Documents / Memo

FLYING SAUCERS memo

CIA Reading Room · 36 pages · text by OCR

This CIA file, released in 2001, gathers 1952 memoranda from H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director of the Office of Scientific Intelligence, to the Director of Central Intelligence, along with draft letters to the Secretary of Defense and the NSC and a briefing on the Air Force position. It concludes that flying saucers carry national security implications, namely mass panic and air defense vulnerability. It recommends expanded scientific research, a public information policy and study of Soviet interest, noting that about 20 percent of roughly 1500 Air Force reports remained unexplained.

Open the PDF at page 29 Original source ↗

“Nature”16 pages

  • p. 1 …fundamental scientific research with respect to the nature and causes of unidentified flying objects (Flying Saucers…
  • p. 2 …expanded scientific research program to reveal the nature of the various phenomena which are causing these…
  • p. 7 …These aspects are to determine definitely the nature of the various phenomena which are causing these…
  • p. 8 …Both of these problems are primarily operational in nature but each contains readily apparent intelligence factors…
  • p. 9 …much more is known regarding the exact nature of these phenomena. 11. I consider this problem…
  • p. 12 …problem which is to determine definitely the nature of the various phenomena which are causing these…
  • p. 13 …Both of these problems are primarily operational in nature but each contains readily apparent intelligence factors…
  • p. 14 …much more is known regarding the exact nature of these phenomena. e. The problem transcends the…
  • p. 16 …US Government circles knew all along of the harmless nature of these objects, but if they…
  • p. 27 …Even through binoculars he could not determine their nature. An F-94 interceptor climbed to 43…
  • p. 29 …eye for as long as one hour. Natural phenomena in the Earth's atmosphere have caused…
  • p. 30 …It should be noted that radar anomalies both internal and external in nature still exist in…
  • p. 32 …Considering that the remaining cases might have been caused by little understood natural phenomena, the OSI…
  • p. 33 …This phenomenon exists but the exact mechanics of its cause, its nature and manner of dissipation…
  • p. 34 …centuries, appears in various colors but its nature is not known. St. Elmo's fire, corona…
  • p. 35 …For instance, the cosmic and gamma natural radiation which pours in daily from outer space is…
who was familiar with this report saw an anti-collision light installation on a Capital Airlines airplane. This new safety device, a light mounted on the nose of the airplane, oscillates back and forth laterally similar to those installed on some ambulances and police cars. A check with Capital Airlines revealed that an airplane fitted with such a light had "checked in" while flying near Pittsburgh at the exact time and place of the reporting sighting.

Let us then now to astronomical phenomena. In the daytime some planets, particularly Venus, can be seen clearly as a bright white object, even at high noon under certain conditions. At night, meteors of various varieties have been mistaken for maneuvering lights. The luminous meteor trail of ionized gas has been picked up by radar and at times misunderstood. This ionized trail may remain visible to the eye for as long as one hour.

Natural phenomena in the Earth's atmosphere have caused many misinterpretations. High altitude "jet streams" traveling at high velocities, temperature inversions and conditions of turbulent mixing of air of greatly different temperatures and densities exist and are not charted. They account for optical as well as radar aberrations in a number of cases. In one case

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Memo, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 36 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.