In the summer of 1947, a civilian pilot called Kenneth Arnold reported that whilst flying his small plane, he had seen nine objects moving at tremendous speeds across the skies of Washington’s Mount Rainier. These reports were widely publicized and were corroborated by several people.
This led to the US Air Force opening an investigation under the name of Operation Sign in 1948. However, this was not enough, and four years later the operation was converted into a Project named Blue Book in 1952.
Project Blue Book became the longest-running inquiry by the US for UFO sightings, compiling more than 12,000 sighting reports. It lasted 17 years from 1952 to 1969.
Early Sights of UFOs
Despite there being many reports of UFOs, supernatural phenomena, angels, phantoms, and spirits for many centuries, it was only really after World War II and the advance in rocket science that marked a new interest and obsession with space. Initially, visitors to another planet were aptly named unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
The first report of a UFO sighting officially happened in June 1947 when Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects that glowed bright blue and white in a V formation above Mount Rainer. He claimed that they were flying at speeds upwards of 1,700 mph.
Interestingly, Kenneth Arnold said that the movement of these nine objects was most comparable to a saucer being skipped across the water. It has been speculated that this is where the misconception of UFOs became flying saucers.
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When news of Arnold’s story broke to the wider public, a rash of similar sightings were recorded across the United States. One such report was a highly controversial report that claimed a UFO had crashed next to the US Army base in Roswell, New Mexico. The Army said that the object was actually the wreckage from a weather balloon, but those conspiracy-minded individuals would contest this for many years.
The uptake in reports of UFO sightings all across the states in 1948 allowed the US Air Force to begin their Operation Sign. The initial theory that the Air Force presented for setting up this operation was that the UFOs were Soviet aircraft (this was the era of the Cold War, and both sides were willing to implement all manner of subterfuge) but they did allow for the possibility of spacecraft entering the US.
The Air Force inquiries about UFO reports and sightings only generated more interest in the phenomenon. The peak of this interest occurred in 1951 when Project Blue Book was first presented as a serious option.
It was based at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The project would go on to become the longest-running official inquiry run by the US government into UFOs. This was because there was an alarming amount of UFO sightings and the President at the time, Harry S Truman worried that there would be an outbreak of hysteria because of the issue.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assembled an expert panel of scientists to respond to these fears. This was headed by H. P. Robertson of the California Institute of Technology and named the Robertson Panel.
The Robertson Panel met for 3 days in which they interviewed military officers and Blue Book officials. Alongside this, they reviewed photos and films of the accused UFOs. The panel concluded that there was no basis for the UFOs to be considered extra-terrestrial and that the UFOs whatever they were posed no threat to the security of the USA.
The Robertson panel concluded that 90 percent of the sightings that had been recorded could be attributed to meteorological or astronomical activity. It was not uncommon for them to discover man-made causes for these UFO sightings such as balloons or searchlights.
However, the fact that these findings were not declassified until 1979 created public suspicion that there was some sort of government conspiracy. Worse, many theorized that the government was attempting to cover any extraterrestrial sightings up.
The Condon Report
In the 17 years that Project Blue Book operated it compiled over 12,000 UFO sightings or related events. It would also conclude that 90 percent of the reports could be identified and classified as either astronomical, artificial (man-made), or atmospheric. However, there were still over 700 cases that could not be conclusively identified as there was not enough information to create an accurate conclusion or present a known cause.
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In 1966, the Air Force requested that another committee be formed to look into the details of 59 specific reports investigated by the Project Blue Book. This was to be headed by Dr. Edward Condon from the University of Colorado.
In 1968, the committee was able to publish its “Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects” which became colloquially known as the Condon Report. It concluded that the sightings recorded provided no evidence of unusual activity and suggested that the Air Force stopped investigations into UFO-related incidents.
In response to the Condon Report combined with the reduced number of reports of UFOs, Project Blue Book was brought to an end in 1969. They concluded that despite there being sightings of UFOs that they could not identify, no evidence had been submitted to the Air Force that suggested that technology beyond that of modern science had been seen.
Even though two separate panels had dismissed the claims of Project Blue Book, civilian investigations have continued into UFOs, and many are still documented today. Many people who believed that these reports were genuine have remained unsatisfied with the conclusions of both reports.
In 1974, J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who had worked as an adviser to Project Blue Book, established the Center for UFO Studies (or CUFOS). To this day, the organization continues to investigate UFO sightings and looks to weigh in on the hypothesis that these sightings are genuinely alien.
It is important to note that the mania following UFOs is not unique to the US. Similar work has been done across Canada, Australia, Greece, Sweden and the UK. In 1979, The British House of Lords debated for three hours on the subject of UFOs, and a motion was defeated to release all information that the British government had on UFOs allowing theories and fears to grow.
Top Image: Project Blue Book was a seventeen year investigation into UFO sightings in the United States. Source: Ktsdesign / Adobe Stock.
By Kurt Readman
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