Project Blue Book

The Project Blue Book was a joint team of the secret U.S. Air Force for the collection and analysis of sightings of UFOs by air force pilots, Air Force radar stations and other Air Force members as well as to identify the spot. The project was active from 1947 to 1969.

History

Project Sign, Project Grudge

After alleged UFO sightings on air bases early 1947 and by the private pilot Kenneth Arnold on June 24 in 1947 and finally the Roswell incident in early July 1947, the Project Sign (German mark ) was established. It came in a report in 1949 to the conclusion that there must be, for the UFOs to Extraterrestrial missiles. The team then was released and declared the project over the public over. Not long after, should the follow-up project - Project Grudge (German resentment ) - undermine by appropriate measures, interest in UFOs to the public. This led to great indignation among the executed presented as incompetent and hallucinatory pilots, so the project was again stopped.

Project Blue Book

1951, the new Project Blue Book was established under the direction of Edward J. Ruppelt. He tried to make the systematic and scientific studies. In particular, he promoted the standardization of questionnaires with which staff faced was that had made sightings.

In 1954, the Project Blue Book the Project Blue Book Report - Special Report No. 14 before, which included sighting reports and tables. A total of 3,200 sightings of Project Blue Book were documented. The sightings were by known (Eng. known), unknown (Eng. unknown) and insufficient information ( German insufficient information ) categorized, classified the quality of reports on a scale of one to four.

About 69 % of the cases were categorized as known, in 9% were missing additional information, 22 % were rated as unknown. 35% of all outstanding cases were unknown, compared to only 18% of the worst cases. As excellent cases were evaluated, which were particularly observed accidentally, so, for example, of several trustworthy and experienced people. Furthermore, the known unknown of the sightings differed significantly in the observed characteristics. Despite these statistically abnormal circumstances was alleged by the Air Force, the report would confirm that none of the sightings could be associated with extraterrestrial vehicles. Edward J. Ruppelt criticized in his 1956 published book Report On Unidentified Flying Objects this review of the report. He was of the opinion that the report had been misused for political purposes, without going into the content.

The astronomical consultant to Project Blue Book was J. Allen Hynek, director of the McMillin Observatory of the Ohio State University. He has also described the project from his perspective (New York 1972, The UFO Experience - A Scientific Inquiry, Munich 1978 UFO Report - A research report ). In 1973 he founded CUFOS ( Center for UFO Studies).

Condon Committee and termination of Project Blue Book

The Condon Committee was announced by the USAF as an independent and objective investigation commission headed by Prof. Edward Condon of the University of Colorado. It should evaluate any documentation gathered so far about UFO incidents. In 1969, the Project Blue Book was terminated. The Condon Committee came to serious internal disagreements to the published in January 1969 Conclusion of the irrelevance of UFO sightings for science and the supernatant fluid further investigation.

This is followed by the USAF oriented in their justification of the termination of Project Blue Book, while ignoring the actual case management in the rear section of the report, in which analyzes found that contradicted Condon result.

The official final report contains statistics on 12,618 reported incidents from 1947 to 1969. All incidents were stated to be due to natural phenomena or conventional missiles. With some messages, it was, according to Condon willful counterfeiting. 701 incidents (approximately 6% ) were classified as " unidentified ".

David R. Saunders was a memo to the Commission's project manager, Robert Low, in his hands, which was written shortly before the recording of the Commission's work, and frankly pointed out, what the outcome for the Commission to time, and how deceived the public should. After the public learned of this fact, Saunders was fired; another staff member wrote a detailed memo about blatant abuses of Condon and acknowledged their cooperation. Other UFO experts who had been invited to participate - eg Donald E. Keyhoe ( NICAP ) - withdrew also.

After the setting of ' Blue Book ' in 1969 J. Allen Hynek published in 1972 a book entitled The UFO Experience ( The UFO experience), in which he provides facts and figures from his point of view and especially about his experiences in Project Sign / Grudge / Blue Book reports. After his presentation, the USAF was constantly seeking to deceive the public about reality and extent of the UFO problem, what he himself was not uninvolved. However, Hynek was mainly focused on the scientific side of the issue and criticized in the strongest terms the inadequacy of the equipment and the unscientific nature of Project Blue Book.

Documentation

The files of Project Blue Book are stored under the Freedom of Information Act in the National Archives and the public. The microfilm archive can also be fully accessed and searched on the Internet (see links). Names of the witnesses, however, were deleted from the documents. The document also contains references to two studies from the University of Colorado and a public statement (UFO Fact Sheet), which makes it clear that in none of the cases studied, proof of extraterrestrial vehicles could be found.