Documents / Hearing transcript

Symposium on unidentified flying objects: hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, second session, July 29, 1968.

U.S. House of Representatives · 1968-07-29 · 256 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 18 …Some of these statements which lead to mis- conceptions are: —(1) Only UFO "buffs" report UFO…
  • p. 19 …One great misconception is that only UFO buffs report UFO's; quite the opposite is the…
  • p. 25 …saw their very impressive and sur- prising UFO files, the pattern of which is entirely different…
  • p. 39 …files and modes of operation of both private and official (i.e., Project Bluebook) UFO investigative…
  • p. 41 …Misinter- preted natural phenomena (Hypothesis 3) do explain many sincerely -submitted UFO reports; but, as I…
  • p. 45 …It summarizes about 750 UFO cases in the NICAP files up to about
  • p. 46 …Reference 7 is another now -accessible source of extremely significant UFO documentation; it is unfortunate that…
  • p. 54 …Longview, Wash., July 8, 1949 Many of the UFO cases I am citing are drawn intentionally…
  • p. 60 54 terrestrial hypothesis for UFOs, incomprehensibility must be expected as almost inevitable. Hence there is more…
  • p. 63 …NICAP files. The article, by Post reporter Jimmie Woods, represents one of those rare UFO feature…
  • p. 68 …5) remarks that an astronomer working under con- tract to the official UFO investigatory program interviewed…
  • p. 70 …UFO sightings by meteorologists could be extended very con- siderably by drawing on my file of…
  • p. 72 …the UFO problem in the ensuing two-year period. Many details from the official file on…
  • p. 75 …In my files are many other "balloon" cases from the past twenty years, cases that ought…
  • p. 76 …The third target was spotted visually by myself," Hemphill's signed statement in the case -file…
  • p. 78 …25), who evidently drew his information from the official files. Ruppelt (Ref. 5) states that when…
  • p. 79 …unknowns in official files to be ignored. A famous case in UFO annals involved a B…
  • p. 86 …explanations for classic UFO cases that have been made in the official files in the last…
  • p. 91 …Official file on October 15, 1948 Fukuoka case, Project Bluebook. 43. Melbourne (Australia) Sun, December 16…
  • p. 120 …During that night, and several succeeding nights, there were many reports of UFO's over northern…
  • p. 128 …THE UFO PROPULSION PROBLEM By way of introducing the propulsion problem of UFO's, I will…
  • p. 185 179 rod N.T.TuDE tOURIE 3• MOTION OF UFO SYSTIM a..„. — 73 2.3 2…
  • p. 206 …for a UFO. This viewpoint is absolutely nonsense and the Air Force files bear witness to…
  • p. 207 …But such behavior does not imply, as the UFO addicts argue, the presence of an intelligence…
  • p. 208 …He watches the UFO for a minute or two until it finally disappears. He cannot be…
  • p. 218 …UFO presence. This can be done with existing information. Up- date and upgrade the files with…
  • p. 224 …claimed to have observed a UFO. Interestingly enough the official files con- tain fewer than 12…
  • p. 239 …Indeed, at present the scientific study of the UFO problem is greatly hampered by the circumstance…
  • p. 244 …The dotted line represents "re- liable" sightings in the files of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization…
  • p. 245 …Many radar sightings of UFO's are on file. In a few cases, a UFO has…
  • p. 247 …He states that he has on file more than 300 UFO sightings prior to the 20th…
198
The
committee
stands
adjourned.
(Whereupon,
at
4:39
p.m.,
the
committee
was
adjourned.)
In
addition
to the
six
symposium
participants,
the
chairman,
Mr.
Roush,
invited
other
scientists
to
submit
written
papers
expressing
their
views
of
unidentified
flying
objects.
Their
papers
follow
as
a
part
of
the
record
of
the
symposium.
(The
biography of
Dr.
Menzel
follows:)
DR.
DONALD
H.
MENZEL
Dr. Donald
H.
Menzel,
a
native
of
Colorado,
received his
Ph.
D.
from
Princeton
University
in 1924.
After
one
year
as
instructor
at
the
University
of
Iowa,
another
year
as
Assistant
Professor
at
Ohio
State
University,
Dr.
Menzel
went
to
Lick
Observatory
in 1926,
as
Assistant
Astronomer.
While
at Lick
he
participated
in
many
observing
programs
with
the
large
telescopic
equipment.
His
major
work,
however,
was
in
the
interpretation
of
the
spectrum
of the
atmosphere
of
the
sun,
from
photographs taken at
various
total
solar
eclipses.
He
participated
In
the
observation
of
two
such
eclipses,
in
the years
1930
and
1932.
In
the
fall
of 1932,
Dr.
Menzel
came
to
Harvard
University,
where he has
beenever
since,
except for
three
years
of
service
as
a Commander
in
the U.S.
Navy,
during
World
War
II.
His
studies
have
covered
a
large
number
of
fields,
from
pure
physics
to
pure
astronomy.
Of
special
concern
has
been the
sun
itself,
in
which
field
he
is
a
recognized
authority.
His
studies
have employed
a
combination
of
observation
and
theory.
In 1936
he
was
director
of
the Harvard-M.I.T.
eclipse
expedition to
USSR.
In 1945 he
directed
the
joint
U.S.-Canadian
eclipse
expedi-
tion
to
Saskatchewan.
He
has
also
observed the
total eclipses
of 1918, 1923, 1954,
1959, 1961,
1963
and
1967.
In
an
attempt
to obtain
basic
information
outside
of
a
total
solar
eclipse,
Dr.
Menzel
developed
the
first
coronagraph
in
the
United
States
and
established
the
station
at
Climax,
Colorado,
where
it
is
now known
as
the
High
Altitude
Observatory.
Originally
operated
jointly
by Harvard and
the
University
of
Colorado,
this
scientific
institution
is
now
wholly
under
the
jurisdiction
of the
latter
university.
The
observations
of
solar
activity
obtained
at
Climax had an
immediate
application
to
problems
of
solar
-terrestrial
relation-
ships, especially
on
the propagation
of
radio
waves.
To
expand
the
work
in
this
field
and
to provide
for
more
nearly
unbroken
records
of
solar
activity,
after
World
War
II,
Dr.
Menzel
suggested
that the
Air Forces
establish
a
second
solar
station.
After
several
years
of
site
surveying,
Sacramento
Peak
Observa-
tory
was
established
near Alamogordo,
New
Mexico
on
a
mountain
some
5000
feet
above
the
Tularosa Basin,
overlooking the
White Sands
Proving
Ground and
the
Holloman
Air
Force Base.
The
large instruments, including
the
16
-inch
corona
-
graph,
were
all
designed
and
built
under
Harvard
auspices,
collaboratively
with
scientific
personnel
from
the
High
Altitude
Observatory.
In
1956,
with Air Force
sponsorship,
Harvard
built
a
Solar
Radio
Observatory near Fort Davis,
Texas,
to record
the
radio
waves
of
solar
origin.
The
data
from
these observatories
are
revolutionizing
our knowledge
of the
sun
and
solar
activity.
In
1952
DT.
Menzel became
acting Director
of
Harvard
College
Observatory
and,
in 1954,
was
advanced to the
Directorship.
He
resigned
as
Director
on
March
31,
1966.
In Harvard
University
he
is
Paine
Professor of
Practical
Astronomy
and
Professor of
Astrophysics.
On
July
1,
1966 he
also accepted
appointment asResearch
Scientist
on
the Smithsonian
Astrophysical
Observatory
staff.
He
has
lectured extensively in
Spanish throughout Latin America. In 1963
he
was a
Visiting
Professor
at the
University of
Chile,
and
served
as
State
Department
Specialist
for Latin
America
in 1964.
From
1954-56 he
was
President of the
American
Astronomical
Society.
He
is
Vice President of the American
Philosophical Society,
a member
of the National
Academy
of
Sciences,
the
American
Academy
of Arts
and
Sciences,
and a
large
number
of other professional organizations.
He
is
a
senior
member
of the
Insti-
tute
of
Electrical
and
Electronics
Engineers
and
a
Foreign Associate of the
Royal
Astronomical
Society.
From
1948-1955
he
was
President of the
Commission
on
Solar Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union,
and from
19434-1967
was
President of the Commission on
the
moon.
He
is also
a member
of the
Inter-
national
Radio
Scientific
Union
(URSI),and
the International
Union for Geodesy
and
Geophysics.
He
has been Chief
Scientist
of
GOA
Corporation since 1959.
He
was a member
of the Board of Directors of the Association of Universities
for Research in Astronomy, Inc.
from
1957-1966.
(
In 1954 he
received the honorary

Cases discussed

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Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.