Documents / FOIA release
This FBI file section contains a 20 January 1953 letter from the Johnson County, Indiana civil defense office asking J. Edgar Hoover whether the International Flying Saucer Bureau was subversive, with an enclosed issue of its bulletin Space Review. It also holds 1956 FBI memoranda and letters to Air Force investigators on a Van Nuys landing claim, a bright light seen from Oxford, Pennsylvania, and a low spinning object seen near Henderson, North Carolina. In each case the FBI took no action.
“Office of Special Investigations”16 pages
## O ## C Attempts at interception are not made every time that unidentified images appear briefly on an Air Force radar scope. Current Air Force interceptors are short-range, short-duration, high-speed aircraft and can be employed most effectively when it is possible to track a target by visual or radar means so that its position in the air at some future time may be predicted with a reasonable dogroo of accuracy. ## Methods of Evaluating The first step in evaluating sightings of unusual aerial phenomena is to collect all available data and check it against known airborne objects such as balloons, aircraft, missiles, meteors, and weather phenomena. If still unexplained, reports from reliable sources, with sufficient details, are turned over to specialists in various scientific fields for further analysis. ## Future Plans for Evaluating As stated earlier, there is a need for better reports from trained observers using adequate equipment. The Air Force intends to implement its present study with instruments wherever possible. The recent development of special photographic equipment may make it possible to gather data hitherto unobtainable through ordinary photographic methods. This equipment consists of a diffraction grating camera which separates light into its component parts (spectrum) and registers them on film. The principle involved is that used by astronomers in determining the composition of the stars. In this manner Air Force scientists may be able to determine the characteristics of the phenomena and subsequently identify the source. Another proposal involves the use of a continuously operating Schmidt telescope equipped with a camera. This telescope has a wide aperture lens and is capable of covering a cone of 150 degrees or nearly the whole sky from horizon to horizon. This equipment will make it possible to get on a series of photographic plates a complete record of what happens in the sky at night. ## What "Saucers" Are Not The Air Force has stated in the past, and roaffirms at the present time, that these unidentified aerial phenomena are not a secret weapon, missile or aircraft, developed by the United States. None of the three military departments nor any other agency in the government is conducting experiments, classified or otherwise, with flying objects which could be a basis for the reported phenomena. As far as is known there is nothing in them that is associated with material or vehicles that are directed against the United States, from another country or from other planets. Your interest in this matter is greatly appreciated. Please call upon us if wo may be of further service. Sincerely yours,
FOIA release, from the fbi-vault 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. 142 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.