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
-/ Analysis ot Photographic Material Serial 02 PHorOJRAMM:rfi'RIC ANALYSIS CF THE "ur.AH" FIIM TRACKOO UFO'S Several Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO'e) were sighted and photo graphed at about 11:10 MST on Juzy 2, 1952 by Delbert c. Newhouse at a point on State Highway 30, seven miles north ot Tremonton, Utah (latitude 41° 50', longitude 112° 10' ). Mr. Newhouse, a Chief Warrant Officer in the U. s. Navy*, wee in transit f'ran Washington, D. c. to Portland, Oregon. A map or the area is included as f'igure l. He, his wife and their two children were making the trip by car. Shortly af'ter passing through the city of Tremonton, his wife noticed a group ot strange bright shining objects in the air off towards the east ern horizon. She called them to her husband's attention and prevailed upon him to atop the car. When he got out, he observed the objects (twelve to f'ourteen ot them) to be directly overhead and milling about. He described them as "gun metal colored objects shaped like two saucers, one inverted on top ot the other". He estimated that they subtended 11 about the same angle as B-29's at 101 000 :feet" (about halt a degree - Le., about the angular diameter of the moon). Next, he ran to the trunk of hie car, took out his Bell and Bowell Autanaster lanm movie camera equipped with a 3" telephoto lens, loaded it, focused it et in:fiD.ity and began shooting. There was no reference point above the horizon so he was unable to estimate absolute size, speed or distance. He reports that one of the objects reversed its course and proceeded away fran the rest of the group; he held the camera still and all.owed this sil'.lgle object to pass across the f'ield ot view of the camera, picking it up later in its course. He repeated this for three passes. 4 ,,,..-V4s During the filming, Newhouee 1changed the iris stop of the camera fran t/8 to t/16. The density ot the film can be seen to change markedly at a point about 3~ through the sequence (figure 5(b) at t/8 and the other blowups at t/16). The camera was operated at 16 fps. The color film (Daylight Kodachrane) af'ter processing was submitted to his superiors. The Navy forwarded the f'ilm to the USAF-ATIC where the :film was studied tor several. months. According to Al Chop (then with ATIC and present'.cy vith DAC) Air Force personnel were convinced that the objects were not airplanes; on the other hand the eypothesis that the camera might have been out of' focus and the objects soaring gulls could neither be confirmed nor denied. Mr. Chop's remarks are essentially substantiated by Capt. Edward Ruppelt, reference (1) then head at Project "Blue Booktt tor ATIC. * At the time he had already logged sane 2,200 hours as a chief photographer with the Navy.
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.