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The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

Central Intelligence Agency · 2001-03-12 · 186 pages · text by OCR

This is a copy of "The UFO Evidence," a report published in May 1964 by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in Washington, D.C. and edited by Richard H. Hall. The CIA released its copy in 2001. The report draws 746 sightings from more than 5,000 signed reports and argues that unexplained UFOs are real, artificial objects under intelligent control. It criticizes Air Force secrecy and calls for a Congressional inquiry into Project Blue Book and a larger scientific investigation.

  • p. 7 …Allen Hynek (Chief scientific consultant to the Air Force on UFOs) said: "...there are more reports…
  • p. 30 …Air Force. (Originally reported in Cleveland Press, picked up by United Press International, July 30, 1952…
  • p. 34 …I collected a few names of individuals present, as I intended to report the UFO to…
  • p. 44 …Gordon Pendleton, Irish International Airlines Globular UFO with antenna-like projections, streaked below his Viscount. Section…
  • p. 55 …Often this argument is used by skeptics to imply that UFO reports result only from careless…
  • p. 71 …Reports of the UFO came into the Baltimore Filter Center for about an hour the first…
  • p. 72 …It was "more distinct than the daytime moon," Walker reported. 36 ## Rendezvous of Two UFOs February…
  • p. 77 …Teletype report and letter on file at NICAP 2. Reports obtained by Cleveland and Akron UFO…
  • p. 97 …According to a report which Mr. Purdon submitted to NICAP, the UFO was first motionless for…
  • p. 98 …Miller, who reported September 18, 1960: The UFO "quite probably is a cinch mark. . . it could…
  • p. 110 …Project name changed to "Grudge." Because of internal disagreement about the significance of UFOs, reports were…
  • p. 119 …The original report released by the Air Force PIO at Truax AFB, Wisc., stated that contact…
  • p. 122 …Wherever man travels on the globe, UFOs have been sighted. Ships at sea have reported strange…
  • p. 123 …At Ezeiza International Airport, Buenos Aires, December 22, 1962, a UFO was sighted about 3:00…
  • p. 126 …An Aer Lingus (Irish International Airlines) pilot reported a globe-shaped unidentified object which flew beneath…
  • p. 127 …International News Service (INS) reported that an Italian Air Force radar station at Practica Dimare, 40…
  • p. 129 …Norris reported that "during early November UFO reports came from all Australian states except Tasmania." The…
  • p. 130 …However, the reported size of the UFO was far too large to be explained as a…
  • p. 131 …Report and sketches published in Japan International UFO Investigation, J. I. Takanashi, Editor; Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan…
  • p. 137 …Week of UFO sightings investigated by military authorities. Scores of residents reported strange glowing objects maneuvering…
  • p. 142 …Three people reported a round, orange UFO which moved rapidly east to west, stopped and hovered…
  • p. 144 …Once the reports had been publicized, the planet Jupiter also was reported as a UFO on…
  • p. 163 …Unofficial report of elliptical silvery UFO seen by aircraft workers; launched two small discs which maneuvered…
  • p. 164 …Air Force called press conference on UFO sightings, attended by more than 40 reporters. Suggested UFOs…
  • p. 171 …missile range, reported an egg-shaped UFO which descended over the base. A report on this…
  • p. 173 …May 14-16 - Several UFO reports from Bahia Blanca, La Rioja, and La Barrera. In the…
  • p. 182 …However, once it is determined that a given UFO report is not evidence of an attack…
Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

6-11-54; near Atlanta, Georgia	H. Percy Wilkins	Astronomy	Two silvery objects"like polished metal plates"moving against wind; third grayish oval arced across sky.
11-25-54; Cordoba, Argentina	Dr. Marcos Guerci	Meteorology	Two luminous objects observed from airport; one apparently semi-circular, other circular. [Section X.]
12-7-54; Upington, Cape Province, So. Africa	R. H. Kleyweg	Meteorology	Hemispherical disc tracked through theodolite. [Section X.]
11-1-55; Mojave Desert, California	Frank Halstead	Astronomy	Cigar-shaped object followed by domed disc.
6-18-57; Jackson, Mississippi	Prof. Henry Carlock	Physics	Observing sky with telescope; twice glimpsed UFO with halo around it and"what appeared to be three portholes."
11-10-57; Toulouse, France	Jacques Chapuis	Astronomy	At Toulouse Observatory observed maneuvering yellow star-like object for 5 minutes."It was something I had never seen before."UFO finally ascended straight up out of sight.
10-2-58; near Blairstown, N.J.	Ivan T. Sanderson	Zoology	Maneuvering, banking disc.
10-26-58; LaFayette, Indiana	T. C. Shafer	Chemistry	While observing moon with 4 inch reflector telescope, saw three bright unidentified objects pass from East to West.
5-22-60; Majorca	Observatory staff	Astronomy	Triangular UFO about 1/4 apparent size of moon sighted at 9:33 a.m., spinning on its axis while on steady course. Report cabled to NASA in Washington. [6.]
6-8-60; New York City	Lee Ball	Biochemistry	Flat ellipse traversed about 15 degrees of sky; appeared about 8 times apparent size of moon.
11-24-60; Ohio	Confidential report, certified by NICAP Board Member.	--------	Ellipse in smooth silent flight; 5 minute observation.
3-16-61; Antarctica	R. J. Villela	Meteorology	Fireball-like object in slow level flight.
11-22-61; near Grafton, N.D.	Melvin C. Vagle, Jr.,	Metallurgy	Cigar-shaped UFO with"portholes", hovering tilted at angle.
5-20-62; Defiance, Ohio	Prof. C. A. Maney six others	Physics	Maneuvering light, turned sharply, made sudden change in speed.

## DISCS CIRCLE AIRCRAFT

Source: "Mars, The New Frontier" by Wells Alan Webb, (Fearon Publishers, Calif., 1956) p. 124.

Witnesses: John Zimmerman, Geologist; Charles Fisher, civil engineer.

Date: June 12, 1950.

Location: California.

Time: About 4:00 p.m.

Working outdoors at a quarry, they had noticed a high-flying swept-wing aircraft leaving a vapor trail, and paused to watch it.

"He [Zimmerman] was startled to notice a rift form in the vapor trail not far behind the airplane and a wisp of cloud suddenly streak upward as if an object had come from below and cut upward through the vapor trail, disturbing it. Looking quickly for the object, Zimmerman saw a silvery disc of diameter about one-third the apparent length of the airplane's fuselage, flying rapidly in a circle above the airplane, overtaking it. With an exclamation he called Fisher's attention to the phenomenon, and together they watched two additional discs pass from below, dart up through the vapor trail, overtake the airplane and then dive down in front of it, making vertical loops around the airplane. Each object made several such loops in succession, each time coming up behind the airplane and cutting the vapor trail, each cut displacing a filament of the trail in an upward direction."

Date: August 3, 1951. Witness: Walter N. Webb, Chief Lecturer on Astronomy, Charles Hayden Planetarium, Boston, Mass., (former member of the Smithsonian Institution Satellite Tracking Program): "That summer I was a nature counselor at Camp Big Silver, the Toledo (Ohio) Boy's Club camp on the shores of Silver Lake in southern Michigan, three miles south of Pinckney. It was a clear, moonless night. I had been showing

two boys various celestial objects through my 3-1/2 inch reflecting telescope and pointing out constellations. The time was about 11 p.m. or midnight. Suddenly I noticed a glowing yellow, or yellowish-red light moving in an undulating path (but on a straight course) over the hills south of Silver Lake. As the object traveled slowly westward in this peculiar manner, the three of us watched in fascination. It was at such a low elevation that its regular wavelike course caused it to dip behind the hills a few times. At first I frankly didn't realize that I might be seeing anything unusual and thought the object was a plane light. But something was disturbing about that flight path and by the time it dawned on me that planes don't fly on wavy paths, the thing was about to vanish for good behind trees in the foreground. I swung the telescope toward the hills, but it was too late.

"I had seen something strange in the sky that I could not explain. No known object I could think of followed a path like that. The remote possibility that the UFO might have been the reflection of a moving ground light from a rippling inversion layer was quickly rejected. An inversion reflection would appear as a hazy spot of light in the sky much reduced in brightness when compared with its original light source. My UFO appeared to be a bright, glowing object moving in a regular wavy pattern. It is impossible for an inversion layer to produce a smooth rhythmic reflection. A turbulent rippling layer of air would be required, and such a condition would not be capable of producing any image at all."

## Formation of Rocket-like Objects

The following report was submitted to NICAP by Dr. Charles H. Otis, professor emeritus of Biology, Bowling Green State University.

"Place of observation: 3724 Dexter Rd., R.D. No.1, Ann Arbor, Washtenew County, Michigan; a small acreage at the top of Lyon Hill, called Sleepy Hollow, situated about four miles west from Main Street (or the County Court House). Altitude at the road, about 975 feet (the place is easily located on the

Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : OIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

Cases discussed

About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 186 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.