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This is a New Zealand Defence Force public release of RNZAF file AIR 39/3/3, "Flying Saucers," which covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010 under the Official Information Act. It collects sighting reports from the public and military personnel, press clippings, and a table of 1952 sightings. It also holds Carter Observatory opinions attributing some reports to meteors. A large part covers the inquiry into lights seen from National Airways Corporation Flight 108 on 31 October 1955, which the RNZAF could not fully explain as Venus.
“Christchurch”32 pages
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this . Confirms and the skeptic merely . same meter shows 1953 July August , no James . # Getting Ready For The Flying Saucer Season WASHINGTON, June 1 (Rec. noon). Air Force officials said today that reports of "flying saucers" had fallen off greatly since 1952. They believed more scientific investigating and better public education were responsible. So far this year only 87 "sightings" had been reported, but the "flying saucer season"—which coincided with the July-August meteor showers—was just coming in. Reports of "flying saucers" increased when meteors were most common. The Air Force received 1700 reports of sightings in 1952. Last year the figure fell to 429. The Air Force said it was still unable to explain about 10 per cent. of the sightings. The idea that some drift in from outer space still received some attention, but the Air Force said it had no such evidence. "No object or particle of an unknown substance has been received and no photographs of detail have been produced," the Air Force said. # Cameras for Flying Star-Sun 3-12-53 Saucers N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—Copyright. WASHINGTON. December WASHINGTON, December 1. The United States Air Force announced to-day that it has installed "flying saucer cameras" to help find the explanation of the mysterious radar-confirmed objects reported streaking through the skies. The cameras, set up at Air Force bases in thirty-three States, are designed to analyse the moving lights to determine whether they are merely insubstantial glows or come from identifiable material objects. ## Official Concern The announcement reflected the Air Force's official concern over the number of unexplained reports of flying saucers which it has not been able to write off either as man-made objects or known phenomena. These sightings have been made both visually and by radar. About seventy-five cameras had been installed in areas where "saucers" have frequently been reported in the past. They are called "diffraction grating" devices which separate light into its component parts and register them on film. Astronomers use similar equipment to determine the composition of stars. ## Since 1947 "Flying saucers" have been reported sporadically since 1947 but the Air Force has received the reports with scepticism. It reiterated to-day that the majority of all reported sightings have been found to be fighter aircraft, balloons, or other such objects, or to be meteors and planets. In a new "fact sheet" the Air Force emphasised that "unexplained aerial phenomena are not secret weapon missiles or aircraft developed by the United States." It also stated that "no authentic physical evidence has been received establishing the existence of space ships from other planets."
Document, cited by the archive. 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. 445 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.