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DOW-UAP-D102: Project Blue Book File on Tremonton Film, Utah, 1952

Department of War · 2026-09-18 · 156 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Department of War release reproduces Project Blue Book records on the Tremonton, Utah film of 2 July 1952. In them, Navy Chief Photographer Delbert C. Newhouse explains how he filmed a group of bright objects near Tremonton. ATIC memos and a December 1952 travel report record Navy and General Mills balloon specialists judging that the objects closely resembled pillow balloons. A January 1953 memorandum discusses publicly releasing the film. The file also includes unrelated sighting reports from Phoenix and Massachusetts, plus material about Donald Keyhoe.

  • p. 28 …at Hill AFB would probably be different trom those at Tremonton because of topography and land…
  • p. 113 …Comm.anding Officer, Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah Subj: Motion Pictures of Unidentified Objects in…
  • p. 114 …11 Aug 52) 1st Ind - HQ 00AMA, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, 28 August 19.52…
  • p. 116 …A message was~lso dispatched to the CO, Hill AFB, Utah requesting weather informa.tion for…
  • p. 121 …Coomanding Officer, Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah Subj: Motion Pictures of Unidentified Objects in Air…
Appendix I
Calculation of Angular Velocity of Single Aerial Object:
Pass o. 2: 48 spot positions c..re plotted, representing an elapsed time interval
of 47 frames. At 16 frames per second, this gives :
3.0 seconds elapsed time
The measure distance on the screen is 15.1 inches. Ta.is gives approximately
15 .1 or 5.0 inches per second for image velocity on the screen.
~ .
Pass Ho . 44 spot nositions are plotted, for 43 frames of elapsed time. This
time is 2.7 seconds.
The distance travelled is 15.7 inches. This gives 15.t_ 5.8 inches -oer second
'°l -I': .
on the screen. Average of these 2 values is 5.4 inches per second; with an es-
timated prec4sion of ±15 per cent.
Conversion to Angular Velocity:
Distance from projector lens to screen= 100 inches
Focal length of projector lens= 2 inches
EnJ.areement of film on screen= 50 times
Image velocity on film=~= ,11 inches per second
Focal length of camera taking lens= 3 inches
It is adequately precise to divide the in:age velocity by the focal length
to get the angular velocity in radians per second, then to convert to degrees.
1•re ba.ve: Angular velocity= .11 x 57 .3 = 2. 1 degrees per second
3
The ~recision of this value is also conservatively set at ±151 or ±0.3 degrees
per second.

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