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.
Incident p63 - 100 mi. of Kansas City, Missouri -- 6 July 1947 There is no direct astronomical explanation for this incident. The striking feature of the incident is that the "very orright" object travelled in the same direction and at the same speed as the observer did, and that it appeared at 11 o'clock position at noon left, or approximately opposite to the position of the sun at the time. It cannot be proved, of course, but it is probable that the witness saw a direct reflection of the sun on some continuous object — this clouds, ice crystals, or the like. (And the object appeared on his right, then this explanation would be untenable.) Its disappearance can be explained logically also, for turning altered the observer's angular relationship to the reflector. It is further noted that an apparent inconsistency exists in the report. The observer first stated that the object appeared to be the top of a water tank "low and to his left"; after checking his position he stated that the object was at 11,000 feet. The inconsistency in altitude throws some suspicion on the observation. If the object was low, then a running reflection along a river or railroad track would be a promising explanation.
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.