Government and military
Air Force investigations, bases and aircrew reports, from Project Sign to today. 221 events, newest first.
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.
Government29 Jul 1952
Maj. Gen. John Samford, Air Force Director of Intelligence, held a Pentagon press conference on the Washington sightings. He said the reports showed no threat to the U.S., that temperature inversions might explain the radar returns, and that the objects were not U.S. tests.
Photo: US Gov, Public domain
Military28 Jul 1952
During the July 1952 wave, a front-page newspaper report quoted the Air Force as disclosing that jet fighters were on round-the-clock nationwide alert against flying saucers, with orders to bring one down if they could. HISTORY ties such coverage to a press frenzy the Air Force then tried to calm.
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
Military24 Jul 1952
Two Pentagon-based Air Force colonels flying a B-25 from Hamilton AFB reported three silver, tailless delta craft passing them at high speed over Carson Sink. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt wrote that checks for aircraft and balloons found nothing and the case stayed unknown.
Photo: Airwolfhound from Hertfordshire, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0
Military19 Jul 1952
On two weekends in July 1952, radar at Washington National Airport and Andrews AFB tracked unexplained targets, some matched by pilot sightings, and jets were sent to intercept. The Air Force publicly suggested temperature inversions as a likely cause.
Photo: Warren K. Leffler, Public domain
SightingsJul 1952
1952 brought the Air Force more UFO reports than any year before, about eight times the totals for each of the previous two years per the Condon Report. Project Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt dated the 'Big Flap' from about June 1, with reports peaking in July, including the Washington radar cases.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
Government29 Apr 1952
Air Force Letter 200-5 told every Air Force base to wire UFO reports to the Air Technical Intelligence Center and the Pentagon, followed by fuller reports by mail. Edward Ruppelt wrote that it also let Project Blue Book contact any Air Force unit directly.
GovernmentMar 1952
The Air Force reorganized its UFO investigations as Project Blue Book. By the time it closed in 1969, the Air Force programs had logged 12,618 reports, 701 of them still listed as unidentified.
Photo: US Governement, Public domain
Military1952
After the Air Force photo lab failed to identify the Tremonton, Utah film, Navy photo analysts at Anacostia spent about two months on it and told the Robertson Panel the lights were not aircraft or birds. The panel rejected this and concluded the images were sunlight on seagulls.
MediaApr 1951
RKO and Howard Hawks's Winchester Pictures released The Thing from Another World, directed by Christian Nyby. Air Force men find a saucer frozen in Arctic ice and a hostile creature that the military must destroy. Critics count it among the first films to merge science fiction and monster movies.
Photo: RKO Radio Pictures, Public domain
Military10 Feb 1951
Crew of a Navy R5D flying from Keflavik to Argentia, including Lt. Graham Bethune, reported a glow that rose toward them and turned into a large circular object before leaving. Five aboard filed Air Force intelligence reports. The Air Force suggested the aurora or a meteor; Bethune disputed this.
Photo: USAAF, Public domain
Sightings20 Jan 1951
After Sioux City tower controllers reported a bright light, the pilots of a Mid-Continent Airlines DC-3 said a large wing-shaped object passed their nose and flew beside them briefly. The Air Force blamed a B-36; Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt later wrote that no B-36 could have done it.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Media1951
Engineers and writers led by North American Aviation employee Edward J. Sullivan formed Civilian Saucer Investigation in Los Angeles in late 1951. It collected sighting reports, shared many with the Air Force, issued four bulletins and folded in 1954; its files later passed to NICAP.
Sightings15 Aug 1950
Baseball manager Nick Mariana filmed two bright lights crossing the sky over Great Falls on 16mm film. The 1953 Robertson Panel attributed them to sunlight off two Air Force interceptors; the 1969 Condon study left the case unexplained, though it said aircraft could not be ruled out.
Photo: parkerdonaldmusic, Public domain
Sightings20 May 1950
Astronomer Seymour Hess said that while walking the Lowell Observatory grounds at lunch he followed a small round gray object with a 4-power telescope as it passed in front of a cloud, traveling at right angles to the wind. Asked by reporters, Williams Air Force Base said it knew of nothing like it.
Photo: Mukhtiaraliunar, CC BY-SA 4.0
SightingsMar 1950
Capt. Jack Adams and First Officer G. W. Anderson, flying a Chicago and Southern DC-3 from Memphis to Little Rock, reported a fast object with a row of glowing ports near Stuttgart, Arkansas. They told United Press they believed it was a secret aircraft; the Air Force reached no firm answer.
Photo: RuthAS, CC BY-SA 3.0
MediaJan 1950
Retired Marine Maj. Donald Keyhoe argued in True magazine's January 1950 issue that flying saucers were interplanetary craft and disputed Air Force explanations. Radio and press amplified the claim, and Keyhoe expanded it into a 1950 book of the same name.
Photo: Donald Keyhoe, Public domain
Media1950
Fawcett Publications issued Donald Keyhoe's 'The Flying Saucers Are Real', a paperback expanding on his January 1950 True magazine article. Keyhoe argued the Air Force knew more about flying saucers than it admitted.
Photo: Donald Keyhoe, Public domain
Government27 Dec 1949
The Air Force announced that Project Grudge was closed and released its final report, which attributed saucer reports to misidentification, mild hysteria and hoaxes and recommended cutting the effort back. Grudge continued at a minimal level until Project Blue Book replaced it.
Photo: US Air Force, Public domain
Sightings24 May 1949
A group fishing near the mouth of the Rogue River, including employees of a NACA aeronautical laboratory, reported a round silver object, watched through binoculars, on May 24, 1949. An Air Force OSI report could not rule out an aircraft; the case was later listed in Blue Book Special Report 14.
Photo: Yurivict at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media30 Apr 1949
The Saturday Evening Post published a two-part article by Sidney Shalett, written with Air Force cooperation, that mostly explained saucer reports away while conceding a few were unexplained. Ruppelt called it the first time the Air Force reported on UFOs officially.
