Documents / Analysis
Special Report No. 14 was issued by the U.S. Air Force's Air Technical Intelligence Center on 5 May 1955. It is a statistical study of about 4,000 reports of unidentified aerial objects from June 1947 to December 1952. The reports were reduced to IBM punched cards and analyzed with methods including chi square tests. The report concludes that the reports it examined are very unlikely to represent technology beyond present scientific knowledge, and it notes that no case produced valid physical evidence.
“Jet Propulsion Laboratory”1 page
(3) Case III does not satisfy Condition 1. It also does not satisfy Condition 4 when Case II is eliminated as a good UNKNOWN. (4) Case IV does not satisfy Conditions 1 or 2. There are few cigar-shaped or rocket-shaped objects reported in the literature. In addition, this observer is not con- sidered to be well-qualified technically. (5) Case V does not satisfy Condition 1. It also does not satisfy Condition 4 when Case IV is eliminated as a good UNKNOWN. It might be argued here that many of the UNKNOWNS might actually have shapes similar to these good UNKNOWNS. It will be noted, however, that each of these five cases does not satisfy one of the other three condi- tions. (6) Case VI does not satisfy Condition 2. In the description of the object, it was stated that at certain times there was no light seen from the object. Apparently, the "band of no light", as diagrammed by the observer, was an attempt to explain this. However, if the object were constructed as shown in the diagram, light should have been seen at all times. Because of this conflict the drawing is not considered reliable, and without the draw- ing, there is not enough detail in the description to make it useful for this study. (7) Case VII violates Conditions 1 and 4. Although the shape is disc-like, the maneuvers performed by the object are unique both among the UNKNOWNS and among the good UNKNOWNS. Cases VIII to XII satisfy Conditions 1 through 3, but they do not satisfy Condition 4. The features which make them different from each other are as follows: (8) Case VIII. The object is smooth, with no protrusions or other details. (9) Case IX. The object had rocket or jet pods on each side that were shooting out flames. (10) Case X. The object had a fin or rudder. (11) Case XI. The object had a series of portholes, or windows, on its under side. 92
Analysis, from the classic collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 309 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.