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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.”

Incident
Bo.
12
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
• F1DENTIAl
E:xhauat
Trail
Wot atated
Bee.ding
Hot stated
.lltitude Ft.
Not atated
lot atated 3 west to
eaat. l north
Did not appear
Tery high
lot atated lot atated
Iot 1te.ted
lfot 1tated
l beaded
s outhea1t.
2 headed
north1a1t
.lot atated
High
lot 1tatad
lot ete.ted north to IOUth 9500 rt.
about 17<i'
Trail atreaa- aeenronr Jiot atated
1ng out be- weatend
him like of Toronto
vapor trail
'beh1m air-
plane on
misty day
Lim alight eat to east One 11.ile high
trace ot steam.
Disappeared
1m::nediat•ly.
Not atated Southwest About 1500 rt.
Rot stated ~.N.W. 1200 ft.
Bot stated S.W. ot S. 7000 tt.
Not stated !lot stated 5000 tt.
Cloud-lie 8outheut Very high
n.por - re-
tained shape
a.nd persiated
tor onr an
hour
Spoed Effect on Cloud.a
lot •~d Hot at&t.<l
Tranlini BO
taat they
•ere out ot
llot ,te.ted
eight in eaat
in 2-4 aeoonda
JloT1ng slowly llot atat.d
onr aandy
dletr1ct
Sot atated lot atat.d
!tot atate4 llot atated
Not 1tated lot 1tated
Not stated Hot stated
Very taat Bot stated
Faat llot stated
About SOO lot atated
mph
Slower than lot atated
two-motored
U1lY plane
lfot ate.ted lot stated
Very tut Mot atat.d
\
NND 927545

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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.