Culture and science
The books that shaped how the public sees UFOs. 189 events, newest first.
Sightings15 Mar 1951
A chief aircraft engineer at the Delhi Flying Club and about 20 others reported a long, bullet-shaped object trailing a white cloud that looped over the field and left at high speed. The case is in the Project Blue Book files, and NICAP says Blue Book listed it as unidentified.
Photo: Ashish Bhatnagar, CC BY-SA 3.0
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
MediaSep 1950
Columnist Frank Scully's book claimed government scientists had recovered crashed saucers with small occupants, citing oilman Silas Newton and a 'Dr. Gee'. In 1952 Denver authorities charged Newton and the man said to be Dr. Gee in an oil-device swindle, discrediting the story.
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
SightingsApr 1950
In spring 1950 the crew and passengers of a TWA DC-3 night flight over northern Indiana reported a large orange-red object. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt later wrote that the official answer was blast-furnace light reflecting off haze, an explanation the pilots rejected.
Sightings17 Mar 1950
Many residents of Farmington reported large numbers of fast, darting objects on St. Patrick's Day 1950, after scattered reports on the two previous days. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt later suggested fragments of a burst Skyhook balloon as the likeliest cause.
Photo: Christopher Nicol, 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
MilitaryMar 1949
From March to June 1949, soldiers guarding the nuclear weapons storage site at Killeen Base, Camp Hood, reported unexplained moving lights. Army observers tried to triangulate them on 17 March, and Project Blue Book later listed that case as unidentified.
GovernmentSep 1948
Project Sign staff drafted a top secret 'Estimate of the Situation' concluding that some saucers were interplanetary craft. According to later Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt, Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg rejected it for lack of proof and it was later burned; no copy has surfaced.
Photo: USAF, Public domain
Government1948
In early 1948, Air Force officers from Wright-Patterson asked J. Allen Hynek, director of Ohio State's McMillin Observatory, to help Project Sign find which saucer reports were astronomical. Hynek, then a skeptic, had no role in Grudge but returned as Blue Book's consultant from 1952 to 1969.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Military1948
Large plastic Skyhook research balloons, about 100 feet across, were flown in secret for the Navy, unknown to most Air Force pilots. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt and the Condon report later cited them as the likely cause of many reports, including Capt. Thomas Mantell's fatal 1948 chase.
Photo: US Navy, Public domain
Military8 Jul 1947
Test pilots, officers and a crew of technicians at Muroc air base in California's Mojave Desert reported round, silvery objects on the morning of July 8, 1947. Edward Ruppelt, later head of Project Blue Book, wrote that this was the first sighting to make the Air Force take a deep interest.
Photo: U.S. Navy, Public domain
