Documents / Report
This August 1949 technical report from the US Air Force Air Materiel Command presents Project Grudge's investigation of unidentified flying objects through January 1949. Drawing on consultants including Dr. J. A. Hynek, Rand Corporation, the Air Weather Service and Dr. P. M. Fitts, it explains most of 244 incidents as balloons, aircraft, astronomical phenomena, hoaxes or psychological errors. It concludes the objects pose no direct threat to national security and recommends reducing the investigation in scope.
There appears to be a time discrepancy in this incident: the summary report states that the object was in view 10 to 30 seconds, yet indicates that the observer had time to call a weather station to inquire about balloon releases, and also to expose 10 seconds of 8 mm. film. In any event, however, besides the fact that no stable trail was indicated, testies of the object preclude the possibility of its having been astronomical; meteors do not expose "slow rolls" or alide upward. a better estimate of spud is needed. The possibility remains that the object may have been an unyettrially-painted balloon.
Report, from the classic collection. 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. 413 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.