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.
“The Advance”1 page
' COdi! 01/m,w/lbh Jl2 •UNCLASSlFLED Serial: MAY 4 Subj: Interpretation of Movies of Unidentified Objects; progress report on 4. All objects appear to have the same characterist ics in regards to shape, color, size and rel&tive motion. 5. The shape of the objects appears to be oblate or disk shaped, color; blue-white, and maximum and minimum size; 98 and 16 feet. The size is baaed on the assumpt ion that the objects are five miles from the observer. 6. Fade in and fade out of the objects were ana.J.-rzed as i n 3 above. In this case the group movement was such that the distance between the objects and camera was increased so that the objects could not be recorded on the film thereby ca.using the apparent fade out. Fade-in as attributed to a shortening of the distance from the fa.de-out area to the c.e.mera station . 7. Plots of the groups i ndicate that the objects move counter clock-wise relative to the axis of flight path. However, nothing he.a been detected which indicates motion of t he i ndividual objects about their own axis although this motion appears to be likely . 8. In determining the velocity of the objects three assumptiorus were ma.de: a. The camera was held steady during Part III of the film. b. The objects were moving perpendicular to the optical axis, and c. The objects were five miles from the camera. It is obvious that (b) is a fallacy; however, this assumption will give the minimum velocity and the actual velocity is greater than computed. The assumption that the objects are five miles f'rom the camera is a n arbitrary one. However, based on the emulsion speed and focal length, an object 50 feet in diameter and five miles -from the camera will be recorded on the film with sufficient resolution to identify major details of the object. It is felt that if these objects were closer than five miles at the time of recording, <ll.etails would appear on the film. Velocity is computed to be 3780 mph for a snift of 1 mm per frame 1f the object is five miles from the observer. From 55 measurements taken from Pa.rt III of the Utah f'ilm, the maximum and minimum velocities DOWNGRADED A'f 8' ffiAR 11'1TERYAL"8. DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS ' DOD DlR 6200.10 • 5
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.