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Official reports, hearing transcripts, case files and releases: the paper behind the cases. 2,872 documents, 2,610 mirrored with their text, 53,529 pages indexed, so a search reads inside them and lands on the page.
New in the library The PURSUE files The Department of War's UAP release, mirrored in full: the videos, recordings and images, each beside its case file.Documents1,049 records · page 4
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 5 February 1955, is addressed from the Contact Division to the Chief of the Chicago Office under the subject "Radio Code Recording." It says a requesting office wants the recording of a radio program in which an unidentified code was heard. It asks the Chicago office to obtain the recording, or to borrow it if the owners will not release it permanently. The memo also asks that the recording be returned afterward.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 25 February 1955 and signed by R. Norriek, Deputy Chief, went from the Support Staff to the Chief of the Contact Division. It says a source has a wire recording of an unidentified electrical transduction of unknown origin. It asks the Office of Operations to try to get the recording so the Office can investigate it. The recording was to be sent through Support Staff/SI to the Physics and Electronics Division/SI.
This is a Central Intelligence Agency memorandum on the subject "Radio Recording," dated 3 March 1955. It is addressed to the Contact Division's Scientific Branch and copied to the Chief, Support Staff and the Chief, Physics and Electronics Division. It answers a 17 March 1955 enclosure about a case. The memo reports that the enclosed tape recording was analyzed and positively identified as a known signal of U.S. origin. It thanks the source for their cooperation in obtaining the recording.
This Central Intelligence Agency memo, dated 4 March 1955, is addressed to the Chief of the Chicago Office. It says that a CIA component is interested in obtaining the wire recording of a radio program in which an unidentified code was heard. The memo asks the office to arrange a loan of the recording if the owners will not release it permanently, and to return it to headquarters.
This Central Intelligence Agency memo, dated 17 March 1955 and approved for release on 24 March 1978, answers a request of 25 February 1955. It reports that the office obtained a tape copy of a wire recording said to contain a message from outer space. The owners would not give up the original recording but were pleased by the government's interest. The memo adds that Chicago radio operators also claim to have recorded such messages, and it asks for the recipient's conclusions.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 6 April 1955 and titled Radio Recording, was sent to the Contact Division's Scientific Branch. It answers a memorandum of 17 March 1955 about Case 119. The memo reports that the tape recording enclosed with that memorandum was analysed and positively identified as a known signal of U.S. origin. It closes by thanking the recipients for their cooperation in securing the recording.
This 1955 CIA memorandum from the Chief of the Physics and Electronics Division, Scientific Intelligence, to the Acting Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence forwards a preliminary cable from Pepperrell Air Force Base, Newfoundland. The cable describes an object seen at the same time by the pilot of a KC-97 tanker and by a ground radar site. The memo calls the report unusual for two reasons. The pilot's radioed direction changes matched the radar scope exactly, and radar tracked the object for 49 minutes. The memo adds that a fuller AF Form 112 report was expected.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated August 8, 1955, is from Todos M. Odarenko, Chief of the Physics and Electronics Division in the Office of Scientific Intelligence, to the Acting Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It explains that the division had kept an inactive UFO project since 1953. The work took 10 to 25 analyst hours a month, and the project produced no intelligence of concern to national security. Odarenko recommends ending the project and placing its files in dead storage.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, distributed 9 August 1955, relays unevaluated observations of flying objects near Shakhty in the Rostov Oblast, USSR. It says prisoners of war at the Ayuta camp saw three silent, reddish, fiery objects cross the sky at intervals one evening in August 1953 before they disappeared toward the Ayuta mines. Field comments note that earlier Shakhty reports described loud engine noise and suggest the objects were propelled by a ramjet or rocket engine.
This is a Central Intelligence Agency memorandum dated 12 July 1955. It was written by the Chief of the Physics and Electronics Division, Office of Scientific Intelligence, to the Acting Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It forwards a preliminary cable from Pepperrell Air Force Base, Newfoundland, about an object seen visually by a KC-97 tanker pilot and tracked at the same time by ground radar. The memo calls the case unusual because radar observed the object for 49 minutes and the pilot's reported direction changes matched the radar scope exactly.
This Central Intelligence Agency office memorandum, dated 8 August 1955, is from the Chief of the Physics and Electronics Division to the Acting Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It reviews the division's 1953 assignment to keep current knowledge of unidentified flying object sightings, which took 10 to 25 analyst hours per month. It states that no intelligence of concern to national security was developed. It recommends terminating the project and placing its files in dead storage.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, dated 9 August 1955, describes three flying objects seen one August 1953 evening over a camp about 10 km southwest of Shakhty in the USSR. The objects moved from southeast to northwest without sound, glowing reddish like a comet or shooting star. Observers believed they were rockets. Field comments note that earlier Shakhty reports described loud noises and suggest the objects were propelled by a ramjet or rocket engine.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, prepared for the Director of Central Intelligence and signed by the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, is dated 1955. It summarizes debriefings of four members of an official party who saw objects while travelling by train at night. They reported a greenish-yellow glowing object that rose rapidly while rotating and then levelled into horizontal flight, along with a triangular object with lights. The memo concludes that most observations can probably be explained as climbing aircraft or missiles and that the evidence does not warrant concluding a radically new aircraft is in operation.
This is a letter from CIA Director Allen W. Dulles to Representative Gordon H. Scherer, dated September 1955. It replies to Scherer's letter of 15 September 1955, which enclosed a letter from Thomas H. Eickhoff about possible mail fraud connected with George Adamski's book Inside The Space Ships. Dulles says the questions are largely outside CIA's jurisdiction, because the agency has no law-enforcement powers. He adds that CIA does not comment on the book or its pictures, and he suggests Scherer refer the questions to the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for information, dated 3 September 1955 and signed by the Chief of the Applied Science Division, SI, assesses a reported sighting of two unconventional aircraft. It compares the objects to Project "Y", a 30 ft circular wing that Avro Aircraft Ltd. in Canada is developing under US Air Force contract, directed by John Frost. The memo suggests the Soviets may have such craft in service, but says more details of the sighting are needed before it can be evaluated properly.
This CIA Scientific Intelligence memorandum, signed by a Cooper, is a poorly legible review of a dispatch dated 23 October 1955 reporting two flying saucer or disc-like aircraft. An interviewed witness saw only lights that rose vertically and passed overhead silently, and the memo judges his account insufficient to confirm anything unconventional, urging interrogation of the others. It recalls that the Robertson group found earlier U.S. sightings posed no security threat and notes a Project Y at a firm developing a high-performance vertical take-off aircraft.
This memorandum to the Director of Central Intelligence, dated 4 September 1955 and signed by Herbert Scoville, Jr., Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, reports on a "Flying Saucer" event. After three of the four observers were interviewed, nothing confirmed that unconventional aircraft existed, and the objects were more likely normal jets or aircraft with a high rate of climb. The memo recommends that the observer who sent the original dispatch be interviewed alone rather than in a joint interview with colleagues.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for the record, dated 1955, is signed by the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It records an interview about a sighting made from a train on 27 October, when a party saw two greenish-yellow balls rising rapidly and a searchlight nearby. The memo does not support the theory of saucer-like or unconventional aircraft. It suggests the objects were probably jet exhausts in a steep climb, though they could have been aircraft of the short or near-vertical take-off type.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for the record, dated 4 September 1955, reports an interview with a traveler whose name is withheld. While riding a train with three others after dark, he saw two greenish yellow round lights climb steeply one after the other, with no trail, smoke or audible noise. A searchlight nearby did not track them. His companions said they saw lights and details on the objects. He added that if the objects were jet aircraft, they climbed surprisingly fast.
This CIA memorandum dated 6 September 1955 records a traveler's account of an unusual flying object seen from a train at about 7:10 PM, while four members of a party rode in a sleeping car. The witnesses saw a reddish glow like a searchlight on the horizon, then an object with two white lights like eyes that rose vertically and passed over the train silently in about five seconds. The file also includes interrogation notes and interviews describing a rotating, balloon-like shape, and it records that a porter pulled the shades soon afterward.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, numbered OO-2-321/15354-66, relays an airline pilot's account of a sighting on 17 June 1966 near the Rudeshur beacon, about 25 miles WSW of Mehrabad Airport, Tehran. Flying at about 18,000 feet, the pilot and the crew of another airliner watched a brilliant white sphere grow in size and fade over four to five minutes. The sphere appeared to lie deep within the Soviet Union. The pilot could not explain it and suggested gases from a man-made explosion lit by the sun.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, approved for release on 24 June 1978, describes a fiery ball seen at about 2000 hours on 12 or 13 September 1953. It flew from north-northeast to south-southwest, about 5 km west of the coast, at a constant altitude of 1,000 to 1,500 meters. The object was yellowish red in front and dark red toward the rear, left no smoke trail and made no sound. The report says the sighting confirms earlier unidentified flying object observations in the Rostov area.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, dated October 1955, relays observations of a flying object in the USSR. On three evenings in July and August 1954, observers about 30 km west of Saransk saw a white, drop-shaped luminous object brighter than a shooting star. It crossed about 60 degrees of sky in roughly a second, and other people saw the same thing on other days. The evaluator's comment says the type of object cannot be inferred from such scanty statements.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated October 1955 and approved for release in 2010, records a sighting of an unusual flying object from a train. A traveler on a sleeping car describes how a companion saw a flying saucer, and how he then saw a glowing searchlight on the horizon and an object with two white lights rising vertically and passing over the train in silence. The file also contains interrogation notes and interview notes on the same sighting from other witnesses, with names redacted.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, dated October 1955, gives a traveler's account of a sighting made from a slow train on 4 October 1955. The source says the party watched a triangular object about the size of a jet fighter, with a light at each point and lit by a searchlight, launched from an airfield about two miles away. It made several fast spirals and then climbed steeply to high altitude. The source says a steward pulled down the blinds while they watched. Place names are redacted.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, signed by the Senior Director of Scientific Intelligence and dated 13 October 1955 in the archive record, is about a reported sighting of flying saucers or unconventional aircraft. A delegation member who was among four observers saw lights that rose vertically and passed overhead, and the memo judges that his account cannot be relied on. It also recalls that a group led by Mr. Robertson explained most U.S. sightings and found no threat. It notes Project Y, an unconventional aircraft being developed under John Frost.
This Current Intelligence Bulletin was issued by the Central Intelligence Agency on 15 October 1955 and released in 2019. Its first item passes on a US Air Force cable. The cable says Senator Richard Russell, Lt. Col. E. U. Hathaway and Ruben Efron, travelling by train in the Transcaucasus on 4 October 1955, saw two circular flying discs take off almost vertically near Alyat Station, with searchlights nearby. The bulletin's other items cover Morocco, Yugoslav and Soviet relations and a planned Peronista strike.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for information, dated 19 October 1955 and signed by W. E. Lexon, Chief of the Applied Science Division, discusses a reported sighting of two unconventional aircraft. It says the objects resemble Project "Y", a circular-wing craft that Avro Aircraft Ltd., Canada, is researching under US Air Force contract and that John Frost directs. It suggests the Soviets may have similar craft in service. It concludes that more details are needed and that technically competent persons will question the witnesses.
This Central Intelligence Agency interview record, dated 20 October 1955, recounts a sighting by a traveler whose name is redacted. While riding a train after dark with three companions, he saw two round greenish yellow lights climb steeply and rapidly without noise, smoke or trail. His companions said they saw lights and details on the objects and that the objects passed over the train. The memo notes a nearby searchlight that did not track them and is signed off through Herbert Scoville, Assistant Director, Scientific Intelligence.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum to the Director of Central Intelligence, dated 27 October 1955 and signed by Herbert Scoville, Jr., Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, reports on interviews with three of the four observers in a "Flying Saucer" event. It finds nothing confirming unconventional aircraft and suggests the objects were probably normal jets or aircraft with a high rate of climb. It recommends interviewing separately the person who sent the original dispatch.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 27 October 1955 and signed by Herbert Scoville, Jr., Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, records an interview with a person who reported seeing unconventional or saucer-like aircraft from a train. The observer saw two greenish-yellow fiery balls rising rapidly, with a searchlight nearby. The memo concludes that the testimony does not support the saucer theory. It suggests the objects were probably exhausts of jet aircraft in a steep climb, or possibly short or vertical take-off aircraft.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, dated 27 October 1955, describes a sighting near Leningrad. On a night in July, a traveler going by train from Leningrad to Moscow saw a bright light in the sky trailing a long tail. The source says it was much too bright to be a plane and was under two thousand feet above the ground. When asked, the guide joked that it was probably a flying saucer. An editorial comment notes that another source reported the same incident.
This is a 31 October 1955 memorandum from the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of Scientific Intelligence, signed by an Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It reports on debriefings of four observers who saw objects from a train at night. They described a luminous object rising rapidly and rotating, with lights like eyes, which then turned sharply into horizontal flight. The memo concludes that the evidence is not firm enough to show that a radically new type of aircraft had been developed and put into operation.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, dated 8 November 1955, gives firsthand accounts of a flying object seen from a train at dusk on 4 October 1955. Four members of a travelling party saw it, and the report quotes two of them. They describe a dark object with a white light on top and a glow circling its edge. It rose vertically, stopped spinning, then crossed over the train faster than a jet. A collector's comment notes an error in the reported departure times.
This is a CIA memorandum dated 10 November 1955 from the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, about reports of guided missiles or flying objects in Afghanistan. The memo says the office cannot determine what the observed object was or how it was used, and it asks for further details and any debris. It notes that an attached army report closely resembles a United Press article, also attached, about a disc-like craft that local residents saw near a Soviet base.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for the record is dated 1956 and was signed by Herbert Scoville, Jr., Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It rescinds a 14 June 1954 memorandum on office responsibilities for non-conventional types of air vehicles. From then on, ASD would monitor all available information on the subject and keep the Office of Scientific Intelligence files on it. Other OSI divisions were to give ASD technical consulting help, send it their files and stop their own filing on the subject.
This undated Central Intelligence Agency fragment, catalogued as 1956, is a poorly transcribed note about the national security side of UFO reports. The author says one part of the issue is outside the writer's own office but still matters to the CIA because it affects national security. It warns that a mass wave of UFO reports could cause mass hysteria, overload radar systems and overload communication facilities.
This undated Central Intelligence Agency note, catalogued as 1956, survives as a poorly OCR'd handwritten or typed fragment. It says that one aspect of the UFO situation is of CIA interest because it bears on national security. The note warns that mass UFO reports, if they occurred, could cause mass hysteria, overload the radar system, and overload communication facilities. The fragment has no other content, conclusions, or named incidents.
This Central Intelligence Agency document, dated 1956-01-02, is the Durant report of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects. Its extracted text is badly garbled. The report records the Panel's view that most reviewed sightings had reasonable explanations and that the objects showed no evidence of a direct threat to national security. It discusses the Tremonton and Great Falls films and World War II foo fighters. It also recommends an educational and training program and warns that heavy volumes of reports could clog military reporting channels.
This Central Intelligence Agency release pairs a January 1956 transmittal memo from the Liaison Division to the Chief of the Applied Science Division with a summary and tabulation of an unconventional flying object sighted in the USSR on 4 October 1955. Members of a party travelling by train from Baku to Tiflis made the sighting. The chart sets their accounts side by side, covering shape, size, lights, motion and searchlights. It concludes that darkness and the short duration kept the observers from describing the object properly.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, sent by the Chief of the Liaison Division of Central Reference to the Director of Intelligence, Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, forwards a tabulation of statements by each member of a party. The party saw an unidentified flying object on 4 October 1955 while riding the train from Baku to Tiflis. The Office of Scientific Intelligence prepared the tabulation, but the enclosure is not attached. Two copies of the memo appear, dated February 1956.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for the record, dated 4 January 1956, covers responsibility within the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) for "Unidentified Flying Objects." The Division states that it has taken over responsibility for non-conventional types of air vehicles. It sets out how reports will be filed, forwarded to the Fundamental Sciences Area, or destroyed, and cites ATIC's Project Blue Book Special Report 11 as showing that such reports cannot be usefully analyzed. It also recommends destroying the old UFO files held by the Electronics Division.
This Central Intelligence Agency document, dated 5 January 1956 and titled Report of Unidentified Flying Objects, reproduces excerpts from a letter received from a Belgian correspondent in early November 1955. The writer asks for prices and delivery information on a small 60x telescope made for sportsmen. They say Americans will not reveal what flying saucers really are, and they want the telescopes for their own observation group. The letter adds that the objects are being seen more and more over Belgium. The OCR text is badly garbled.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report on Belgium, report no. 10-A 50566, has the subject line "Report of Unidentified Flying Bombs". It quotes a letter sent to a telescope maker by a correspondent in Kivu, Belgian Congo. The writer asked about price and delivery for a compact telescope for an observation group they were forming. The letter says UFOs were being seen more and more over the country, and it asks for near armor-plated packing so the instrument would arrive intact.
This CIA memorandum for the record, dated 9 January 1956, was signed by Herbert Scoville, Jr., Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It covers office responsibilities for non-conventional types of air vehicles and rescinds an earlier memorandum of 14 June 1954. From now on ASD will conduct all surveillance of available information on the subject and maintain the OSI files. Other OSI divisions are to provide technical consultation, forward their files to ASD, and stop their own filing on the subject.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum dated 24 January 1956 forwards a summary and tabulation of statements about an unconventional flying object sighted near Baku, USSR, on 4 October 1955. Members of a party traveling by train toward Tiflis reported the object, and their accounts are compared in a chart. The chart covers shape, size, lights, motion and searchlights. The memo concludes that darkness and the brief duration of the sighting kept observers from seeing enough detail to describe the object properly.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum from Robert Amory, Jr., Deputy Director/Intelligence, to the Assistant Director/Scientific Intelligence concerns flying saucers. It notes a 17 March 1956 article in the French magazine Match about a radar photograph of a mysterious celestial object, confirmed visually by a scheduled airline pilot. Amory asks whether CIA keeps in touch with the Air Force center on such reports, including foreign sightings, and says the Office of Scientific Intelligence should follow the subject, if only to refute spectacular published reports.
This Central Intelligence Agency transmittal, issued by the Chief of the Liaison Division, Central Reference, dated 8 February 1956, was addressed to the Director of Intelligence at U.S. Air Force headquarters. It forwards one copy of a tabulation of statements made by each member of a party about an unidentified flying object they saw on 4 October 1955 while on the train from Baku to Tiflis. The Office of Scientific Intelligence prepared the tabulation.
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for the record, dated 9 February 1956, explains how a division within the Office of Scientific Intelligence will handle its newly assumed responsibility for unidentified flying objects. Raw reports bearing on foreign weapons or fundamental science are to be filed or forwarded, and all others destroyed. The memo cites Project Blue Book Special Report 11 in saying such reports cannot be usefully analyzed. It also recommends destroying the raw and obsolete UFO reports held in the Electronic Division.
This Central Intelligence Agency information report, dated 1956 and distributed in April 1956, concerns Hungary and passes on a November 1955 letter a source received from a niece. The letter said so-called flying saucers or rockets had kept people nervous for several weeks and kept scientific groups busy, with speeds estimated at 12 thousand km per hour. A sketch of the objects' formation and suspected course was included. The source noted it was the niece's first mention of such objects.