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This research guide from The National Archives was written by Dr David Clarke in March 2008 and revised in August 2008. It traces British government interest in UFOs from the phantom airships of 1909 through the 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, Air Ministry and MoD investigations, and the 1979 House of Lords debate. It notes that official bodies found most sightings had ordinary explanations. It also lists key National Archives file references, including papers on the Rendlesham Forest incident.
9 The National Archives contain papers relating to UFO sightings and UFO correspondence from 1962 in chronological order: AIR 2/16918 features numerous sighting reports and correspondence from members of the public to the Air Ministry secretariat S6, between 1961 and 1963. On the reorganization of MoD in 1964 a new Secretariat, S4 (Air), took over responsibility for UFO matters. UFO reports and correspondence from 1967 can be found in AIR 2/18115 and AIR 2/18116, 1967-68 in AIR 2/18117, and 1968-69 in AIR 2/18183. AIR 2/18871 contains reports and newspaper cuttings from 1972, while AIR 2/18872 consists of a collection of UFO reports and correspondence 1972-1973; AIR 2/18873, 1973-1974; and AIR 2/18874 likewise for 1974-1975. A series of files containing UFO reports runs from February 1974 until December 1976 and begins in AIR 2/18950. AIR 2/19126 contains a statistical analysis of UFO reports made to MoD between 1967 and 1973. AIR 20 files include a number of Air Ministry UFO papers that escaped destruction before 1967. AIR 20/7390 contains reports of unidentified objects/aircraft made to Air Ministry between 1950 and 1954. AIR 20/9320, AIR 20/9321 and AIR 20/9322 contain Parliamentary Questions and briefings on UFOs reported in 1957, including reports of phenomena tracked by radar. AIR 20/9994 also contains papers from RAF radar stations concerning „reports of aerial phenomena‟ during 1957. A further series containing UFO sighting reports made to S4 (Air), filed in monthly folders covering the period August 1967 through to December 1973, begins in AIR 20/11887 and end in AIR 20/12555. A third series of files, in DEFE 24, contains the majority of the surviving reports and public correspondence from 1977 onwards. DEFE 24/1206 covers 1977 and DEFE 24/1207, 1977-78. These files contain papers from a number of MoD secretariats. S4 (Air) was replaced by DS8 (Defence Secretariat 8) in 1979. In turn DS8‟s UFO responsibility passed to Secretariat (Air Staff) 2 or Sec (AS) in 1985. DEFE 24 also contains a series of „edited copies‟ of UFO reports received by MoD, covering the years 1975-1980. These are duplicates of the main reports series, prepared at a time when the MoD first considered the release of UFO material to the public. The identities and home addresses of observers have been deleted from the edited reports. A MoD proposal to make selected reports available on request to members of the public was reversed in 1984 by defence minister John Stanley on the grounds of cost (DEFE 24/1517). A total of 17 DS8 and Sec (AS) files were opened under the Freedom of Information Act during 2008. DEFE 24/1925/1 contains public correspondence 1985-86. DEFE 24/1929/1, DEFE 24/1930/1, DEFE 24/1931/1, DEFE 24/1941/1, DEFE 24/1941/1, DEFE 24/1942/1 DEFE 24/1949/1 DEFE 24/955/1 DEFE 24/1956/1 and DEFE 24/1957/1 contain correspondence 1986-1992 and can all be accessed through nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos. DS8 and Sec(AS) UFO reports files opened during 2008 include DEFE 24/1922/1, DEFE 24/1923/1, DEFE 24/1924/1 (1984-85), DEFE 24/1926/1-1928/1 (1986-88), (1988-89), DEFE 24/1939/1 – 40/1 (1989-1990), DEFE 24/1953/1 – 54/1 (1991-92). DEFE 24/1938/1, opened in March 2009, contains details of sightings reported between August and December 1989. Files opened in August 2009 include DEFE 24/1970/1 (Parliamentary Questions and Enquiries on UFOs 1985-1995); DEFE 24/2086/1 (UFO incidents 30/31 March 1993)
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