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CIA-UAP-015, Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 (Analysis of Reports of Unidentified Aerial Objects)

Central Intelligence Agency · 312 pages · text from the file's own layer

This CIA archives copy, released in 2026, holds Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 (Analysis of Reports of Unidentified Aerial Objects). The Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base issued it on 5 May 1955. The study reduced about 4,000 sighting reports from 1947 to 1952 to IBM punched cards, with 3,201 cases charted, and applied chi square tests to compare known and unknown sightings. It concludes that it is highly improbable the reports represent technological developments beyond present-day scientific knowledge.

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 This is the USAF Project Blue Book with a CIA cover sheet stating the document is "Official Record Copy." With the exception of the handwritten note on the first page, the content of this document has been available on CIA's public website.

  • p. 78 …Apparently these are harder to identify. I (3} Shape IIn this case, there is a higher…
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IIn five of the six cases, the probability is less than 1 per cent that
the distributions are the same. In the sixth case, Light Brightness, the
classifications are too nebulous to be of real value. However, these tests Ido not necessarily mean that the UNKNOWNS are primarily "flying saucers"
and not aircraft, balloons, or other known objects or natural phenomena.
The UNKNOWNS might still be unidentified KNOWNS if either of the follow Iing cases occurred:
I( l} The characteristics which were observed for the UNKNOWNS
were different from those observed for the KNOWNS because
of the psychological make-up of the observer or because of Iatmospheric distortion. This assumes the distribution of
objects in KNOWNS and UNKNOWNS is the same.
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(2) The UNKNOWNS may be known objects in different propor
tions than the group identified as KNOWNS. (That is, a Igreater percentage of the UNKNOWNS could be aircraft
than the percentage of aircraft in the identified KNOWNS.}
IThe second case is the more probable one. In this connection, it is
interesting to note the factors which contributed to a large chi square Iresult in the tests made above:
(1) Color I
The major contribution to chi square in color is from the
color green. There is a large excess of green sightings Iamong the KNOWNS over the UNKNOWNS. Of the 130
known objects in this classification, 98 are astronomical, Iand are due mostly to the green fireballs reported from
the Southwest U. S.
I(2) Number
IThe large chi square is due to a greater proportion of
UNKNOWNS in the multiple object classification. Apparently
these are harder to identify. I
(3} Shape
IIn this case, there is a higher percentage of UNKNOWNS
in the rocket-aircraft-shape classification. These might Ibe familiar objects for which unusual maneuvers were
reported.
IThere is a higher percentage of KNOWNS in the flame
and in the meteor- or comet-shape category, which in
both cases appears to result mainly from excesses of Iastronomical sightings.
68 I
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Case file, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 312 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.