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…
85
28. Flying, June 1951, p. 23.
29. Davidson, L., 1966: Flying Saucers: An Analysis of the Air Force Project
Bluebook Special Report No. 14, Ramsey, New Jersey, Ramsey-Wallace Corp.
30. American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1967: Problems of Journalism,
Proceedings of the 1967 Convention of the ASNE, April 20-22, 1967, Washington,
D.C., 296 pp.
31. Keyhoe, D. E., 1950: Flight 117 and the Flying Saucer, True Magazine,
August 1950, p. 24.
32. Salt Lake Tribune, Tuesday, October 3,1961, p. 1.
33. UFO Investigator, Vol. 3, No. 11, Jan.-Feb. 1967.
34. LANS, 1960: Report on an Unidentified Flying Object Over Hollywood,
California, Feb. 5, 1960 and Feb. 6, 1960, Los Angeles NICAP Subcommittee, 21
pp., mimeo.
35. UFO Investigator, Vol. 1, No.12, April 1961.
36. McDonald, J. E., 1968: UFOs—An International Scientific Problem, paper
presented at a Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Canadian Aeronautics
and Space Institute, Montreal, Canada, March 12, 1968.
37. Darrach, H. B., Jr., and Robert Ginna, 1952: "Have We Visitors from
Space?",Life Magazine, April 7, p. 80 ff.
38. Zigel, F., 1968: "Unidentified Flying Objects," Soviet Life, February, 1968,
No.2(137),pp. 27-29.
39. Klass, Philip J., 1968: UFOs—Identified, New York, Random House, 290
40. International News Service, datelined Sept. 12, 1951, Dover, Del.
41. New York Times, June 2, 1954; New York World Telegram, June 1, 1954;
New York Post, June 1, 1954; New York Daily News, June 2, 1954.
42. Official file on October 15, 1948 Fukuoka case, Project Bluebook.
43. Melbourne (Australia) Sun, December 16, 1954; Melbourne Herald, De-
cember 16, 1954; Auckland Star, December 16, 1954.
44. Los Angeles Times, May 9, 1957; New York Journal-American, May 10,
1957.
45. APRO Bulletin, May-June,1965, p. 1-4.
Our next participant is Dr.Carl Sagan.
Dr. Sagan is associate professor of astronomy in the Department
of Astronomy and Center for Radiophysics and Space Research in
Cornell University, having just recently left Harvard University. He
has written over 100 scientific papers, and several articles for Encyclo-
pedia Britannica, Americana. He is coauthor of several books. Dr.
Sagan, we are delighted you are participating with us in this sympo-
sium this morning and you may proceed.
(The biography of Dr. Sagan follows:)
DR. CARL SAGAN
Dr. Carl Sagan is Associate Professor of Astronomy in the Center for Radio-
physics and Space Research at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. He received
his A.B. and B.S., an M.S. in Physics and his Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astro-
physics, all from the University of Chicago. Since then he has held positions
at the University of California, Berkeley; at Stanford University Medical
School(as Assistant Professor of Genetics) ; and at Harvard University and the
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Dr. Sagan's major research interests
are on the physics and chemistry of planetary atmospheres and surfaces, the
origin of life on earth, and exobiology. He has played a leading role in establish-
ing, for example, that the surface of Venus is very hot and that major eleva-
tion differences exist on Mars, and has been a principal exponent of the view that
organic molecules are to be found on Jupiter. Dr. Sagan has served on many
advisory groups to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and to
the National Academy of Sciences, as well as such international organizations
as COSPAR and the International Astronomical Union. He was a member of
the Committee to review Project Blue Book for the Air Force Scientific Ad-
visory Board. A winner of the Smith Prize at Harvard in 1964 and Condon
Lecturer in the State of Oregon in 1968, Dr. Sagan is shortly to assume additional
duties as Editor of the planetary sciences journal, ICARUS. He has been active
in educational innovations, regularly teaches in the South, and is a lecturer

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.