The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects is a 1956 book by then-retired Air Force UFO investigator Edward J. Ruppelt, detailing his experience running Project Bluebook. The book was noted for its suggestion that a few UFO sightings might be linked to spikes of atomic radiation. Contemporary media summarized four topics discussed in the book: There is "no real proof" that flying saucers exist—no reliable photographs, no "hardware". While the Air Force is officially dismissive of the spaceship theory, that conclusion is "far from unanimous". Some staff within the Air Force had produced a UFO analysis, called the "Estimate of the Situation", concluding that some UFOs were interplanetary spaceships. That analysis was rejected by a panel of scientists meeting in January 1953. Technological explanations were not considered: "No one at the meeting gave a second thought to the possibility that the UFOs might be super-secret US aircraft or a Soviet Development". In 1960, Ruppelt authored a second edition in which he reported being "positive" that UFOs do not exist. Contents Ruppelt was a captain in the US Air Force who served as director of official investigations into UFOs: Project Grudge and Project Bluebook. During his time as director, Ruppelt had coined the term UFO. In the foreword, Ruppelt argues: "It is well known that ever since the first flying saucer was reported in June 1947 the Air Force has officially said that there is no proof that such a thing as an interplanetary spaceship exists. But what is not well known is that this conclusion is far from being unanimous among the military and their scientific advisers". Introduction Ruppelt begins Chapter One with a tale, set in Summer 1952, where an unnamed F-86 fighter pilot fires on an unidentified target, only to be ridiculed as having 'cracked up' or panicked. Ruppelt claims the report on the incident was burned and never submitted to Bluebook—Ruppelt claims he learned of the incident through informal channels. Ruppelt describes how Bluebook handled income UFO reports. Many stories were classed "Insufficient Data for Evaluation", while a "Crackpot" file held reports from people "who had talked with flying saucer crews, who had inspected flying saucers that had landed in the United States, who had ridden in flying saucers, or who were members of flying saucer crews." In contrast, potentially-"good" reports were those from trusted, trained observers like higher-ranking military personnel. Ruppelt describes giving briefings to students at Air Force's Command and Staff school, Air Force Intelligence School, Office of Naval Research, as well as the Atomic Energic Commission's Los Alamos laboratory and Sandia Base. Ruppelt notes the discrepancy between public denials of official interest during the same era his groups was actively studying UFOs: "All of this time unnamed Air Force officials were disclaiming serious interest in the UFO subject. Yet every time a newspaper reporter went out to interview a person who had seen a UFO, intelligence agents had already been flown in, gotten the detailed story complete with sketches of the UFO, and sped back