CHINA Report Science and Technology No.79

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

in front and at the tail, and flew from east to west. The speed of movement of this object was not astounding, but according to a report from airforce pilots and ground support personnel who had been watching an outdoor movie at the airfield, its visual diameter was 30 degree to 35 degrees. It covered half the sky, causing extreme astonishment. At the estimated height of 6,000 to 8,000 meters that they gave, its length must have been greater than 1,000 meters.

The third category of unidentified flying objects are in the shape of a spiral nebula. Composed of a brighted lightly central core, and revolving arms composed of small points of light radiated by the core, the volume may be enormous.

At 2300 hours on 26 July 1977, Zhang Zhousheng [1728 6650 3932] of the Yunnan Observatory observed an unidentified flying object of this type with an apparent visual diameter 5 degrees in extent in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. He made a record and conducted investigations, discovering that for 180 kilometers north and south many people had seen this unidentified flying object at the same time. Additionally, Yang Fozhang [2799 0154 4545] of the Chengdu Geology Institute, and Qian Ruhu [6929 3168 5706] of the Shanghai Ruijin Telecommunications Component Plant saw similar unidentified flying objects in Chengdu and in Anhui respectively.

We have made the following preliminary analysis of these unidentified flying object phenomona, which we provide for everybody's consideration.

(1) Prior to 1978, "flying saucer" incidents were virtually unheard of in China, but numerous reports based on data from prior to this time have appeared. Additionally, those giving eyewitness accounts include scientists and technicians, pilots, cadres, and teachers, and in most cases tens or thousands of people witnessed them at the same time. In the course of inquiries, ample witnesses have been provided. Consequently, we feel all the phenomena reported are substantially reliable and were actually experienced by the eye witnesses. Possibilities that they were fabricated, imagined, or were rare psychological phenomena are not great.

(2) On the basis of existing scientific knowledge, some reports may be explained by already known physical phenomena or already known rarely seen phenomena such as meteorites, fragments of man made aerial navigation devices, atmospheric whirlpools, balloons, the effects of atmospheric electrical discharges, ball shaped lightning flashes, and flashes of light from the earth preceding an earthquake. But explanation of some reports in terms of already known phenomena is either difficult or extremely farfetched, as for example, the strong light emitted by the flying objects and their mobility at high altitudes. Toward these phenomena, we must adopt an objective attitude of respect for facts and strive to use existing scientific knowledge to explain them, without brushing aside the possibility of phenomena not yet known, and conduct serious scientific observations and study without any preconceptions. As regards hypotheses about UFO's being related to extraterrestrial or terrestrial creatures as yet unknown, we must also accept those parts that are credible and consider them without totally denying them altogether.