Government and military
Air Force investigations, bases and aircrew reports, from Project Sign to today. 216 events, newest first.
Sightings11 Jan 1966
Police, a reservoir guard, the mayor and dozens of callers in Wanaque, New Jersey reported a very bright white light over the reservoir on two evenings. The New York Times covered it, and an Air Force statement said the New Jersey sightings were probably Venus and Jupiter.
Photo: Mckdawg08, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government1966
University of Arizona atmospheric physicist James McDonald began an intensive study of UFO reports and visited Wright-Patterson AFB to review Air Force UFO files. He later told a House symposium the files surprised him and changed his views.
Sightings4 Dec 1965
On their second orbit, Gemini 7 astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell reported a 'bogey' and many small particles alongside their booster. The Air Force-funded Condon study listed it among a few astronaut sightings it had not adequately explained.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Military7 Oct 1965
Edwards Air Force Base reported about a dozen moving lights over the base on October 7, 1965; an F-106 was scrambled and found nothing. About 40 minutes of a six-hour recording of the night's radio and phone traffic were declassified when Blue Book closed.
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
Sightings3 Sep 1965
Hitchhiker Norman Muscarello and Exeter police officers Eugene Bertrand and David Hunt reported a low object with bright red lights over fields near Kensington, N.H. Officers from Pease AFB investigated, and the policemen publicly disputed the Air Force's conventional explanations.
Photo: United States Air Force, Public domain
Sightings3 Sep 1965
Brazoria County deputies Billy McCoy and Robert Goode said a huge dark object with a bright purple light came close to their patrol car near Damon, Texas. An Ellington AFB officer interviewed them and called them credible, and Project Blue Book listed the case as unidentified.
Photo: Djmaschek, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings19 Aug 1965
Teenager Harold Butcher reported a football-shaped object hovering near his family's dairy barn, with others nearby reporting similar sightings. The Air Force record card lists the case as unidentified; a purple residue found at the site was judged unrelated.
Photo: Adam Moss, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings3 Aug 1965
Orange County highway traffic investigator Rex Heflin took three Polaroid photos of what he said was a metallic disk crossing Myford Road near Santa Ana, then a fourth of a smoke ring. The Air Force-funded Condon study (case 52) found the evidence inconclusive and internally inconsistent.
Military22 Sep 1964
Former Air Force Lt. Robert Jacobs claimed from 1982 that telescope film of a September 22, 1964 Vandenberg Atlas launch, shot from Big Sur, showed a craft circling the warhead and hitting it with a beam. Project engineer Kingston George said it showed decoys and debris, not a UFO.
Photo: SDASM Archives, Public domain
Military1963
Hector Quintanilla succeeded Lt. Col. Robert Friend at the Air Force's Project Blue Book and led it until it closed in December 1969, through the Socorro case and the 1966 Michigan sightings. His later unpublished memoir defended the Air Force's handling of reports.
Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain
MilitaryDec 1961
The Avrocar, a disc-shaped vertical-takeoff craft built by Avro Canada and taken over by the U.S. Army and Air Force in 1958, proved unstable above about three feet and topped out near 35 mph. The project was cancelled in December 1961. Its saucer shape drew comparisons with 'flying saucers'.
Photo: Bzuk at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Military1 Jul 1961
The Air Force replaced its Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center with the new Foreign Technology Division under Air Force Systems Command at Wright-Patterson. Project Blue Book records from then until the end of 1969 are filed under FTD's Aerial Phenomena Branch.
Photo: AF Historical Research Agency, Public domain
Close encounters18 Apr 1961
Wisconsin resident Joe Simonton said a saucer landed in his yard and its occupants handed him pancakes after he gave them water. The Air Force and NICAP looked into the report; the pancakes were analyzed and found to be ordinary, and the story was largely dismissed.
Photo: United States Air Force, Public domain
Military15 Sep 1960
Edward J. Ruppelt, the Air Force officer who led the UFO project during the 1952 wave and later wrote a book about it, died of a heart attack on September 15, 1960, at age 37.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
Government28 Feb 1960
NICAP made public a December 1959 Air Force Inspector General directive telling commands to treat UFO reports as serious defense business. NICAP board member Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first CIA director, said a copy went to Congress and called for open congressional hearings.
Photo: U.S. Gov., Public domain
Government1960
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force's scientific consultant on UFO reports, chaired Northwestern University's astronomy department and directed its Dearborn Observatory from 1960 to 1978, the base for his later UFO research.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Sightings26 Oct 1958
Phillip Small and Alvin Cohen said an egg-shaped object hovered over a bridge at Loch Raven Dam near Baltimore, their car died, and a flash and bang left their faces burning. Towson police found nothing; an Air Force investigator left it unidentified.
Photo: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0
Military16 Jan 1958
Civilian photographer Almiro Barauna photographed an object over Trindade Island from the Brazilian Navy ship Almirante Saldanha, and Rio papers ran the photos in February 1958. A U.S. Naval Attache report and later Air Force correspondence judged the photos a hoax.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Military1958
Tuskegee Airman Robert Friend led the Air Force's Project Blue Book from 1958 to 1963. He tried without success to have the project moved to a civilian agency such as NASA.
Close encounters5 Nov 1957
During the November 1957 wave, grain buyer Reinhold Schmidt said a cigar-shaped craft stalled his car near Kearney and that he spoke with German-speaking occupants. Air Force investigators concluded the story was a hoax made for publicity.
Military4 Nov 1957
CAA tower operators at Kirtland AFB reported a dark object with a white light below that crossed the field, appeared to reverse direction at low altitude and climbed into the overcast, with a radar return. The Air Force and the Condon Report concluded it was likely a small private aircraft.
Photo: USAF, Public domain
Sightings2 Nov 1957
Over about two hours, drivers near Levelland reported a large glowing object and said their engines and headlights failed as it passed. The Air Force attributed the reports to ball lightning; physicist James McDonald later told Congress no storms were near that night.
Photo: Leaflet, CC BY-SA 3.0
SightingsNov 1957
Project Blue Book logged 361 reports in November 1957, one of its busiest months, helping make 1957 the only year from 1953 to 1965 with over a thousand reports. The surge came days after Sputnik 2 and included Levelland, Texas and a White Sands report the Air Force publicly addressed.
Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain
Military4 Sep 1957
Four Portuguese Air Force F-84G pilots on a training flight from Ota reported a changing yellow, then red, sphere with smaller spheres around it over Cordoba for about 35 minutes. Formation leader Jose Lemos Ferreira, later armed forces chief, retold it in 2007; the crew filed a joint report.
Photo: Ricardo Reis from Lisboa, Portugal, CC BY-SA 2.0
MilitarySep 1957
An Army draftsman at Fort Belvoir photographed a black ring in the sky that turned into a white cloud, reportedly seen by about 15 people. The Air Force-funded Condon study identified it as a by-product of an atom bomb simulation demonstration on the base.
