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
Photogrammetric• -2- Serial ~ ~sis ot "utah" Film This "utah" tilm clip together with a ''Montana" UFO tilm clip (~is ot Photographic Material, Serial 01) came into the possession of Green-Rouse Productions at Samuel Goldwyn Studios, 1041 North Fo:nDOsa Street, Hollywood, vho incorporated both tilm clips as s:f8n1t1cant evidence in a Documentary Film, "Unidenti.tied FqiDg <J,jects'1 tor release by United Artists to public theaters by May 9, 1956. A 35mm reprint ot the Newhouse "Utah" film was submitted by the Studio to Douglas Aircraft C~ tor e.xamin.Btion. Visual study ot the reprints on the Recordak and astronomical plate measuring engine revealed the toll.ow ing: the tilm comprises about 1,200 frames; on most ot the frames there appear JDBDY' round white dots, some elliptical. The dots often seem clustered in cODStellations, or formations which are recasnizable tor as long as seven teen seconds. A relatiTe motion plot (obtained tran an overlay vellmn trace on the Recor4ak) ot two typical formations are presented 1n figures 2a and 2b. The objects seem to cluster 1n groups ot two's and three's, see actual blowups, 4a, 5b, and 6c. On same t'remes they flare up and then disappear tran view in 0.25 secon4s or less and sometmes they appear as a rand~ scattered "tv1nkling" of dots. The dot images themaelTes show no stnicture; they are White and have no oolor ~inges. Exam1n.-tion under a microscope shO\ls the camera to be well focused as the e<!ges ot the inlagee are sharp and clear on many ot the properly exposed ~emes. .Angular diameters range from about 0.0016 to O.ooo4 radians. Their pattern of motion is essentially a curvi linear milling about as shown in tigure 2a and 2b. Sam.etimes the objects ap pear to circle about each other. There are no other objects 1n the field at v1ev- which might give a clue as to the absolute motion of the cluster. In the overlay trace, tigure 2, the trane ot reference is determined by a certain object whose relative motion during a sequence of frames remains rather constant (indicated 1n the figures). T'h.1e object is used as a refer- enae PQint and the lower edge ot the trame as abscissa. Assuming the camera to have been kept reasonabl;y uncanted., the abscissa vould be horizontal and the ordinate vertical. In the overlay trace, figves 3a and 3b, the particular frame 1tsell 1e used as the ref'erence. Assuming the camera vae held ste~ (there is an unconsciCIIJS tendency to pan with a lDGVing object) the coordinate system is (llasi-ti.xed. It is realized that both of these coordinate systems are in actuality moving, possibly possessing both velocity and accelerati011. No alt1t\14e or azimllth determination can be made because ot lack ot background. The only measurable quantities of interest &re theref'ore the relative angular distances between the objects and their time derivatives. Graphs ot two typical time variations ot relative angular separation and velocity are 1nclJ1ded as figures 7 and 8. The relative angular velocity is seen to vary t'rom zero to O.oo65 radians per second. The relative angular acceleration had a maximum value at 0.0036 radians per second squared. Bupposing the camera vas kept stationary the average angular velocities tor the object moving across the tield. are 0.039 and 0.031 radians per second tor tigu.res 3• and. 3b. The angular velocities in these sequences scmetimes vary erratic~ t'rcm 0.07 to 0.01 radians per second. This variation may be attributed in part to camera "JiggliDg" and in part to the object's DECLASSIFIED Authority NND 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.