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…
214
Professional
affiliations
include
the
American
Physical
Society,
the
American
Nuclear
Society,
the
American
Institute
of Aeronautics
and
Astronautics,
the
Aerial
Phenomenon
Research
Organization,
the
National
Investigations
Commit-
tee
on
Aerial
Phenomena. Mr.
Friedman
is
on
the
Board
of
Directors
of
the
UFO
Research
Institute
of
Pittsburgh
and
on
the
Standards
and Program
Committees
of
the
Shielding Division
of
the
American
Nuclear
Society.
Mr.
Friedman has
presented
papers
at
technical
society
meetings
and
has
chaired
sessions
at such
meetings.
He
has
written
numerous
classified
and
un-
classified
reports
and
has
published
articles
on
UFOs
as
well
as on
radiation
shielding.
Mr.
Friedman
has
made
dozens
of
radio
and
TV
appearances
across
the
United
States
and
in
Canada. These
include
the
Joe
Pyne
Show
(Los
Angeles—radio),
Long
John
Nebel
(New
York
City),
the
J.
P.
McCarthy
Show
in
Detroit,
all
four
TV
stations
in Pittsburgh,
and
others
in Raleigh,
Akron,
Detroit,
Baltimore,
Toronto,
Waco,
Phoenix,
Calgary,
Albuquerque,
etc.
Mr.
Friedman,
his
wife,
and
three
children
reside
at
702
Summerlea
Street in
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.
PREPARED STATEMENT
BY
STANTON
T.
FRIEDMAN
UFOs
AND
SCIENCE
I
am
grateful
to the
House
Committee on
Science
and
Astronautics
for
inviting
me
to present
my
views
on
Unidentified
Flying
Objects.'
These
viewpoints
shall
be
presented in
the
form
of
answers
to
specific
questions
with the
references, tables
and
figures
presented
at the
end
of the
article.
A
partial
list
of the
technical
organizations
to
which
I
have
presented
a
lecture.
entitled
"Flying Saucers are
Real"
is
given
in
Appendix
1.
Appendix
3
is
a
reprint
of
an
article
I
wrote.'
Ap-
pendix
2
is
a
list
of
patents
of saucer
-like
vehicles.
The
viewpoints
are
mine
and
mine
alone
and
are not to
be
construed
as
those
of
any
of
the
organizations to
which
I
belong
or
of
my
employer,
Westinghouse
Astronuclear Laboratory.
The
opinions
are based
upon
ten
years
of study of
UFOs
and
discussions
all
over the
U.S.
and
in
Canada
on
a
private
level
for
eight
years
and a
public
level
since
late
1966
both
in question
and answer
sessions
following
my
illustrated
talks
and
with newspaper,
radio,
and
television
reporters
with
whom
I
have
publicly
discussed this subject.1.
To
what
conclusions
have you
come
with
regard to
UFOs?
I
have
concluded that the earth
is
being
visited
by
intelligg
,
ntly controlled
vehicles
whose
origin is extraterrestrial.
This
doesn't
mean
I
know
where
they
come
from,
why
they
are
here,
or
how
they
operate.
2.
What
basis
do
you
have
for these conclusions?
Eyewitness
and
photographic
and
radar
reports
from
all
over the
earth
bycompetent
witnesses
of
definite
objects
whose
characteristics
such as
maneu-
verability,
high speed,
and
hovering,
along with
definite
shape,
texture,
and
sur-
face
features
rule
out
terrestrial
explanations
;
3.
Haven't
most
sightings
been
identified
as
conventional
phenomena?
Yes, of
course.
However,
it
is
only
the
unidentified
objects in
which
I
am
in-
terested
and
on
which
I
base
my
conclusions.
The
job
of
science is
to
sort
data
and
focus
on
that
which
is
relevant
to the search
at hand.
Fewer
than
1%
of
Americans have
hemophilia or are
7
feet
tall
or can run
a
mile
in
under
4
min-
utes—we
certainly don't dispute
the
reality
of
hemophilia,
Wilt Chamberlain, or
4
minute
miles.
4.
Are
there
any
good
unknowns?
Yes, there
are very
many
good
unknowns
which have
been
reported
and
inves-
tigated
and
undoubtedly very
many
more
which have
not been reported because
of the "laughter
curtain".
In
the
most
comprehensive
detailed
scientific
investiga-
tion
ever conducted
on
this subject,
and
reported in
Reference
3,
it
was
foundthat
434
out of 2199
sightings
evaluated
had
to
be
classified
as
Unknowns.
This
is
19.7%
or
a
far higher percentage
than most
people
have
associated
with
UFOs.
The
complete
breakdown
is
shown
in
Table
1.
Table
2
shows
the
breakdown
ofsightings
by
quality.
Fully
one
third
of the
9.7%
of the
sightings labelled
as
Excellent
were
identified
as Unknowns:
one
fourth of the
Oood
sightings
were
labelled
Unknown.
All
it
would take to prove the
reality
of
extraterrestrial
vehicles is
one good
sighting
not hundreds.
Footnotes at the end of
article.

Cases discussed

About this file

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.