Documents / FOIA release
This document is the National Academy of Sciences panel review of the University of Colorado report on unidentified flying objects, copyrighted 1969 and filed as an attachment in an Office of the Secretary of Defense release. The panel, chaired by Gerald M. Clemence, judged the study's scope adequate and its methodology sound. It concurred that further extensive UFO study is not justified and that extraterrestrial visitation is the least likely explanation. A directory listing of UFO organizations such as NICAP and APRO is appended.
Review of the University of Colorado Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by a Panel of the National Academy of Sciences The Panel was appointed in the latter }:l!rt of October and early November 1968. The charge to the Panel was "to provide an independent assessment of the soope, methodology, and findings of the (University of Colorado) study as reflected in the (University's) Report." While the Panel largely restricted its review to this charge, it was thought both appropriate and necessary that the Panel become familiar with various scientific points of view as presented in other publications and reports by technical! y trained persons. It was not the task of the Panel to conduct its own study of UFOs or to invite advocates, scientifically trained or not, or various points of view to hearings. The task was to study the University's Report and to assess: First, its soope; namely, did the Report, in the opinion of the Panel, cover those topics that a scientific study or UFO lilenomena sl'x:>uld have embraced? Seoond, its methodology; namely, did the Report, in the opinion or the Panel, reveal an acceptable scientific methodology and approach to the subject? Third, its findings; namely, were the oonclusions and interpretations warranted by the evidence and analr-ses as presented in. the Report and were they reasonable? In the oo~se of its review the Panel consul ted J2pers on the same subject by technically trained persons (for example, William Markowitz, "The Physics and Meta;:hysics of Unidentified Flying Objects," Science, 157 ( 1967), pp. 1274-79. James E. McDonald, "Science, Technology, and UFOs," presented January 26, 1968, at a General Seminar of the United Aircraft Research Laboratories, East Hartford, Connecticut. James E. McDooald, "UFOs - An International Scientific Problem," presented March 12, 1968, at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute Astronautics Symposi\.111, Montreal, Canada. James E. McDonald, "Statement on International Scientific Aspects of the Problems of Unidentified Flying Objects," sent to the United Nations on June 7, 1967. Donald H. Menzel, Flying Saucers, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, 1952). Donald H. Menzel and Lyle G. Boyd, The World of Flying Saucers, Doubleday (New York, 1963). Report of Meetings of Scientific Advisorv Panel on Unidentified FlYing Objects, January 14-18, 1953. Special Report of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board ad hoc Committee to Review Project "Blue Book," March, 1966. Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings before the Camnittee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, Seoond Session, July 29, 1968). Attachment 2, pg 5
FOIA release, from the osd collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 8 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.