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.

200
for the
entire
life
history
of
our
solar
system.
The
number
of
habitable planets
in
the
universe
is
anybody's
guess.
Any
figures
you
may
have
heard,
including
mine, are
just
guesses.
I
have
guessed
that
our
own
Milky
Way
may
contain
as
many
as
a
million
such
planets.
That
sounds
like
a
lot,
but the chances
are
the
nearest
such
inhabited planet
would
be
so
distant
that
if
we
send
out
a
message
to
it
today
we
should
have
to
wait
some
2000
years for
a
reply.
Alas,
the
evidence
is
poor
for
intelligent
life
in
our
solar
system,
though
I
do
expect
some
lower
forms
of
life
to
exist
on
Mars.
With
respect
to
UFO's
my
position
is
simply
this.
That
natural explanations
exist
for the unexplained
sightings.
The
Air
Force
has
given
me
full
access
to
their
files.
There
is
no
vast conspiracy
of
either
the
Air
Force
or
CIA
to
conceal
the
facts
from
the
public,
as
some
groups
have
charged.
The
basic
reason for continued
reporting
of
UFO's
lies
in
the
possibility—just
the
pos-
sibility
mind you—that
some
of
them
may
derive
from
experimentation
or
secret
development
by
a
hostile
power.
And
I
don't
mean
hostile
beings
from
outer
space!
The
Air
Force
has
made
its
mistakes.
They
never
have
had
enough
sCientists
in
the
project.
They
have
failed
to
follow
up
certain
sightings
of
special
im-
portance.
Their
questionnaire
is
amateurish,
almost
cleverly
designed
in
cer-
tain
cases
to
get the
wrong
answer
and
lose
track
of
the
facts.
The
Air
Force
is
aware
of
my
criticism
and,
on
a
voluntary
basis,
I
have
helped
them
im-
prove
the
questionnaire.
It
was
not
an
easy
job.
Especially
when
the Air
Force
rejected
some
vital
questions
as
"an
invasion
of the
privacy of the
individual."
From
1947
until
1954
a
bewildered
group
of
Air
Force
personnel
tried
hon-
estly
and
sincerely
to
resolve
the
UFO
problem.
Many
highly
reliable
persons
had
reported seeing "objects"
moving
at
fantastic
speeds,
and
apparently taking
evasive
action
in
a manner
impossible
for
known
.
terrestrial craft.
By
1952
a
sizable
number
of
those
in
the Air
Force group
had
concluded that
extrater-
restrial
vehicles
were
the only
explanation.
Some
of
this
unrest leaked
out.
Popular
writers
exploited
these ideas
and
soon
various
UFO
clubs
came
intoexistence.
In
1953,
a
committee
of
scientists,
headed by
the
late
H.
P.
Robert-
son
of
California
Institute
of
Technology
met
at
CIA
to consider
a number
ofthe Air
Force's
most
convincing
cases.
They
immediately
solved
many
of
them.Others
could
not be
solved
because of
poor or
insufficient
data.
They
concludedthat
all
cases
had
a
natural
solution.
There
was
no
evidence
to
support theidea that
UFO's
are
vehicles
from
another
world.
Nevertheless,
the
UFO
buffs
believe,
almost as
an
article
of
faith,
that
"trained
observers,"
such
as
military
or
airline
pilots,
could
not
possibly
mistake
a
meteor,
a
planet,
a
star,
a
sundog, or
a
mirage
for
a
UFO.
This
viewpoint
is
absolutely
nonsense
and
the Air Force
files
bear
witness
to
its
falsity!
They
contain
thousands of
solved
cases—sightings
by
"reliable
individuals"
like
the
pilots:
But
such
persons
have
made
huge
errors in
identification.
A
huge
meteor
flashes
in
the
sky!
The
co-pilot
thinks
it
is
going
to
strike
the plane
and
takes evasive
action.
The
pilot
disagrees
and he
is
right.
The
UFO
proves
to
be
a
fireball
or meteor
a
hundred
miles
away!
Such
occurrences
are
frequent,
not
rare.
They
have even
increased
with the
growing
number
of
re-entries
and
spectacular
decay of
satellite
debris
from
the space
operations
of the U.S.A.
and
the U.S.S.R.
Distances
overhead are
uncommonly
hard
to
estimate—either
on
the
groundor
in
the
air.
A
bird's
feather, shining
brightly
in
the
sun
and
floating
a mere
20
feet
overhead
may
seem
to
be
a
distant object
moving
at very high speed.
Conversely,
a
pilot
may
think that
a
bright object
on
the
horizon, in
reality
a
star
or
planet,
lies
just
beyond
his
wing
tip.
Sometimes,
a
layer of
warm
air,
sandwiched between
2
layers
of
cold
air,
can
act
as
a
lens, projecting
a
pulsing,
spinning,
vividly colored,
saucer
-like
image
of
a•
planet. Pilots,
thinking they
were
dealing
with
a
nearby
flying object,
have
often
tried
to intercept
the
image, which evades
all
attempts
to
cut
it
off.
The
distance
may
seem
to
change
rapidly,
as the
star
fades or
increases
in
brightness.
Actual
"dog
fights"
have been recorded between
a
confused
military
pilot
and a
planet.
I
myself
have
observed this
phenomenon
of star mirage. It
is
both
realistic
and
frightening.
Such
observations
fortified
the
UFO
legend—that
these objects
"maneuver as
if
under
intelligent control."
But
the
pilots failed
to
realize
that the
"intelligent
control"
came from
within themselves.
And I
think that Air Force personnel
of Project Blue Book
still
do
not appreciate this important
UFO
phenomenon.