(Analysis of Reports of Unidentified Aerial Objects)

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

UNKNOWNS with sufficiently detailed description would be called "good UNKNOWNS", while the remainder would simply be called UNKNOWNS. One hundred sixty-four folders of a total of 186 OBJECT SIGHTINGS in Groups 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 were examined. There were 18 possible aircraft, 20 possible balloons, 7 good UNKNOWNS, 100 UNKNOWNS, and 19 others which were identified as being possible KNOWNS of various types. It is interesting to note that two of these were established as mock suns on the basis of the angle of sun elevation and the sun bearing angle, together with the direction of the object from the observer. In addition, the UNKNOWNS in angle-of-sun-elevation Groups 4 and 5 (nighttime sightings) were scanned with no attempt at identification, but to find any possible "good UNKNOWNS". There were five sightings that could be put into this category.

Of the UNKNOWNS, there were approximately 20 sightings that were observed in such a way that they should have been recognized easily if they had been familiar objects, that is, there was little possibility that their shapes, as seen, could have been distorted sufficiently by one cause or another to render them unrecognizable. There were a very few that would have been identified as guided missiles or rockets, but that were not so identified because of the geographical location in which they were seen.

All of the remaining UNKNOWNS were classified as such solely because they were reported to have performed maneuvers that could not be ascribed to any known objects. In these cases, the shape might have been unrecognizable also, but it was felt that this was because of distortion and distance, or because of darkness.

This is a very important point. To put it differently, if these UNKNOWNS, which represent all but about 40 of the UNKNOWN SIGHTINGS, were reported to have performed maneuvers which could be ascribed to known phenomena, they would probably have been identified as KNOWNS. With the exception of some radar sightings, all of these maneuvers were observed visually. The possibilities for inaccuracies are great because of the inability of an observer to estimate visually size, distance, and speed.

Reports of sightings by radar usually were of high-speed objects, some at extremely high altitudes. Some were identified as UNKNOWNS because there was no object to be seen visually at the point indicated by the radar set. It cannot be said with any assurance what these radar sightings mean, but the most logical explanation is that they are ground targets reflected by an atmospheric temperature inversion layer. The validity of this statement cannot be established. It is felt that radar sightings in this study are of no significance whatsoever unless a visual sighting of the object also is made.

Taken in conjunction with the Chi Square Tests discussed earlier, the results of the re-evaluation of reports identified as UNKNOWN SIGHTINGS would seem to indicate that the majority of them could easily