Documents / Report
This is the final report of the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, conducted by the University of Colorado under Air Force contract F44620-67-C-0035, with Edward U. Condon as scientific director and Daniel S. Gillmor as editor. It was submitted to the National Academy of Sciences on 15 November 1968 for review. The report includes field studies, photographic and radar analyses, case studies, historical chapters and appendices such as the Robertson Panel report and the Twining letter.
«'rill fl~'ing sallC('l'. This seems hardly likely, however', in that the
question \~as part of H total interview in which the mcan~ng of the term
UFO would have become dear from the general context of other questions
in the interview. It see~s to us therefore that this poll actually
indicated a smaller percentage of ~ighters than the earlier one.
An important finding is that 87% of those who said that they had
seen an Ur:O, also declared that they had reported it to no one, other
than to family or friends, that is, to no one by which it would have
received l)ffidrll attention. Thus only ahout one-dghth of sightings
lI'C'l'e reported anywhere, and nc t nll of these were reported to the Air
Force. 1JC'l1ce if ,ill sightings l.. e1'e reported to the Air Force, this
]'('S\llt i\ldicat(·~ that the llLunber of reports rcc.~eived would be more
th: ei~'.ht time..; :IS many as arc now being rcccived. Frol!l the small
fra~:til1J1 \\')l() diJ l'epol't to the 1\ir Force, it ~eell1s a f(d~' infcrent.:c
that 11l0~t of tl1ese n,m-repol'ting sightt!I'~ did Iwt think that what the;,
SJis~·. SU('I\ ('xp1 Ildy 1'(,~ilrJ~J uH)
phenomena /','/,'i!1 as the result pf misintcq1r('1:ltil'.l uf natural 01' man-
made phC'lloffil'l'a. Fil1all~', \~~, 1~l'rL' advised 11)""":11(' of LJU1' expert~; in
,port('d any\\'herc, and lEt n11 of these were reported to the All'
Forc('. Hence if ,1Il sightings wen' l'eportcJ to the Air Force, this
rcsult i;ldil':ttl'~ that tilt' llLUnher of ('''ports ret'elved wOllld be more
tit; e.i~,ht time..; :IS many as ;lrc now being rn:civeJ. Frolll the smoll
fl'<I<.:t1l11J I,'hc) did l'Q1ll1't t.o tilt' Ai r Force, i t ~e('IIlS n fai~' infcre!l'~c
that llIo:;t of these Iwn-repol'ting siglit~",~ did l\C't think that what they
saw co~stituteJ a security hazard,
In l'ontrrlst, 5()'~ of tho non-s i ghtE'1'5 J~'chrt'd t1wt thoy would
report it to the police if they sa"l tlll liFO. Wl' finll this rather large
discrepanc}' between ti1t' promised rpj1ol'ting bdl;]vioT' of the non-sighters
ancl the actual r'~f,orting 1)C'havior of thc sighteJ's quite puzzling.
J 7. ~~ r'j)'ch01..?J~Ll~~~l Stut!2~_
l'ol\sidcrntion \,,(5 given to a variety of m()de~ of conducting
p:-;I'cholog i cal ~md ps~'c·.iat I'i c re~f'aT'ch i !lt~ the UFO pl1enomel1ol~, The
pll~;'; ihi 1 i tv thnt an "('xpel'il1l('ntal l1i'O" 11\ i ght h~' I :lull~:hed allJ reports
llf its sightill~ stlldil'J W:.]~ giV(,1l sl'riolls l.'ol1sid{'ratioll and rejected
,lll thrN' grounds: II: v l.t'I' llf the fact thnt th i s ww; a governmcnt-
5j1onso1'l'd, llniv{,l'~;it)'-has\'\1 stlJdy, it was fl'lt tlwt ('xjerimellts in
l,hid1 thl' pub!i<.· 111i).:ht 1"l'g,II'J ;tsl,lf ;]~ havilJf1 I'Cl'll vict.imized by \.;hat
;lmountC'l! to :\ l\\li\X \"('1"(' u1lI,isl", Sud, \'xl'('l'iml'nt<. ;d;;\) lldlo\ht giv~' rist·,
I'l' tlH'llght, tt, the' (,l'l'Ol1('ll\1~ 110t 1')11 tl1:lt tl](' ~tlld) \'l'~ilrJ\'d [jl:()
I'h('110111('1I" .":-/1'111 as the \'('s\llt "f lIIi~intel'pn't:]til'.l of natural 01' man-
made pheT1oml'I'a. Finilll~·. \~l' I"prc advi ~cd 11) S.':,IC of l1Ul' l'xpl'rt~; ill Report, from the classic collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 1497 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.