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This National Archives research guide on Unidentified Flying Objects was written by Dr David Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University in March 2008 and revised in 2010 and 2011. It traces British official interest in UFOs from the phantom airships of 1909 and 1913, through the 1950 Flying Saucer Working Party, to Air Ministry and MoD investigations. It also points readers to key record series, including Freedom of Information releases and the Rendlesham Forest files. The guide notes that most reports had ordinary explanations.
UFO report files contain a mixture of letters from members of the public and reports from official sources such as the police, coastguard and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Many reports take the form of military signals received by MoD via a variety of RAF and RN stations. The most frequent method of reporting a UFO sighting was via a standard proforma, originally based on a USAF questionnaire. An early draft of this report format can be found at DEFE 31/118. A version of this questionnaire is still used today by the Ministry of Defence. The proforma contains 16 questions, a-q: • (a) Date, time and duration of sighting • (b) Description of object • (c) Exact position observer • (d) How observed • (e) Direction in which object was first seen • (f) Angle of sight • (g) Distance • (h) Movements • (j) Meteorological conditions during observations • (k) Nearby objects • (l) To whom reported (police, military organisations, the press etc) • (m) Name and address of informant • (n) Any background on the informant that may be volunteered • (o) Other witnesses • (p) Date and time of receipt of report • (q) Is a reply requested? (Note item q was deleted from 1973). From 1966-67 UFO reports and correspondence between members of the public and MoD were preserved in two separate sequences of files. Five separate file series held at 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. 9
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