Documents / Report
This is the July 1966 third edition of Dr. Leon Davidson's "Flying Saucers: An Analysis of the Air Force Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14", published by Ramsey-Wallace Corp. It reproduces early Air Force press releases, the 1953 CIA panel report, the 1966 Blue Book release and the full text of the May 1955 Special Report No. 14 with its tables and codes. Davidson also gives his view that the CIA was responsible for much saucer publicity.
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 25,1955 NO.1053-55 LI 5-6700, Ext 75131 AIR FORCE RELEASES STUDY ON UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL OBJECTS The results of an investigation begun by the Air Force in 1947 into the field of Unidentified Aerial Objects (so-called flying saucers) were released by the Air Force today. No evidence of the existence of the popularly-termed "flying saucers' was found. The report was based on study and analysis by a private scientific group under the supervision of the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Dayton, Ohio. Since the instigation of the investigation more than seven years ago, methods and procedures have been so refined that of the 131 sightings reported during the first four months of 1955 only three per cent were listed as unknown. (A summary of the report is attached.) Commenting on this report, Secretary of the Air Force Donald A. Quarles said: "On the basis of this study we believe that no objects such as those popularly described as flying saucers have overflown the United States. I feel certain that even the unknown three per cent could have been explained as conventional phenomena or illusions if more complete observational data had been available. "However, we are now entering a period of aviation technology in which aircraft of unusual configuration and flight characteristics will begin to appear. "The Air Force and the other Armed Services have under development several vertical-rising, high performance aircraft, and as early as last year a propeller driven vertical-rising aircraft was flown. The Air Force will fly the first jet-powered vertical-rising airplane in a matter of days. We have another project under contract with AVRO Ltd., of Canada, which could result in disc-shaped aircraft somewhat similar to the popular concept of a flying saucer. An available picture, while only an artists' conception, could illustrate such an object. (Photograph is available at Pictorial Branch, Room 2D780, Ext. 75331). "While some of these may take novel forms, such as the AVRO project, they are direct-line descendents of conventional aircraft and should not be regarded as supra-natural or mysterious. We expect to develop airplanes that will fly faster, higher and perhaps farther than present designs, but they will still obey natural laws and if manned, they will still be manned by normal terrestrial airmen. Other than reducing runway requirements we do not expect vertical-rising aircraft to have more outstanding military characteristics than conventional types. MORE
Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 139 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.