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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.”

• CONFIDENTIAL e
Incident
Ho.
25
26
27
28
29
30
..'
S0b
300
SI
32
33
33a
B.xhaust
Trail Heading Altitude Ft.
Wot stated Bast High
Bluish-black Not sta.ted Bot stated
Bluish-black Not stated 10000 ft.
15 mi. long
Not stated Not stated Not stated
Not stated 10 flying High
north; on
reverse course
there were only 7
None (ap- West 3000
peared to
ha.ve bluish
streaks out
t'rom aides
Five times 1200 Prom .,ery near
length ot g?'Ound to 1000
object
Small streak 8.8.Wo
trailing object
Wot stated Kot atated di!teNn.~ al•
titudea ;
White., heavy West to eut 20000-50000 ft.
lone Stationary 3000 tt.
lone lone visible Unknolm
Jfone 210° from Extremely high
Godman Field
None Not stated Not stated
Speed Effect on Clouds
Fast Not stated
llot stated Cut a clear path
throup cloud•
Fast Seemed to out
0loud1 open
Did not
moveo
Seemed to
go below
horizon
Bot stated
with rotation
of earth
300-400 mph Bot ate.ted
Slow Bot stated
500 mph Jlot stated
rt. a,tter 1t
atartecl
to le&"ff
n.e1n1ty
bceeding Bot ate.ted.
600 aph
Jfotionlesa lot stated
~-~------
600-~00 mph Bot 1ta1;ecl • •
Stat1anary "lone
nom n.aible Ione
Stationary !lone
Not stated Bot sta:t;edNND 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.