This site is
dedicated to the United States Air Force
personnel who diligently attempted to bring
this phenomena to the public's attention,
and to those who carry the ball ever since.
The purpose of
this website is to provide an introduction
into the phenomena of UFOs and the U.S. Air
Force investigation during the 1950s, 1960s,
and 1970s. Please refer to our section
on books in print for more complete and
current information.
Project Blue
Book was one of a series of systematic
studies of Unidentified flying objects
(UFOs) conducted by the United States Air
Force (U.S.A.F.). Started in 1952, it was
the second revival of such a study. A
termination order was given for the study in
December 1969, and all activity under its
auspices ceased in January 1970.
Project Blue Book had two goals: to
determine if UFOs were a threat to national
security, and to scientifically analyze
UFO-related data. Thousands of UFO reports
were collected, analyzed and filed. As the
result of the Condon Report, which concluded
there was nothing anomalous about any UFOs,
Project Blue Book was ordered shut down in
December 1969. This project was the last
publicly known UFO research project led by
the USAF.
By the time Project Blue
Book ended, it had collected 12,618 UFO
reports, and concluded that most of them
were misidentifications of natural phenomena
(clouds, stars, et cetera) or conventional
aircraft. A few were considered hoaxes. 701
of the reports — about six percent — were
classified as unknowns, defying detailed
analysis. The
UFO reports were archived and are available
under the Freedom of Information Act, but
names and other personal information of all
witnesses have been redacted.
Though many accepted Blue Book's final
conclusions that there was nothing
extraordinary about UFOs, critics — then and
now — have charged that Blue Book,
especially in its later years, was engaging
in dubious research, or even perpetuating a
cover up of UFO evidence. Some evidence
suggests that not only did some UFO reports
bypass Blue Book entirely, but that the U.S.
Air Force continued collecting and studying
UFO reports after Blue Book had been
discontinued, despite official claims to the
contrary.
Public USAF UFO
studies were first initiated under Project
Sign at the end of 1947, following many
widely publicized UFO reports (see Kenneth
Arnold). Project Sign was initiated
specifically at the request of General
Nathan Twining, chief of the Air Force
Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base. Wright-Patterson was also to be
the home of Project Sign and all subsequent
official USAF public investigations.
Sign was officially inconclusive regarding
the cause of the sightings. However,
according to U.S. Air Force Captain Edward J.
Ruppelt (the first director of Project Blue
Book), Sign's initial intelligence estimate
(the so-called Estimate of the Situation)
written in the late summer of 1948,
concluded that the flying saucers were real
craft, were not made by either the Russians
or U.S., and were likely extraterrestrial in
origin. (See also extraterrestrial
hypothesis.) This estimate was forwarded to
the Pentagon, but subsequently ordered
destroyed by Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, USAF
Chief of Staff, citing a lack of physical
proof. Vandenberg subsequently dismantled
Project Sign.
Project Sign was succeeded at the end of
1948 by Project Grudge, which had a
debunking mandate. Ruppelt referred to the
era of Project Grudge as the "dark ages" of
early USAF UFO investigation. Grudge
concluded that all UFOs were natural
phenomena or other misinterpretations,
although it also stated that 23 percent of
the reports could not be explained.
