Documents / Official release

U.S. Air Force Flying Discs File, 1952

U.S. Department of War · 1952 · 253 pages · text from the file's own layer

This 1952 file of U.S. Air Force intelligence correspondence on flying objects comes from the Directorate of Intelligence at Headquarters USAF. It records the return to the Coast Guard of a negative of objects photographed at Salem Air Station on 16 July 1952, and requests to Naval Intelligence to analyze the Tremonton film by Delbert Newhouse and the Great Falls film by Nicholas Mariana. It also holds Strategic Air Command report transmittals, letters from members of the public, and an Okinawa object said to have fallen into the sea.

From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: September - December 1952, Various. This file is an archival collection of U.S. Air Force Director of Intelligence records relating to reported “flying disc” incidents during the period from September through December 1952. Drawn from multiple governmental and non-governmental sources, it compiles a wide range of material associated with reported sightings and official handling of those observations, rather than presenting a single analytical conclusion on the nature or origin of “flying discs.” The contents include correspondence, memoranda, reporting forms, case summaries, distribution and routing material, and other administrative or intelligence-related documentation tied to flying-disc reporting and review during that period. Pages 26-36 of the file refer to an incident reported near Tremonton, Utah, in July 1952, in which a U.S. Navy Warrant Officer recorded film of unidentified objects that the Air Force later assessed were likely seabirds. Overall, the file is a broad documentary collection reflecting how such reports were recorded, circulated, and evaluated in late 1952.

Open the PDF at page 59 Original source ↗
DOW-UAP-PR159 · video · 1952-07-02 Historical Film of Reported UFOs, Utah, 1952 This archival footage is a digitization of a 16mm print of Kodachrome color motion-picture film shot on a handheld Bell & Howell Auto Master camera near Tremonton, Utah, on July 2, 1952. U.S. Navy Chief Warrant Officer Delbert C. Newhouse reported observing and filming a group of bright airborne objects and shortly thereafter submitted the footage to the U.S. Air Force. The film later became one of the visual cases reviewed by Project Blue Book, the 1952–1969 U.S. Air Force program that investigated the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The film’s limited detail and lack of fixed reference points prevented a conclusive resolution. From the 55-second mark onward, the film transitions to unrelated footage appearing to show a demonstration of sewing equipment. The presence of unrelated sewing-equipment footage suggests that the surviving footage may be a composite or reused print, though the available record does not establish how or when the materials came to be combined. As documented in records submitted with the film, contained in this collection under the title DOW-UAP-D102, the footage originally was paired with mountain scenery from Idaho, which is not preserved in this digitization. Download (76.1 MB)
.UOilf-2&.
Major rourn.et/J.C/71379
;n October 1952
!PJOR♦JPYM 1QR PQOBP
fBPILEJ(:
l. !ro prepare a non-11111tary letter to Mr. Gerald W. Barring\on
of Prov14en.ce, Bhode I al.and.
l4Q%§ ♦IP DisqqsstqJt
2. In a letter to the lJSAJ' dated 9 Oct 53 Mr. Barrington
deecril>e1 in. detail an obaer-,ation of an unidentified f11'ina obJect
aade aboard the SS Oaronia on 5 Oct 52. The 4ata which h• includes
ie 1o■ewhat reaarkable in that 1 t la ve-ry unusual to receive 1ueh
deta1l1 froa the ord1Da17 cltisen. Ke even \ook the trouble to
write the ahip' • captau at a later 4ate and obta1n the ahip1 • loca
tien at the tille of the obsenation.
3. .A. repl7 to Mr. Harrlncton 1• attached.
4. SubJect aatter b not considered n1table for in.eluion
la the Dail7 Staff Di,;eat.
AQTIOJ Jllll@W9i'II2IP~
6. :Becauae of Mr. Harrington'• proalnent protesalonal po ■ 1t1011
and the excellence of his report, it ls strongly reco•ended that the
attached repl7 'be signed b7 General S81lford.
6. .Approval, aignature aJld. dispatch of attached repl7.

Cases discussed

About this file

Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 253 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.