65 HS1-834228961 62-HQ-83894 SUB A

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... DE-~~NT . OF THE AIR FORCE • •
• • Office of Pub~ic• Information
Washington· 25 , D, c .1
• • I ' . • ' • • • ' ~ 1 I • ~
U •. S • .Air For:ce .Summary of Eve.nts.• and Information
Concerning the Unidentifie <;l Flying ObJept P~ogram
The Air Force· feels a , very definite obligation to id,entify and
analyze things thit happeri in ·the air that 'may h~ve in them menace to
the United States and; because of that reeling of obligation and pur
~uit of that interest, t _h~- Air .Forc:e established an activity known as
the Unidentified Flyi~~: :object Program.· · •
This program was established i n ''1.94i when u,nidentified :f~yir:ig
objects were being reported in varioμs · parts of the United States.
The reports of . sightings reached a · peak of 1,700 in 1952 and dropped
to a total of 429 111 1953. • During the· first pine months· of 1951+ o_nly
~54 sightings were rep6rte~ .
From a survey of the volume of sightings received by the ~ir
Force, ·1t , has been 0.etermfned that over ·80 percent are explainable as
being known . objects. , Generaliy, sighted oojects fall into the cate
gory of: . balloons, ·aircraft~ · astronomical bodies , atmospheric reflec
tions~ and birds. All reports of unidentified flying objects result
from either radar or visual sightings.
. .
Explanations pertaining to sightings reported from military and
civilian r~dar facilities are as follows :
1. Temperature inversion reflections ca:n give a return on a
radar scope. that is as shatp· as that received from an aircraft.I• •
Speeds of these ret~rns reportedly ran~e -f~6m ~e~o to fantastic rates.
The "objects" alsc:, appear to move in a:11 directions. Such sigh~:i:ngs
have resulted in ·many fruitiess ,j_ntercept efforts. •
To possibly bear out the theory of t emperature inversion
refl.ect.ion is an. incident which occurred in January 1951 near Oakridge,
Tennessee. Two Air Force aircraft attempt·ed to intercept an unidenti
fied "object" and actually established a radar "lock" on the obje6t.
Their altitude at the time· was 7,000 feet, The unidentified object,
according to theiP radar, appeared to be at an elevation of 1o · to ~5
degrees from . this altitude . Three passes were made in an attempt to
close on the qbject. In each instance the p1lots repo~ted that their
radar led them first upward and then down toward a specif1c point on
the ground. (One scientlfic theory holds that light can be .similarly
reflected from a layer of warm air above the earth. If thiQ proves ·
to be correct; many visual , night sighting s could be ~ccounted for.) '
2. Ionized ,clouds have causeq.some un1dentified radar returns
Thunderstorms are identifiable by rada1° and radar ·returns have also•
been received from ice formations in the air, balloons, ground reflec
tions, frequency interference between ~ther radar stationi, ~nd wind
born objects. Obviously, such returns are very difficult to . identify,
especially when t hey occur during darkness.
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