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Project Sign Progress Report, 1948

U.S. Department of War · 1948 · 45 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is an initial Project Sign progress report dated April 1948, sent from Headquarters, Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force. It tabulates about 100 unidentified flying object reports received through February 1948, covering shape, size, number of objects, speed and exhaust trails. Dr. Irving Langmuir found the data insufficient for a positive identification. Headquarters judged that a low aspect ratio aircraft using boundary layer control could reproduce many of the reported characteristics.

From the source: Release of 2026-07-10 Incident: 1948, Various. This file contains an initial report from the Air Materiel Command regarding Project Sign. Project Sign was a 1948-1949 U.S. Air Force program to investigate the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFO). The report details 100 UFO sightings from 1947-1948. The file also contains an article excerpted from “The Aeroplane,” an aviation-focused periodical magazine published between 1911 and 1968, titled “The Biology of the Flying Saucer.”

GONfHltJ'TiAL
Incident
lo, 001or Shape ~ Soupd
39 Phosphoru1 Ba-shaped diaoa lot 1tated lot atate4
~o Gray El11pt1cal 20-,0 tt. Ho11e like Jet
airoratt prior
to 1ts appell" -
~.. No
audible sound
beai-d 11h11e
object va1 1n
Yiev.
Aluaim"- Round 3 tt. diameter lot atate4"1
~2 OH.yilh Balloon 10 tt diaeter lot 1tate4
1'-3 Dirty 1'lite Between a o1.role IJ1d 12 tt thiolc and llectJ"ie Jlotor
an oval (ln-.erted 175-250 tt diameter ordynaao
sa~er)
44 lfot atat.d Jlyina Saueers Wot 1tated none
(not actually des-
oribed as being
this shape)
lJ-5 Hot stated Rot stated Hot stated Bot stated
46 Silvery vh1te Round Small lot stated
47 No detin1te Bo detim.te shape C-51'. airplane lot deterained
oolor top due to the noise
ai(!e l"etleot- ot airplane.
ed 11ght.
lf.8 Red PllUli.ng Red cone Wot stated Rot stated
IJ.8a Bright light CirculU'-like a •tU' Ve17 lai-ge cOlll)U'ed Hone
ohangi.ne to 1n tbe ak7 only luga. to an aeroplane 11,;bt.
red then to
White OI" J"•llow
48b Red - ldltn Cone Hot detel'llintd Jot 1tated
descending
Red men IIO"fin8 lot atated Kot 1tated lot ■tated
then grean and
black to red.
lot stated lot 1tated48d Yellow or tlame Rot 1tated
colored.
49 Not atated Pencil shaped ob3eot !lot ■ tated lot stated
t

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About this file

Case file, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 45 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.