Unidentified flying objects: hearing before the Committee on Armed Forces of the House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth Congress, second session, April 5, 1966 ...

6060
DEPARTMENT
OF
THE
AIR
FORCE,
Washington,
January
18,
1966.
Hon.
L.
MENDEL
RIVERS,
Chairman, Committee on
Armed
Services,
House
of
Representatives.
DEAR Mn.
CHAIRMAN:
Recently
you
requested
information
in behalf
of
Mr.
John
R.
Gray
about
unidentified
flying
objects
(UFO).
The
Air
Force
does
not
withhold or
censor information
on
UFO's.
The
re-
sults
of
all
Air
Force
investigations
are
available
to
bona
fide
news
representa-
tives
and
scientific
researchers.
Press
releases
are
issued
as
warranted,
and
an
annual
report
(copy
attached)
on
the
project
is
available
to the
public.
There
has
never been
an
order
issued
by
the
Secretary
of the
Air
Force
to
suppress
or
withhold
such
information.
The
three conclusions
set
forth
in
Mr.
Gray's
letter
are, in
fact,
the
conclu-
sions
which were
reached
as
a
result
of
a
panel of
scientific
consultants
that
met
at the
request of
the
Government
to
study the problem
in 1953.
For
your
in-
formation, the U.S. Air
Force
Scientific
Advisory
Board has
been
asked
to
evaluate
the
UFO
program.
An
ad
hoc committee has
been
appointed
and
will
convene
sometime
in
February.
The
results
will
be
available shortly after
themeeting.
As
a
result
of
investigating
over
10,000
reports since
1947,
we
cannot
associ-
ate
disruption
of
running
engines,
radios,
and
headlights,
or
malfunction
of
air-
craft
instruments,
or heat
sensations
with
UFO
activity.
Nor
can
we
attribute
them
to
aircraft
operations.
There
are
many
plausible
explanations
for
effects
such
as
car radio
static
when
passing powerlines,
overheated
car
engines,
drops
in
power and
voltage
in the
electrical
system,
malfunction of
equipment,
and
imagination
or panic of
an
observer.
Weather
conditions
such
as
temperature
inversions
can
cause
known
natural
or
conventional
objects
to
appear
to
hover,
move
around,
and
change
colors. Satellites
and
balloons
make
no
noise
while
in
flight.
Balloons
can
also
hover
and
suddenly
accelerate
depending
on
the
wind
conditions.
The
foregoing
information
also
explains
our
third conclusion.
There has
never
been
a
top-secret
document,
entitled
"Estimate
of the
Situation,"
which
con-
cluded that
UFO's
are
interplanetary in nature.
As
of
December
31, 1965,
the Air
Force
has
received 10,060 reports since
1947
of
which
645
are
unidentified
and
cannot be
explained. It
is
our
opinion that
all
reports
could
be
explained
if
more
detailed objective
data
had
been
avail-
able.
However,
because of the
fact that analyses of
UFO
sightings
depend
pri-
marily
on
the personal impressions
and
interpretations
of the
observer rather
than
on
accurate
scientific
data or
facts obtained
under
controlled conditions,positive
identification
of
all
sightings
is
improbable. Information
on
any
UFO
report
is
available to private
citizens
upon
request.
Photographs
received in conjunction
with
UFO
reports
are
evaluated
by
photo
analysis personnel.
The
objects
in
such photographs
have
been evaluated
as
known
natural or conventional objects
which have
been
misinterpreted
by
theobserver.
Such
photographs are returned
to
the
owner
after analysis.
Our
Project
Blue
Book
office
is
located
at
Wright
-Patterson
AFB,
Ohio,
where
all
UFO
records are
kept. All objects
which have
been
picked
up
or
tracked
on
radar
have
been
identified
as
flocks
of
birds,
weather
phenomena,
or
reflections
from
ground
targets.
Radar
scope
photography
is
classified
only
if
it
reveals
classified
defense information.
The
joint
Army
-Navy
-Air
Force
publication
146
deals
with
UFO's
only
as
a
catchall class
of
sightings
that does not
fall
into
a
recognized category
such as
ships,
submarines,
aircraft,
or guided
missiles.
The
purpose of the
publication
is
to
provide
uniform
instructions
for the peacetime
reporting
of
what
is
judgedto
be
vital intelligence sightings.
Any
person
who
violates
the
provisions of
the
publication
may
be
liable
to prosecution thereunder.
The
purpose of
thisis
to
emphasize
the
necessity
for handling of such information within
official
channels
only.
The
article
appearing in the
December
24, 1959, issue
of
TIG
Brief, entitled
"UFO's
Serious Business,"
has been
misinterpreted.
The
purpose of
this
article
was
simply to
improve the quality of reports
and
investigative procedures. It
also contained guidelines for
effective
reporting
and
the equipment
necessary
for
investigations.
We
have no knowledge of
any
research projects
such asthose stated
by Mr. Gray, nor do
we
have any
information about the Santiago,
Chile, incident.