Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“The Advance”52 pages
• 139 camera was kept stationary the average angular velocities for the object moving across the field are 0.039 and 0.031 radians per second. The angular velocities in these sequences sometimes vary erratically from 0.07 to 0.01 radians per second. This variation may be attributed in part to camera "jiggling" and in part to the object's motion. The decrease in average angular velocity could be due to the object's having regressed between filmings just as was reported by Newhouse. Also the average image diameter decreases about 30% over the entire film, in- dicating a possible over-all regression of the objects. The following tabulation indicates the hypothetical transverse component of relative velocities and accelerations at various distances. It is noted that the transverse velocity may be only a fraction of the total velocity so that the numbers actually indicate minimum values. If the object's distance was— Its transverse velocity was— Its transverse ac- celeration was— Velocity of single object was- 100 ft 0.65 ft./sec. or 0.44 m.p.h 0.36 ft./sec.1 or 0.11g 3.8 ft./sec. or 2.7 m.p.h. 1,000 ft 6.5 ft./sec. or 4.4 m.p.h 3.6 ft./sec.1 or 0.11 g 39 ft./sec. or 27 m.p.h. 2,000 ft 13 ft./sec. or 8.8 m.p.h 7.2 ft./sec.1 or 0.22 g 78 ft./sec. or 54 m.p.h. 1 mile 23 m.p.h 0.56 g 135 m.p.h. 5 miles 115 m.p.h 2.8 g 670 m.p.h. 10 miles 230 m.p.h 5.6 g 1,300 m.p.h. The objects in the "Utah" and "Montana" films can only be correlated on the basis of two rather weak points. First, their structure, or rather lack of it, is similar. Thus as shown in the "blow-ups" there are no recognizable differences between them*. Second, the objects on the "Montana" film are manifestly a single pair; on the "Utah" film perhaps 30% of the frames show clusters of objects seemingly also grouped in pairs. The weather report was obtained by the author from the Airport Station at Salt Lake City. The nearest station with available data is Corinne which reported a maximum temperature of 84°, a minimum of 47° and no precipitation. A high ,pressure cell from the Pacific Northwest spread over Northern Utah during July 2, the pressure at Tremonton would have a rising trend, the visibility good, and the winds relatively light. The absence of clouds and the apparently excellent visibility shown on the films would seem to be in agreement with this report. Through use of References (2) and (3), the Sun's azimuth N132°E altitude 65° was computed. No shadows were available to confirm the time of filming. The image size being roughly that of the Montana film (a few of the objects being perhaps 10% larger than the largest on the Montana) the same remarks as to airplane reflections apply, i.e., they might have been caused by Sun reflections from airplanes within one to three miles to the observer, although at these distances they should have been identified as conventional aircraft by the film or the observer. No specific conclusions as to Sun reflection angles can be drawn since the line of motion of the objects cannot be confirmed. How- ever, the reported E to W motion of the UFO's and their passing overhead coupled with the SE azimuth of the Sun would make the achievement of optimal Sun reflections rather difficult. That the images could have been produced by aluminum foil "chaff"** seems possible, at least on the basis of the images shown, as very intense specular Sun reflections from ribbons of chaff might flare out to about the size of the UFO's. Examination of film frames obtained from the photogrammetric experiment— reference Analysis of Photographic Material, Serial 01, Appendix II, show that no significant broadening is produced by fiat white diffuse reflectors such as birds, bits of paper, etc. at f/16 under the conditions of the filming. Actual measurements show a slight "bleeding" or flaring of about 10% to 20%. The rectangular flat white cardboards of the aforementioned experiments repre- sented very roughly the configuration of birds. The light reflected by such a surface is probably greater than that from a curved feather surface of a bird. *The images on the "Utah" film appear to be a little brighter. However, possible varia- tions in development techniques would not allow quantitative analysis in this regard. **Bits of aluminum foil dumped overboard by planes, often utilized as a countermeasure against antiaircraft radar. This material might possibly be in the form of large ribbons several feet long and several inches across.
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.