Documents / Case file
This U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book file compiles 1952 and 1953 messages, memos and reports on the movie film Navy Chief Photographer Delbert C. Newhouse shot on 2 July 1952 near Tremonton, Utah. It records interviews with Newhouse's family, requests about the film, and Navy and General Mills balloon experts judging that the objects closely resembled pillow balloons. It also covers internal debate about releasing the film to the press. Unrelated reports from Phoenix, Lexington and Highland Park sightings are included too.
From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 7/2/52, Tremonton, Utah. This document records the Project Blue Book investigation and subsequent assessments of an incident near Tremonton, Utah, on July 2, 1952. Project Blue Book was a 1952-1969 U.S. Air Force program to investigate the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The file describes the Air Force’s assessment of the principal witness, Delbert C. Newhouse, a U.S. Navy Warrant Officer specializing in photography, as honest and reliable, and as an expert with more than 1,000 hours of aerial-photography experience. Newhouse reported observing 12 to 14 reflective objects and recorded the event on color motion-picture film using a handheld Bell & Howell Auto Master camera. The file reflects an evolving Air Force assessment of the imagery over several years. Early documentation considered several possible explanations, including sunlight reflecting from birds or balloons, and a mirage effect, and did not identify the objects conclusively. Later assessments became more confident that the objects were seabirds reflecting sunlight, citing identifiable seabirds and similar films showing seabirds as bright points of light under comparable conditions. However, the film’s limited detail and lack of fixed reference points prevented reliable determination of the objects’ distance, size, altitude, or linear speed from the film alone. AARO Comment: The file contains conflicting references to the film format. Several documents describe a 35mm film, while contemporaneous submission documentation identifies the original as a 50-foot roll of processed 16mm Kodachrome color motion-picture film recorded with a handheld Bell & Howell Auto Master camera. Newhouse reported exposing approximately 30 feet of the roll during the incident and using the remaining film later that day to record unrelated mountain scenery in Idaho. Other records show that 35mm positive and negative duplicate blowups were produced from the original 16mm material. The file also indicates that the original film was duplicated for preservation, citing its deteriorating condition. The footage retained by the National Archives and Records Administration and presented in this collection as DOW-UAP-PR159 is a digitization of a 16mm print.
r QUESTIONS REGARDING ANALYSio OF Fillf 1. Are images made ~ light source or reflection? 2. Any indication of what kind of objects could have caused images? Is there any bird sufficiently actinic to cause images? Could they have been caused by aircraft or balloons? 3. What causes the impression that same objects at times appear to become 2 or 3 objects,at times appear to merge into one? 4. Do all objects have same characteristics? a. Same apparent shape? b. Same relative size? c. Same Color? d. Same general motion? 5. What are shape(s), color(s), and relative size(s) of objects? 6. To what can the "fade-in" and "fade-out" of the objects be attri buted? 7. What type motion is attributable to the objects (about their own axis as well as about the a.xis of flight path)? g. Is there any acceleration evident in their motion along flight path axis? 9. Can the motion of the camera (panning and joggling) be allowed for sufficiently to permit determination of the angular velocity of objects which cross the field of view? (Reference particularly the single object which crosses field; photographer states that camera was held motionless while ob ject crossed field of view.) 10. Determine patterns of flight from position plots for each frame~ then: a. Is there any recurring pattern in the relative position of the objects? b. Do they maintain same relative positions in formation during ~ maneuvers,·particularly violent maneuvers? c. Is relative position maintained coincidental with movement about their axes? d. If undulating motion is present among a number of objects llhich are maintaining a semblance of formation, do those objects undulate in phase? Ditto for tumbling motion. e. Is there any indication of abrupt changes in direction of flight path through fairly large angles (e.g., 90° or more during interval of 2 or 3 frames)? DECLASSIFIED Au thority NN D 923007
Case file, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 156 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.