Analysis of Unconventional Aircraft Sightings, 1955

This Central Intelligence Agency document from 1955 is a Top Secret memorandum with its signature cover sheet, and its text is largely garbled by poor OCR. It responds to an October 1955 dispatch about unconventional aircraft. That dispatch reported that members of a party travelling by train saw two lights rise vertically. The memo judges that one observer's testimony alone could not confirm that unconventional aircraft exist, and it says a study group found no threat to US security. It also mentions an Avro Aircraft Ltd. project for a saucer-like aircraft.

From the source: Release of 2026-07-10 Released with redactions. Sections 1 and 2 of this memorandum document a 1955 analysis of reports of “flying saucers” or “unconventional aircraft,” referencing the incident described in observer debriefings contained within CIA-UAP-D020. The memo summarizes the incident as consisting of two lights rising vertically, then passing above the observers. The memo contains caveating language that suggests the author concluded that the reports, as described, did not indicate the presence of an “unconventional aircraft.” Section 3 cites a previous finding by Dr. [Howard] Robertson (of the 1953 Robertson Panel) that “almost all the sightings […] represented no threat to the U.S.” Section 4 discusses the state of then-current research into “saucer-like aircraft” under Project “Y,” a contemporary joint U.S.-Canadian aerospace development program.

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