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.
• •Photogrammetrio -4- Serial 02 Analysis ot "utah" Film The image size being roughly that of the ?oontana film (a tew at the objects being perhaps 1~ larger than the largest on the Montana) the eame remarks as to airplane reflections apply, i.e., they might haVe been caused by sun reflections tram airplanes Within one to three miles at the observer, although at these distances they should have been identif"ied as conventiOZJ.al aircraft by the til.m or the observer. No specific conclusions as to sun reflection angles oan be drawn since the line of motion of the objects cannot be confirmed. However, the reported E to 'W motion of the UFO and their pass ing overhead coupled with the SE azimuth of the sun would make the achieve ment of optimal sun reflections rather di.:f'tioult. That the images coul.d have been produced by aluminum foil "chaff"* seems possible, et least on the basis of the images shown, as very intense specular sun ref'leotions from ribbons of ahaft might flare out to about the size ot the UFO. Examination ot figures 4b, 5a, and 5c, obtained f"rom the pbotogrammetric experiment-· reference Analysis of Photographic Mater1a1, Serial 011 Appendix II, show that no significant broadening is produced by flat white di.tf'use reflec- tors such as birds, bits of paper, etc. at f/16 under the conditions of the filming. Actual measurements shOW' a slight "bleeding" or flar1.Ilg ate.bout 1~ to 2()%. The rectangular flat Vhite cardboards ot the aforementioned experiments represented verz !"9'1&),Jy the cont:tsurati ot l>irds. The light reflected by such a surtace is probably greater than that fran a curved f'eather surface ot • bird. Figure 4(b) shows the appearance of one and two foot birds. ff (Se arrows.) as they might appear on a 16mm trame taken With a 3" telephoto lens f/16 at a distance ot 1200', tigure 5(a) at 3000' and figure 5(c) at 3300•. Maey of the images on the "Utah" t'ilm have an angular diameter ot 0.0012 radians (acme as large as 0.0016 radians), thus they might be interpreted as mie foot birds at 600 1 to 8oo 1 , two toot birds at 1200' to 1600 1 or three :toot birds at 2400 1 to 3200'. At these distances, it is doubted it birds would give the appearance or round dotsJ also they would have been identifi able by the c era if' not visually. H011ever, actual movies of birds in flight would have to be taken to completely confirm this conclusion. The toll.owing type ot gulls have been known to fly at times over th1e locali : California rr G a CCl!DOn summer res n , R ng- ed. Gull and the Fork-Tailed Gull, see reference (4). The images are probably not those ar balloons as their number is too great aud the phenanenon ot tlaricg up to a constant brightness for several seconds, and then dying out again cannot well be associated with au:, known balloon observations. * Bita of a1nm1 mm toil dumped overboard by planes, often utilized as a. countermeasure against ant1-a1rcratt radar. This material might possibly be in the form ot large ribbons several feet lODg and several inches across. H The dimensions refer to ving spread. The actual exposed white area of a bird is usua1ly less and depends upon the perspective of the observer. This dif'terence has been roug~ accounted tor 1n the data given, bowe'Yer, ~the~ were the principal. reflector the distance given show.d be re duced by tactor ~ 2 c,r 3. DECLASSIFIED Authority NND 923007
Case file, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 156 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.