Documents / Official release
Project Blue Book Status Report No. 8, issued by the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and dated 31 December 1952, covers June through October 1952, when 886 reports were received, more than in the previous five years combined. It breaks down evaluations by category, summarizes a consultant astronomer's interviews with 44 astronomers, and notes General Samford's 29 July press conference. It also describes the statistical analysis, the new observer questionnaire, Videon diffraction cameras and weather balloon tracking.
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# CONFIDENTIAL UNCLASSIFIED A secondary duty of the Ground Observer Corps is the reporting of unidentified aerial phenomena or objects. This duty was established by ADC Regulation 55-31. ## VIII. NAVY REPORTING REGULATION On 26 Sep 52 the United States Navy published an OPNAV very similar to AFL 200-5. This notice directs all naval units and installations to report sightings directly to Hq USAF, ATIC, ADC, and other agencies. ## IX. BALLOON AND WEATHER DATA In order to achieve more positive identification of unidentified flying objects, the Air Technical Intelligence Center has established channels of communication with the Air Weather Service, whereby the track of any weather balloon released by the USAF, US Navy, or Weather Bureau, within the continental limits of the United States or from US ships at sea and overseas bases, can be obtained. Basically the system works as follows: If the analyst at ATIC concludes, by reason of the description of a UFO, or the time and place of the sighting, that the UFO is possibly a weather balloon, he initiates and transmits to AWS a specific request for the tracks of all weather balloon releases at or near that time and place. Comparison of these tracks with the Flyobrpt frequently completes the analysis of the report. Additionally, the US Navy and the USAF are currently engaged in the launching of special project upper air research balloons. These balloons are plastic polyethylene, a highly reflective surface, and since they often are on the order of one-hundred feet in diameter, they are visible to the naked eye under certain atmospheric conditions, even at extreme altitudes. Further, the loads carried are usually heavy and metallic, and electronic contact with these balloons can occur. In view of this situation, ATIC has, through the Ent Weather Central, Ent AFB, Colorado, taken steps to obtain the tracks of all such balloon releases, and these tracks have often resulted in positive identification of a UFO. To cite cases in point, the tracks of sixteen flights released in July by a US Navy contractor resulted in four positive, two probable, and four possible identifications of UFO's. Another factor having a great deal of bearing in the analysis of a Flyobrpt, though it may not be the actual cause, is the meteorological condition of the atmosphere at the time and place of sighting. To obtain this data, the Air Technical Intelligence Center utilizes three sources. Firstly, when detailed information is needed immediately, it can often be obtained from the Base Weather Office at W-P AFB. Secondly, since ATIC receives daily RAOB's, constant pressure charts, surface charts and winds aloft charts, the necessary information is frequently on hand. Thirdly, when the data needed
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 17 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.