BUFOA Journal Number 1, Summer 1963

The BUFOA Journal Number 1, published in the summer of 1963, serves as the inaugural publication of the British U.F.O. Association. The journal outlines the association's mission to coordinate and promote research into unidentified aerial phenomena, facilitating the exchange of information among various member societies across the United Kingdom. The document includes an editorial emphasizing the need to overcome prejudice in the study of unexplained phenomena and highlights the development of a punch-card system by the London U.F.O. Research Organisation (LUFORO) to facilitate scientific analysis of sightings.

The journal provides detailed accounts of several sighting reports. These include mystery lights observed at South Lowestoft in December 1962, where multiple witnesses reported circular objects in arrow-head formation. Other reports detail sightings from ships at sea in November 1962, a sighting in Berkhamsted in October 1962, and observations of a green 'star' in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, in April 1963. Additionally, the journal covers reports of 'mystery craters' and holes found in fields across the UK, including sites in Charlton, Wiltshire, and Flamborough Head, Yorkshire. These incidents were investigated by local groups and, in some cases, by military bomb disposal units, with some investigators, such as Charles A. Stickland, speculating on the possibility of extra-terrestrial machine landings.

Finally, the journal includes instructional content for investigators, such as a lecture by G.N.P. Stephenson on interviewing eyewitnesses, and a series of 'tests of observation' designed by F. Malcolm Bull to demonstrate the fallibility of human perception and memory in reporting UFO sightings. The journal concludes with a call for members to submit reports to their respective regional headquarters.