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.
“Spencer”2 pages
219 pearance cannot be predicted and they cannot be reproduced in the lab or in the field but they have been observed. 29. Are there any other references of interest to scientists? Yes, References 56-62.30. Haven't you biased your comments by not discussing at any length the work of Marcowitz, Menzel, and Klass? The paper by Marcowitz (Ref. 12) and the books by Menzel" and Klass will undoubtedly be read by scientists of the 21st century as "classics" illustrating a non-scientific approach to UFOs by people who, for whatever reason, would not examine the data relevant to UFOs or advanced technology. Marcowitz was totally wrong about fission and fusion propulsion systems, didn't even consider electromagnetic propulsion, and was obviously unaware of current technology and the data such as I mentioned earlier about UFOs. McDonald has discussed Menzels approach in detail, but let me also point out that in Ref. 64, fewer than 30 sightings ever listed as "unknowns" were discussed and no mention was made of the 434 "Unknowns" of Ref. 3 or even the 71 Excellent Unknowns of this study. I agree with Klass on only one item, many people have observed glowing plasmas; but I believe they were adjacent to vehicles rather than ball lightning or corona discharge. He didn't even consider this possibility despite all his talk about plasmas and despite the enormous amount of plasma -vehicle data which is available. In summary, I feel that these three gentlemen have made strong attempts to make the data fit their hypotheses rather than trying to do the much more difficult job of creating hypotheses which fit the data. FOOTNOTES 1 Letter, the Honorable Edward Rousch, to S. T. Friedman, July 1968. 2 Friedman, S. T., "Flying Saucers Are Real," Astronautics and Aeronautics, February1968, p. 16. 3 Davidson, L., "Flying Saucers An Analysis of Project Blue Book 'Special Report No. 14," • 4 Ruppelt, E. J., ""The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects," Doubleday, $5.95, 1956; Ace, $0.50. 8 Hynek, J. A. Saturday Evening Post, December 17, 1966. 6 Olsen, T., "The Reference for Outstanding UFO Reports," 1966; $5.95. 7 Hall, R., "The UFO Evidence," 1964, NICAP ; $5. 8 Vallee, J. "Anatomy of a Phenomenon," 1965; Regnery, $4.95; Ace, $0.60. Lorenzen,' C. and J., "UFO's Over the Americas," 1968; Signet, $0.75. u. Letter, Robin B. Sanborn (former chief, Film Evaluation 'Section, Smithsonian Astro-physical Observatory) to Los Angeles Subcommittee, National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, dated July 5, 1966. Baker, R. M. L., Jr., "Future Experiments onAnomalistic Observational Phenomena," Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Vol. XV, No. 1, January 1968. 11 : 44-45. 12 Markowitz, "The Physics and Metaphysics of Unidentified Flying Objects," Science, 157, pp. 1274-1279 (1967). 13 "A Fresh Look at Flying Saucers," Time Magazine, August 4, 1967. 14 Spencer, D. F. and Jaffe, L. D., "Feasibility of Interstellar Travel," Acta Astronautics,Vol. IX Fasc. 2, 50-58, 1963. 15 Spence, R. W., "The Rover Nuclear Rocket Program," Science, 160: 3831, May 31, 1968, pp. 953-959. 16 Schroeder, R. W., "NERVA—Entering a New Phase," Astronautics and Aeronautics 6: 5, May 1968, pp. 42-53. 17 Luce, J. S., "Controlled Fusion Propulsion," Proceedings of 3rd Symposium on Ad- vanced Propulsion Concepts, Vol. 1, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, New York, 1963, pp. 343-380. 18 Salisbury, F. B., "The Possibilities of Life on Mars," Proceedings Conference on the Exploration of Mars and Venus, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, August 1965. 10 Kilsbon, S. N.; Drummond, R. R.; Sagan, C., "A Search for Life on Earth at KilometerResolution," Icarus, Vol. 5, January 1966, pp. 79-98. 28 Vallee, J., "The Pattern of UFO Landings," Flying Saucer Review, Special Issue, "Hu- manoids—A 'Surveyof Worldwide Reports of Landings of Unconventional Aerial Objects and Their Alleged Occupants," October—November 1966; $2. Si Hynek, J. A., "UFO's Merit Scientific Study," Science, October 21, 1966, and Astro- nautic8 d Aeronautics, December 1966, p. 4. =Powers, W., "UFO in 1800: Meteor ?" Science, 160, June 14. 1968, p. 1260. 22 Rosa, R. J., Powers, W. T., Vallee, J., Gibbs, T. R. P., 1 Steffey, P. C., Garcia, R. A., and Cohen, G., Science, Vol. 158, No. 3806, pp. 1265-1266 (1967). 24 page, T., "Photographic Sky Coverage for the Detection of UFO's," Science, 160, June 14, 1968. p. 1258. 22 "UFO Project : Trouble on the Ground." Science, 161, July 26. 1968, pp. 339-342. 21 Baker, R. M., Jr., "Observational Evidence of Anomalistic Phenomena," J. Astronaut. August 1967. 27 Baker, R. M., Jr., "Obeservational Evidence of Anomalistic Phenomena," J. Astronaut. Sci., XV, No. 1, January—February 1968. 28 Morse, R. F., "UFO's and the Technological Community," American Engineer, 38: 5, May 1968, pp. 24-28. 22 Fowler, R. E., "Engineer Involvement in UFO Investigations," American Engineer, 38: 5. May 1968, pp. 29-31. 30 Moller, P. S., "Engineering Professor Teaches UFO Course at the University of Cali- fornia," American Engineer, May 1968, pp. 32-34. 81 "UFO Study Credibility Cloud?" Industrial Research, June 1968.
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.