“Sightings”60+ pages
- p. 3 …Sighting Reliability
Groups for All Years and Each Year 25
Figure 10 Distribution of All Sightings…
- p. 4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
(Continued)
Paiie
Figure 14 Distribution of Object Sightings by Months Among the Eight…
- p. 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS '
(Continued)
Page
Figure 38 Comparison of Evaluation of Object Sightings in the Strategic…
- p. 7 …Evaluation of sighting reports, a crucial step in the preparation of the data
for statistical, treatment…
- p. 9 …Hynek1 s definition of the term
is "any aerial phenomenon or sighting that remains unexplained to…
- p. 10 …Although no evidence existed that unexplained reports
of sightings constituted a physical threat to the security…
- p. 11 records include condensations of all individual sighting reports, and the
IBM cards used in vaTious phases…
- p. 12 …Altogether, the data for this study consisted of approximately 4, 000
reports of sightings of unidentified…
- p. 13 …Besides these dis-
crete facts, an integrated written description of a sighting would be re-
quired…
- p. 14 …the maneuvers of the object or objects sighted.
Prior to the start of the analytical study…
- p. 15 …The num-
ber of reports of sightings in a single folder varied from 1 to over…
- p. 16 SINGLE OBSERVATION - A SIGHTING consisting of a single
report from (1) one OBSERVER with no knowledge…
- p. 17 …In brief review, ALL SIGHTINGS refer to all reports, UNIT SIGHTINGS
refer to actual sightings, and…
- p. 18 …The concept of a SIGHTING IDENTIFICATION
NUMBER was evolved to fill this desire. Using one column…
- p. 19 …About 800
reports of sightings were eliminated or rejected in this manner. Most of
these reports…
- p. 20 …Categories for
INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION, PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS, and
UNKNOWN were provided for the sightings that could not…
- p. 21 …During an identification conference, each sighting report was first
studied, from the original data, by one…
- p. 22 …in
the future about a sighting or a group of sightings, and to provide answers,
was…
- p. 23 …ALL SIGHTINGS (all reports)
UNIT SIGHTINGS, all observers
UNIT SIGHTINGS, single observer
UNIT SIGHTINGS, multiple observers…
- p. 24 …of concen-
tration of reports of OBJECT SIGHTINGS in an area. No other interpre-
tation of…
- p. 25 …sightings
2199 =100%
All sightings
3201 = 100%
Unit sightings
2554=100%
FIGURE I FREQUENCY OF SIGHTINGS…
- p. 26 Object sightings
2199=100%
All sightings
3201 = 100%
Unit sightings
2 5 5 4 = 1 0…
- p. 27 …S
I
FIGURE 3 DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY EVALU-
ATION FOR ALL YEARS WITH COMPARISONS…
- p. 28 …of object sightings
2(99 79
c
<u
a.
121 1501
Ilnsuf. —
—info.
All years 1947…
- p. 29 …of object sightings
70 55 8 3 127 129 183 638 407 166 125 10,6…
- p. 30 …3 0
FIGURE 6 DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY CERTAIN AND
DOUBTFUL EVALUATIONS FOR ALL YEARS…
- p. 31 * • < * ,
^ | j f c
en
Unknown
object sightings
J F M A M J J A S…
- p. 32 …27 = 3.6%
FIGURE 8 DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY SIGHTING
RELIABILITY GROUPS WITH EVALUATION DISTRIBUTIONS…
- p. 33 …of object sightings
2199 79 43 186 169 121
Q. 40
30
20
10
0
1501…
- p. 34 …Poor
FIGURE 10 DISTRIBUTION OF ALL SIGHTINGS BY SIGHTING RELIABILITY GROUPS. SEGREGATED BY
-__-_z MILITARY AND…
- p. 35 …4 %
FIGURE II DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY REPORTED COLORS
OF OBJECTCS) WITH EVALUATION DISTRIBUTION FOR…
- p. 36 …info
FIGURE 12 DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY NUMBER OF
OBJECTS SEEN PER SIGHTING WITH EVALUATION…
- p. 37 …FIGURE 13 DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY DURATION OF SIGHTING WITH EVALUATION
DISTRIBUTION FOR EACH DURATION…
- p. 38 …of object sightings
70 55 83
9 0
£ 8 0
JZ
rou
0>
§ 6 0
v…
- p. 39 …90 100
FIGURE 15 DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY SHAPE OF OBJECTS) REPORTED WITH
EVALUATION DISTRIBUTION…
- p. 40 …40 50 60
Evaluation in Per Cent
FIGURE 16 DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY REPORTED SPEED…
- p. 41 …of all sighting
3201
All yeors
117 205 164 306 160 2018
O
Location
not
stated…
- p. 42 …f
FIGURE 18 COMPARISON OF KNOWN AND UNKNOWN OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY COLOR,1947-1952
A-7496
- p. 43 …OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY NUMBER OF
OBJECTS PER SIGHTING, 1947-1952
A-7497
- p. 44 …L_
FIGURE 20 COMPARISON OF KNOWN AND UNKNOWN OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY SPEED, 1947-1952
\ ' A-749§
- p. 45 …21 COMPARISON OF KNOWN AND UNKNOWN OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY DURATION , 1 9 4 7 - 1 9…
- p. 46 …22 COMPARISON OF KNOWN AND UNKNOWN OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY SHAPE, 1 9 4 7 - 1 9…
- p. 47 …23 COMPARISON OF KNOWN AND UNKNOWN OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY LIGHT BRIGHTNESS,
1947-1952
A-75 01
- p. 48 …MONTHLY DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS EVALUATED AS
ASTRONOMICAL VERSUS TOTAL OBJECT SIGHTINGS LESS ASTRONOMICAL
A-7502
- p. 49 …i
i
m
FIGURE 25 COMPARISON OF MONTHLY DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS EVALUATED AS
AIRCRAFT VERSUS…
- p. 50 …MONTHLY DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS EVALUATED
AS BALLOON VERSUS TOTAL OBJECT SIGHTINGS LESS BALLOON
A-7S0…
- p. 51 …DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS EVALUATED AS
INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION VERSUS TOTAL OBJECT SIGHTINGS LESS INSUFFI-
CIENT INFORMATION…
- p. 52 …DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS EVALUATED AS
I OTHER VERSUS TOTAL OBJECT SIGHTINGS LESS OTHER
A-7506
- p. 53 …MONTHLY DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS EVALUATED AS
UNKNOWN VERSUS TOTAL OBJECT SIGHTINGS LESS UNKNOWN
A-7907
- p. 54 Number of
objects Color Speed Shape Duration
FIGURE 30 CHARACTERISTICS PROFILES OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY
TOTAL…
- p. 55 …IN EACH SUBDIVISION THE TOP FIGURE
INDICATES THE FREOUENCV OF ALL
SIGHTINGS, THE MIDDLE FIGURE UNIT…
- p. 56 oo
FIGURE 32 DISTRIBUTION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS BY EVALUATION FOR THE TWELVE REGIONAL
AREAS OF THE…
- p. 57 …16.2 % Balance of Central East
Region
81 object sightings
Netf/wrk/
106 object sighting
61…
- p. 58 O
Dayton
144 object sighting!
" 7
Balance of Central
Midwest Region
164 object sightings
FIGURE 34…
- p. 59 …9 %
Balance of Central
Farwest Region
38 object sightings
San Francisco
93 object sightings
FIGURE 35…
- p. 60 CJ1
ro
o
San Antonio
36 object sightings
Balance of South
Midwest Region
FIGURE 36 COMPARISON…
- p. 61 Ol
98 object sightings
""^-Albuquerque
©
Unknown
2 5 . 6 %
Aircraft
20.8%
Balloon
20.0% Unknown…
- p. 62 II 5
Il/O
FIGURE 3 8 COMPARISON OF EVALUATION OF OBJECT SIGHTINGS IN
THE STRATEGIC…
- p. 63 …Upon completion of these calculations, the cards representing OBJECT
SIGHTINGS were sorted on the sign of…
- p. 65 …50
25
-90
All object sightings
Sun rise
Unknown object, sightings
Suniset
-60 -30 + 30 +60…
INTRODUCTION
In June, 1947, Kenneth Arnold, a Boise, Idaho, businessman and
private pilot, publicly reported the now-famous sighting of a chainlike
formation of disc-shaped objects near Mount Rainier, Washington. Result-
ing newspaper publicity of this incident caught the public interest, and,
shortly thereafter, a rash of reports of unidentified aerial objects spawned
the term "flying saucers". During the years since 1947, many reports of
unidentified aerial objects have been received by the Air Force from many
and diverse sources.
The unfortunate term "flying saucer", or "flying disc", because of
its widespread and indiscriminate use, requires definition. Many defini-
tions have been offered, one of the best being that originated by Dr. J.
Allen Hynek3 Director of the Emerson McMillin Observatory of The Ohio
State University, who has taken a scientific interest in the problem of
unidentified aerial objects since 1949. Dr. Hynek1 s definition of the term
is "any aerial phenomenon or sighting that remains unexplained to the
viewer at least long enough for him to write a report about it"\l). Dr. Hynek,
elaborating on his definition, says, "Each flying saucer, so defined, has
associated with it a probable lifetime. It wanders in the field of public in-
spection like an electron in a field of ions, until ' captured1 by an explana-
tion which puts an end to its existence as a 'flying saucer'"^).
This definition -would be applicable to any and all of the sightings
which remained unidentified throughout this study. However, the term
"flying saucers" shall be used hereafter in this report to mean a novel,
airborne phenomenon, a manifestation that is not a part of or readily ex-
plainable by the fund of scientific knowledge known to be possessed by the
Free World. This would include such items as natural phenomena that are
not yet completely understood, ps^cjioliigical phejiorne,na, or intruder air-
craft of a type that may be possessed by some source in large enough
numbers so that more than one independent mission may have been flown
and reported. Thus, these phenomena are of the type'which should have
been observed and reported more than once.
Since 1947, public interest in the subject of unidentified aerial objects
fluctuated more or less within reasonable limits until the summer of 1952,
when the frequency of reports of sightings reached a peak, possibly stimu-
lated by several'articles on the subject in leading popular magazines.
Early in 1952, the Air Force1 s cumulative study and analysis of
reported sightings indicated that the majority of reports could be accounted
for as misinterpretations of known objects (suchas meteors, balloons, or
aircraft), a few as the result of mild hysteria, and a very few as the result
of unfamiliar meteorological phenomena and light aberrations. However,
(1) Hynek, J. A., "Unusual Aerial Phenomena", Journal of the Optical Society of America, 43 (4),
pp 311-314, April, 1953.
1