UFO research guide, August 2011

5
Meteor jet, rotated on its own axis and then accelerated away at a speed ‘in excess of a
shooting star’ (AIR 16/1199).
According to Capt Edward Ruppelt, of Project Blue Book, it was the Topcliffe sighting
that ‘caused the RAF to officially recognise the UFO.’ Soon afterwards the Air Ministry
decided to monitor UFO reports on a permanent basis. Responsibility was delegated by
the Chief of Air Staff to a branch within the Deputy Directorate of Intelligence (DDI
(Tech) known as AI3 (DEFE 31/118). In December 1953 HQ Fighter Command issued
orders to all RAF stations that in future reports of 'aerial phenomena' should be reported
directly to DDI (Tech), Air Ministry, for further investigation. The order said it was
important that details of sightings made by RAF personnel and from radar stations
should be carefully examined and its release 'controlled officially.' The Air Ministry letter
stated that 'all reports are to be classified 'Restricted' and personnel are warned not to
communicate to anyone other than official persons any information about phenomena
they have observed, unless officially authorised to do so' (AIR 20/9994).
From 1953 reports from all sources were sent to DDI (Tech) for 'examination, analysis
and classification'. Advice on likely explanations was obtained from Fighter Command,
the Meteorological Office and the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Each year a special
report ‘summarising all UFO sightings by types’ was submitted to the Air Staff (DEFE
31/118). None of these summaries have survived before 1956. However, an analysis of
80 reports up to 1954 formed the basis of an article published in Vol 10, No 3 of the Air
Ministry Secret Intelligence Summary (AMSIS) during March 1955 (DEFE 31/118 and
AIR 40/2769). This summary, based upon a longer report now lost, was classified
'Secret - UK Eyes Only.'
The existence of this summary study came to light in May 1955 when the Conservative
MP Major Patrick Wall asked the Secretary of State for Air, in a Parliamentary Question,
if he would publish the 'report on flying saucers recently completed by the Air Ministry.’ In
reply the Air Minister George Ward said: ‘reports of "flying saucers" as well as any other
abnormal objects in the sky, are investigated as they come in, but there has been no
formal inquiry. About 90 percent of the reports have been found to relate to meteors,
balloons, flares and many other objects. The fact that the other 10 percent are
unexplained need be attributed to nothing more sinister than ‘lack of data' (AIR 2/16918).
The outstanding 10 percent of 'unexplained' sightings remained UFOs (or, as the Air
Ministry preferred, 'insufficient information'). This explains the policy decision to continue
collecting reports. The reasons given in the AMSIS article were that 'there is always the
chance of observing foreign aircraft of revolutionary design.' This factor remained a
concern for intelligence agencies until the end of the Cold War. The Air Ministry was
careful to qualify this interest with this caveat: '...as for controlled manifestations from
outer space, there is no tangible evidence of their existence' (AIR 40/2769).
The Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) initiated inquiries into ‘aerial phenomena’ on two
occasions during the late 1950s. Following press reports of UFOs tracked by radars at
RAF West Freugh, Scotland, in April 1957 the Air Ministry informed the JIC it was
unable to explain four recent incidents (CAB 157/27). Aerial phenomena were again the
subject of JIC discussion in March 1959 following a sighting made at London airport
(CAB 159/31). Additional copies of these minutes and a background briefing prepared by
the Air Ministry and published in the Red Book, can be seen in DEFE 24/2013/1.