Government and military
The Air Force UFO studies from 1947 to 1969: Sign, Grudge, Blue Book and the Condon study. 116 events, newest first.
Sightings24 Apr 1964
Socorro police officer Lonnie Zamora reported a shiny oval object and a roaring flame in a gully, then found burned brush and ground marks. Blue Book chief Hector Quintanilla called it the best-documented case on record, and it stayed unidentified.
Photo: Project Blue Book, 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 His later unpublished memoir defended the Air Force's handling of reports.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
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
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
Media1960
The second edition of former Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt's The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects added three chapters reviewing later cases and ending with a far more skeptical view, closing on the phrase 'our Space Age Myth - the UFO'.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
GovernmentApr 1958
An April 1958 CIA memo answering letters from Leon Davidson and NICAP's Donald Keyhoe recommended sending them a declassified Robertson Panel report written in late 1957 that omitted any CIA tie. The CIA kept refusing to release the full report until 1975.
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.
Military5 Nov 1957
The Coast Guard cutter Sebago reported several fast-moving radar targets and a brief bright light before dawn during the November 1957 wave. The Condon study judged the light a meteor and most radar returns likely anomalous propagation.
Photo: Florida Department of Commerce, Public domain
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
Military3 Nov 1957
Two U.S. Army patrols at White Sands reported a very bright light near the horizon and later a pulsating light, hours after the Levelland reports made national news. Project Blue Book concluded the first sighting was the setting Moon and the second was Venus.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
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
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.
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
Sightings1957
A Rio de Janeiro society columnist printed a letter with an illegible signature claiming a disc exploded over the sea near Ubatuba, with fragments said to be ultra-pure magnesium. Tested for the Condon Report, a sample was less pure than commercial magnesium and matched a 1940 Dow strontium batch.
Photo: Carla404, CC BY-SA 3.0
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
SightingsJun 1954
The captain and copilot of a BOAC Stratocruiser flying from New York to London reported one large dark object and six smaller ones pacing the airliner toward Goose Bay. The Condon study judged a mirage of distant terrain the likely cause, though one aspect stayed unexplained.
Photo: RuthAS, CC BY 3.0
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
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
Government17 Jan 1953
A CIA-convened panel of scientists chaired by physicist H. P. Robertson reviewed UFO reports and found no direct threat to national security. It recommended training and public education to strip the subject of its special status.
Media1953
Harvard astrophysicist Donald Menzel published Flying Saucers through Harvard University Press, arguing that most reports were mirages and other optical effects. The Condon Report later called it an excellent book while noting its reputation as a debunking one.
Photo: Babette Whipple, CC BY-SA 3.0
Military1953
With Project Blue Book short of staff, its chief Edward Ruppelt arranged for the Air Defense Command's 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron, a unit with field teams across the U.S., to investigate UFO reports. Blue Book would then analyze cases the teams could not explain.
Photo: U.S. government (NORAD Office of History), Public domain
