Government and military
Air Force investigations, bases and aircrew reports, from Project Sign to today. 216 events, newest first.
Military17 Jul 1957
The crew of a USAF RB-47H testing electronic countermeasures gear reported a light and a radar-emitting source that followed them from Mississippi into Oklahoma, with ground radar also reporting a target. The Condon study left it unidentified; skeptics later proposed an airliner.
Photo: U.S. Air Force photo, Public domain
Whistleblowers16 Jan 1957
NICAP board chairman Delmer Fahrney, a retired rear admiral who once ran the Navy guided-missile program, told reporters that reliable reports showed fast objects entering the atmosphere under apparent intelligent guidance. The Air Force said most reports had ordinary explanations.
Close encounters1957
After founding director T. Townsend Brown was removed at the end of 1956, retired Marine Major Donald Keyhoe took charge of the civilian group NICAP. Under him it pressed Congress to scrutinize Air Force secrecy about UFOs.
Photo: CBS, "The Mike Wallace Interview" 1958 March 8, Public domain
Military13 Aug 1956
Over the night of Aug. 13-14, 1956, USAF ground radars at RAF Bentwaters and Lakenheath tracked fast-moving targets, some with visual reports, and an RAF Venom night fighter was sent up and reported a radar lock. The Condon study rated a genuine UFO 'fairly high' in probability.
Photo: Bev Dickinson, CC BY-SA 2.0
Media1956
Edward Ruppelt, former head of the Air Force's Project Blue Book, published an inside account of its UFO investigations with Doubleday. In the book he wrote that he created the term 'UFO' to replace 'flying saucers'.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
GovernmentOct 1955
Air Force Secretary Donald Quarles made public the Battelle statistical analysis of saucer reports (Special Report 14), saying the Air Force found no sign of technology beyond known science. Critics later argued the study's 'unknowns' were not resolved by the data.
Photo: United States Air Force, Public domain
Government5 May 1955
Blue Book Special Report No. 14, a statistical analysis of about 3,200 reports through 1952 carried out with Battelle Memorial Institute, judged it highly improbable that the unidentified cases reflected technology beyond known science. The Air Force made it public in October 1955.
Photo: US Air Force, Public domain
Media1955
Former RAF pilot Derek Dempster founded Flying Saucer Review in London in 1955. A Gale reference entry says it was seen as uncritical under editor Brinsley le Poer Trench (1956-59) but later, under Charles Bowen, became one of the most influential UFO journals.
Government15 Dec 1954
Asked about European saucer investigations and claims the Air Force suspected extraterrestrial origins, President Eisenhower said nothing new had reached him and that a trusted Air Force source had told him it was inaccurate to think they came from another planet.
Photo: White House, Public domain
Military14 Oct 1954
Flt. Lt. James Salandin of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force said that after taking off from North Weald in a Meteor jet he saw two round objects streak between two other Meteors near Southend, then a third head straight at him before veering past. He later said he regretted not firing his camera gun.
Photo: Robert Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0
MilitaryJul 1954
Lord Dowding, who led RAF Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain, wrote in the Sunday Dispatch that he was convinced flying saucers existed and were not built by any nation on Earth. Historians say the statement worried the Air Ministry and drew ridicule.
Photo: Ministry of Information official photographer, Public domain
Military1954
Col. Joao Adil de Oliveira, described as head of Brazilian Air Force intelligence, gave a lecture on flying saucers to military officers and officials. Brazilian researcher Olavo Fontes reported that he called the objects real, worth military study, and of unknown origin.
Media1954
Former Project Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt wrote an article for True magazine titled 'What Our Air Force Found Out About Flying Saucers', an early public account of his time running the Air Force investigation, two years before his book.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
Military23 Nov 1953
An F-89C interceptor flown by 1st Lt. Felix Moncla Jr. with radar operator 2nd Lt. Robert Wilson vanished over Lake Superior after being vectored toward an unknown radar target. The Air Force said the target was an off-course Canadian C-47; no wreckage or crew were found.
Photo: USAF, Public domain
Government26 Aug 1953
The Air Force issued AFR 200-2, 'Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting', setting how bases report and investigate sightings. Its 1954 revision let officials discuss a case with the press only once the object was identified as familiar; AFR 200-2 governed Project Blue Book into the 1960s.
Photo: United States Air Force, Public domain
Military12 Aug 1953
A Ground Observer Corps spotter near Rapid City reported a bright light that Ellsworth AFB radar then tracked; an F-84 pilot chased it and reported a radar lock before breaking off. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt, who investigated in person, called it the best report in the Air Force files.
Photo: Staff Sgt. Marc I. Lane, U.S. Air Force, Public domain
MediaApr 1953
Ohio State astronomer J. Allen Hynek, then an Air Force consultant, published a paper arguing that unexplained aerial reports, many from credible observers, showed patterns that deserved serious scientific study rather than dismissal.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Media1953
Donald Keyhoe's second UFO book appeared, built on Air Force case reports released to the press and arguing for an extraterrestrial origin. It hit bestseller lists; a CIA review called it highly distorted, and Ruppelt said its sighting details were accurate but its interpretations were not.
Photo: CBS, "The Mike Wallace Interview" 1958 March 8, Public domain
Military1953
Capt. Edward Ruppelt, who had run the Air Force's UFO project through the 1952 wave, left Project Blue Book and the Air Force in 1953. His 1956 book says he asked for a transfer in December 1952, no replacement came, and he was again handling Blue Book cases in August 1953.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
Government1953
FBI records released under FOIA show the Bureau tracked contactee George Adamski and the flying-saucer clubs that promoted him in the 1950s, filed under espionage, and record that FBI and Air Force OSI agents had interviewed him. The file is now on the FBI's online Vault.
Photo: Unknown (press photo), Public domain
Government4 Dec 1952
At the CIA director's request the Intelligence Advisory Committee discussed UFOs and agreed the DCI should enlist selected scientists to review the evidence and draft a security directive. Air Force intelligence chief Maj. Gen. John Samford offered cooperation; the review became the Robertson Panel.
MilitarySep 1952
During the NATO naval exercise Mainbrace, a Meteor jet was sent after a round, silvery object over RAF Topcliffe but lost it. Ruppelt wrote that an RAF officer told him these sightings led the RAF to recognize UFOs officially.
Photo: P Glenwright, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government1 Aug 1952
Reporting for a CIA study group formed after the 1952 sighting wave, Edward Tauss of the Office of Scientific Intelligence found most sightings easily explained but advised continued monitoring with the Air Force, while keeping CIA interest from the press and public.
MilitaryAug 1952
Control tower operators at Haneda AFB in Tokyo watched a bright light over Tokyo Bay that ground radar tracked at the same time; a scrambled F-94 got a brief radar lock before losing it. Ruppelt said the Far East Air Force investigators rated it among their best cases.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Sightings31 Jul 1952
Photos of a domed disc said to be taken in Passaic, New Jersey were widely printed. Air Force intelligence (ATIC) found no independent witnesses and judged the pictures suspicious and easily faked, though it said they were never proven a hoax.
