . 1 no doubt in our minds what th r : port.ed obj ct balloon. A pos ibl b loon .L our eate oria e se the e three breakdowns. (51 de showing Breakdown of Conclusi.o J In analyzing 1021 reports,Oyand those are reports th :t b ve been r eeeived through mili.tacy channe s and do not include several hundred report from cirll- iana direct to ATI,C, the to lowing is tb . breakdown. o' conclusion_ a o 22 'D c 5~ Pos ib'le A tronomical Bodie Known 2. 79' Prob le 4.01 Po sible 7.40 other (Dlcka over drive-in movies, .sea.rchlights On ol.ouds, etc. J Hoaxes ~ ar (Explanation not proven) Ins.uficient Data to Eva-.uate rlNCt A-a ED classified t.s un- i n ordl'lr . su ly . balance of 20.1% of tho reports which are 'fhis leaves a lcnown. At this point, a definition of the term "unknown" is thoro is more than one source or obs erver. Again, this does not tnea.n that juf?t because a person is alone, sees something be cannot explain to himself and re- ports it, his account of what he saw is la\lghed off. Nonnally one person just cannot supply ~.hn necessary data. For this reason, we dwell more on reports whe:re the data. can be substantiated by others. To go a step further, in a re- port we classify aa unknown there can be no doubt as to the reliability of the persons making the observation. If the report contains a relatively good amount of data, it is then checked against the location of known objects , phenomena, tc. If none of these explain the sighting, it is classed as unknown. It might well be that if we had more data on the sighting, it could easily be explained As you 11 note on t s slide we have tted all of r reports e class! fy The.y ten to concentrate ound Albuque ue, Washing on, D. c. San co, and San onio, with Albuq rque present of co nce trlltion. It y be that the peo le there are ore aware o r/a.ture of their ind fi'd""1irt1 m<:n"s sl rt t.o repor nga they a;ir. _llfl~y Cnntioue The Project? T11e qne on "If rrfst oy'thes,/ repclrts q'an b( eJqSiain~, wptY nt.~o t pro ec" I might state now that tho project will be continued und the subject will continue to be treated seriously. There are s ev43ral rea- s0ns why tho proj v: I~ will be continued a . Th~re are report~ we cannot explain. We believe we can explain ~11 but ~bout. 20%, but if you notsd the breElkdovm of conclusions, Tfe only ca u po"Il- tJvol y idcntlry ab")u.t /%. With the world situ.:1t.ion rvh.:.tt. it.. is and with t.he l~l'tl sent. a.dvo.nco:J in scienca, it behooves th'= Ai r Forc e t o hnve a sy em whot~lJ:,r UNCCASSIFl~u they can reeeive report:J of, evaluate, .:lnd dotermine thf'i identity of objt.3Cts reportedly flying over the Unit~d Stat~s b. There is '10 asaur.!J.nee that at some i'u tura da~e some for ei gn po~r~r could not develop son19 objoct that by present day standards is unconventional in appearance or performance. Due to the fact that the term "flying saucer" has become almost a househol d word for anything that cannot be identified as a conventional object, it might be reported as a flying saucer. The Japanese paper balloons of World War II are an example of this. c: The third reason is related t o tho first. The Air Force is re- sponsible for ~he aerial protection of the United States. It is our responsi- ssure ourselves and the ublic that these continuing r eports , and we believe they will continue, are not a threat. To give you a little better idea of the project, I would like to t ell 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 re- ports of unidentified flying objects and that each Air Force unit is responsible for forwarding reports that they receive to the Air Technical Intelligence Center. It further states that all repor~s will be forwarded b,y wire then followed up wlthin three days by a written AF Form 112 . If AF id\;. ~t~:i(~e; tJrtf"); epcr\ -ea11 be Jftade ia le~\er feu1. This reporting requirement in AFL 2bo-5 ~ .. does not mean that the officer receiving the report from the source or the ob-wAD (:. sGrver doe s not have the prerogative t o make his own evaluation and detormina whether or not the observation is worth forw-arding. He may do this in two ways. '* rt ' He may be able t o identify t he object, if h':l does, it is no longe r an unidenti- fied flying object, and therefore , does not hrive to be for;rarded. Secondly, I . may evaluate the report according to s ource and content and determine that it [IIN.ClASS -r' "lfOUld be of no value as far as analysis is concerned. To break this Last point dolfn further, the office r receiving the report; may believe the source is of doubtful character or it may be obvious that the source did not make careful timating t ime angles, iva size, e estimates a good ide sources s i e it might be t t their observ tion would ti in with ot r s and it would e necessary to ntact them a ga !l . . Very bly some of yo}l have forwarded or unidentified f Project Blue is set up to eceive and analyz all such reports. T.o. calls for 4 of nuctuat In ~dition to these full-time pars the Center has in many i'iel da, and these people are ca analysis as they at ATIC, ATIC a contract with a whioh These include sa people can called upon i f they needed. The as consulted. going over the nr'=aration of Project Bl Book, I will tell :\t>u how we r eports. You ca n to make your own e,_.c~luations , a= ( se these same proces i1' you a r e that t he object was conventional D tJNC[ASSIFIEP o1~ard i'b a n unide n ed flyi this su act, ATIC eives many aro obvi known obj only cl up channels communica on and at es has ached b obvious that the ence offic did not rna to rmine or the area, etc. in s ome a wire sent. ceivi ng the weather sta on, radar in this though m wh 0 ts seen som at their twist the I not to set e t o use n ev a so you talk a pers are imagina ve. age and sex. pilot see a or but it a saucer, ced the t t she does are mo,or bu cat are molle relia have s een a larger ety things in ffi1en we receive ~report, the first thing that we check it for is the possi- bility of its being a balloon, aircraft or astronomical body because thes e three objects give us the most trouble. To go into each of them a little more specifi- c ally, we will start with balloons. mNCl..ASSIFIFL Thl"'tt o :~ro t ;:o di .f.'fnrm1t gonBral c a t egoriP-s of hrllloons. One i G t.h9 ro:r nrch typr. bnlloon. Thr:lse h alloon::r vor7 in shtlpl"! and s i zo and aro rol<~nsed f>.oru Vl\r1ous points ln t,he UnitFJd States d epor.dina upon what project s oro bo- :lng conducted a nd a r e not l aunched at any s cheduled time. They may be sm.n~l l :tke weathe r balloon:J, they may be clusters of these weather b .. J.loona, or t.hey may bo l a rge polyflthylono b alloo n.q that are 100' in dialllater. Wi t.h th0 p resent omphas.ts on cosmic ray study many different types of balloons are being launche 4 in the Uni. t.ed States .fl. 7 fJ14ff 0 o IV 1/l!f t It:. T Tho othe r category is the regularly launc he d weather balloons. These ara l1Jl.mched from known lvcations in the United States at definite timas. Project Blue Book gets data on t he large research type balloons eithe r through Hq ADC or, if necessary, direct from the launching a gency. Due to the nature of this problem, ATIC is familiar vdth most of the agencies in the coun- try who are launching research balloons and can go directly to these people to get infor.m~tion on their balloon tracks. Since the launch sites are changed frequently, this requires constant liaison. It is possible that now or in tho near future y our division or Force will get data on all launches of r esearch type balloons. It is definitely worth a try to contact the division or Force. I f th~y do not have the tracks, they ~ay know of a launch program. Nonnally the3e lflrge balloons travel gre.,t d t stances and it may be difficult to get data wit.hout going to Hq ADC. On the regularly scheduled weather balloon launches, Blue Book has data on oil launch sites and knows the approxima t e time of launch eac h day. We have <,i~(,, the authority to directly to thesa stations to obtain data on their balloons or, if th11 tima 13lomcnt is not critical, to eo through Air Weather Service to r,o t, it from their ccntr:U. files . Fortumttoly, many of th9se b.nlloona are tracke d, '1Lthr by r nd:'lr or by r oclio DF and 1.t is possible to cet th0 OX'lCt tracks of th0 UNCI!ASSIFlED N-:.;1.rly every airbas e a nti civil~an airport servici nc a schC'Juuleli a irli n e r e - l e ases some type of weather balloon, e itha r t he small p iball that i s t.raclced visually or the ins trwnent carrying type th~ t is traeked by radio or r adar. Although these balloons can develop a slow leak and float for long dist.anc a s , they normally will not get more than 3U miles from their r e lease point. To be safe uae a distance ot' 50 miles. If you get a report of an object y o u believe t o be a l>alloon, ch eck with your weather officer. He will know wha t sta tions in your area l aunch balloons and from the general win:i conditions at the time ot the s i ghting tell you where the balloon probably came from. You can then get the plot of balloon tracks and definitely establish whether the object was a balloon. If there are sev- eral launch locations in your area, you may have to check them all. ny times a call to the unit launching the balloon will suf fica a s they can tell y ou the location of their balloon at a given time. (Slide of WeaiMt' ~ailoon tawteA 5.1tes) Balloons do not give us any trouble when they look liko balloons, i l. is when they dont look like balloons that they give us trouble arrl thuy can take on man_y odd appearances. In the daytime a balloon will a ppear to be a very bright star in the sky. What is happaning is that the sun s r ays are dlffusing into the balloon and causir.g it to glow. Under ideal condition~, a l.Jalloon can b e aeon as high ae 90,000, but under mo r e adverao c o nditions a balloon possibly cannot be seen over 4,ooo to 6,000 It depends a great deal o n the hazo. furing the daytime a balloon at very high altj t u d e lril l a p fAJ:lC t o be s t a t i on1r.)l or tra v eling v e r y slowly. At night balloo nn t hat a r e l t chted wil l nppum t r..1 lJtJ a r adically movi ng light. This ligltt may eve n app8ar t o dt.1r,~c c~ lor, due Lo RESTRICTED [JNCLASSlFtED a1JL10sph eric condi tion.s. The bnilcon wil l cha net:t direction VIi t h 'fdnd and '!'till app~ar to be on a j er ky , zig-~RgC' course. Since most people observing these balloons do not hav e any reference point in the s lcy, the balloons a ppear to be moving very much faster tha n they reall y a r e . At dawn or dusk a ball oon Cull appear t o be a fiery r ed, circule.r shaped objec t in t he sky. 'l'he reas on .for this i s that the balloon is picking up the slanted ray s of the s u n , exactly the a s a cloud will pick up the sun s rays i n a s u nset. It maybe t hat i f the balloon is high enou gh, it ca n be dark on the gr oun d bu t it will be sunse t at Some balloons c arry r adar reflector s or metallic l oads capable of gi ving a radar r .et urn. The clue t o this is tha t they will b e traveling w:lth a nd at the same speed as the wind at their altitude. Aircraft, as aircraft, do not give us a grea t deal of troub~el i t is when they are high and reflecting sunlight or leaving a v a por t r ail that ther are most often misrecognized. Similar t o tha situati on with ball oons, a vapor t rail will appear to glow at dawn or dusk. Many times the airc r aft leaving the vapor trail cannot even be seen, however, the vapor will a ppear to be a bri ght fiery red streak of flame in the sky. Formati ons of aircraft reflecti n g tht!. sunl_!ght can very often appear as a formation of disc-s haped ob j ects. At times the re- flection will suddenly diminish causing the objects t o l ook l i k e t hey were either moving r apidly out of sight or just disappearine. does not ha v a a s atisfact or y system for checki n g aircraft. This i a bocause Flight Service a nd CAA does not k eep a p ermanent recor d of airc r aft nights very l ong afte r th e aircrait has l a nded . Thor of a r e , it i s up t o t.ho office r roc eivintJ' tho r<:port from t he observe r t o t horoughl y chod~ air c 1af t mov e- nta irmnodi a t ely. He may chock those thtough the cotltrol towor, th1ou gh Fli(Tht rJNCCASSlFlEO RESTRICTED Service, through CAA. radil.o at.ations, r adar, or manJ' various ways, but he should check thoroughly to see whether or not thflre were any aircraft flight:1 in the area of the sighting. ADC unl ts have a distinct adva ntage here, because if the report is received soon Anough, r a.dar can be checked. ftstronomical Bodies As far as astronomical bodies are concerned, ATIC has a rofessio mer under contract to review sightings that they believe to be caused by astronam- ical 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 su~pected of being an astronomical body is the bearing, tho azimuth, and the time. From this we can check back through almanacs and detel'!nine the locations of certain bright stars. Stars that give us trouble are Venus, Jupi- ter, Capella and several others. You can check stars by obtaining the approx- imate time, azimuth and elevation of the reported object and grabbing the nearest navigator. Meteors are not too difficult to evaluate because they seem to have a stan- dard description. If someone reports an object simjlar 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 fire-& balls. These are so rare that there is a good chance that you may see only one in your 1:1.fe if any. This has probably accounted for many reports by pilots who state that the.ymet a huge ball of fire coming directly at their aircraft and at times have even racked up tho aircraft to get out of its patn. Many times these are reported as missiles. We have ha.d pilots who have complained to the Air Force about shooting r ockets, or experimental missiles, through the airways and endangering their aircraft. This is a r ather fool ish statentont RESTRICTED RESTRICTED howovcr , when you r;et One , if a missile appeo.rP.d any- Y1h0 rfl ouli.siclP Lhn proving grounds chances arr.t it "ou~d be enctny.. Howev er, if y()u he.vo :::~ t.udi ecl mhud.les you rill no t.e that the hurning time, or the ~ime boforc f\tel cut-off, is only a relativel y short period durine tho mio~1ilo 's ntGht. If we would say, hypothetically, a rocket -.,as shot from some foroir.n country into tho United States, ohAAces are very good t hat the fuel shut-off point, would ha.ve come long before the rocket ever reached thf) United Sta'l,es and it wo~d not be ernitting a flame. You c an check meteors by looking for accot.mts of them in the newspaper, or consulting local astronomers . Other C;lUse ... ~. of Reports Nat.urally balloons, aircraft and astronomical bodies do not accQJ,\nt 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, blirrps, pieces of paper caught in an updr aft, a nd mRny other things that cause reports. These are very difficult to chf.lck and to check them we nonnally go back to ol d sight- ings. For exa mple, scmetime back, approximately a year ago, the city of Fargo, North Dakota, was somewhat disturbed by glmnng objects that flew over the city on varlous nights. Fina~l.y, some of the more enterprising souls in the city took enough interest in the subject to attempt to determine what they were. AJl it wa s were flocks of ducks or geese reflecting the city's lights. We will take a case like this and mentally file it. When we come acrosg a similar report, we :l.l go back and compare the two reports. If they are similar enough, we will write the now roport off as beine the same thing. This is about the only math- od 'iTO hove of checld.ng such things Since ADC has the vast majority, of the radar tht is operating 24 hours RESTRICTED m:Jct:ASSIFIED PRO.JECT BWE .8001 SPICIAI, BBIU'IHO POR .liB DEFENSE COIOIAND KARCH 195} DOD D . 82Qa10 UNCLAS -_JFl D c per dny , wo roceive ma.ny r oports frou. then. ADC Roeul.:.tt.ion ?CO~:; cGvrJr-:; ;,uch rt~portj.nr.. 'l'his r egulation states whFt.t informo.tion is to bo) for,;:Tdr:Jd . 1\'fiC uses a very similar questionnaire . It was dmli~nod aft,er the one in AlJC lation 200-5, but contains a f mv more i tom3. We receive quite a few r adar sightings .:md ar e well fl\'ln r e or t.he f~Jct t hr\ t weather and interference bet.ween tYro radars can c aus e wierd effect.s. Our is to detennine methods of more positively establishing the c."lm;o of certain effects a nd even being able to predict when these eff ect.s n1c.y be mor e noticeable. Naturally, you people are also very much intorested i n this. We understand that ADC has already published their l ates t uaterial on tow to check for interference and weather, so I will not go into this. When reporting a radar sightine , the weather data are oxtrGrnely important. Plots of the temperature and moisture vs. altitude should a lways be reported . There are no reports of radar sightings in our file whose authenticity can- not be questioned to some degree. In none of the cases of erratic or tdgh spoed (above Mach 1) that we have on file ca n it be shown that the track was actually that of a material object. One rarA exception to this is when