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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Report on Unidentified FlyingObjectsby Edward RuppeltThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.netTitle: The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsAuthor: Edward RuppeltRelease Date: December 18, 2005 [EBook #17346]Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ASCII*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS***Produced by The Blue Book ArchiveTHE REPORT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTSBY EDWARD J. RUPPELTFormer Head of the Air Force Project Blue BookPublished byDOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC.Garden City, New YorkNote: This work was originally Copyright ? 1956 by Edward J. Ruppelt.This book is now in the public domain because it was not renewed in atimely fashion at the US Copyright Office, as required by law at thetime.ContentsForeword1 Project Blue Book and the UFO Story2 The Era of Confusion Begins3 The Classics4 Green Fireballs, Project Twinkle, Little Lights, and Grudge

5 The Dark Ages6 The Presses Roll--The Air Force Shrugs7 The Pentagon Rumbles8 The Lubbock Lights, Unabridged9 The New Project Grudge10 Project Blue Book and the Big Build-Up11 The Big Flap12 The Washington Merry-Go-Round13 Hoax or Horror?14 Digesting the Data15 The Radiation Story16 The Hierarchy Ponders17 What Are UFO's?18 And They're Still Flying19 Off They Go into the Wild Blue Yonder20 Do They or Don't They?to ELIZABETH and KRISForewordThis is a book about unidentified flying objects--UFO's--"flyingsaucers." It is actually more than a book; it is a report because itis the first time that anyone, either military or civilian, hasbrought together in one document all the facts about this fascinatingsubject. With the exception of the style, this report is writtenexactly the way I would have written it had I been officially askedto do so while I was chief of the Air Force's project forinvestigating UFO reports--Project Blue Book.In many instances I have left out the names of the people whoreported seeing UFO's, or the names of certain people who wereassociated with the project, just as I would have done in an officialreport. For the same reason I have changed the locale in which someof the UFO sightings occurred. This is especially true in chapterfifteen, the story of how some of our atomic scientists detectedradiation whenever UFO's were reported near their "UFO-detectionstations." This policy of not identifying the "source," to borrow aterm from military intelligence, is insisted on by the Air Force sothat the people who have co-operated with them will not get anyunwanted publicity. Names are considered to be "classifiedinformation."But the greatest care has been taken to make sure that the omissionof names and changes in locale has in no way altered the basic factsbecause this report is based on the facts--all of the facts--nothingof significance has been left out.It was only after considerable deliberation that I put this reporttogether, because it had to be told accurately, with no holds barred.I finally decided to do it for two reasons. First, there is world-wide interest in flying saucers; people want to know the facts. Butmore often than not these facts have been obscured by secrecy and

confusion, a situation that has led to wild speculation on one end ofthe scale and an almost dangerously blas? attitude on the other. Itis only when all of the facts are laid out that a correct evaluationcan be made.Second, after spending two years investigating and analyzing UFOreports, after talking to the people who have seen UFO's--industrialists, pilots, engineers, generals, and just the plain man-on-the-street, and after discussing the subject with many verycapable scientists, I felt that I was in a position to be able to puttogether the complete account of the Air Force's struggle with theflying saucer.The report has been difficult to write because it involves somethingthat doesn't officially exist. It is well known that ever since thefirst flying saucer was reported in June 1947 the Air Force hasofficially said that there is no proof that such a thing as aninterplanetary spaceship exists. But what is not well known is thatthis conclusion is far from being unanimous among the military andtheir scientific advisers because of the one word, _proof_; so theUFO investigations continue.The hassle over the word "proof" boils down to one question: Whatconstitutes proof? Does a UFO have to land at the River Entrance tothe Pentagon, near the Joint Chiefs of Staff offices? Or is it proofwhen a ground radar station detects a UFO, sends a jet to interceptit, the jet pilot sees it, and locks on with his radar, only to havethe UFO streak away at a phenomenal speed? Is it proof when a jetpilot fires at a UFO and sticks to his story even under the threat ofcourt-martial? Does this constitute proof?The at times hotly debated answer to this question may be the answerto the question, "Do the UFO's really exist?"I'll give you the facts--all of the facts--you decide. _July_ _1955_, E. J. RUPPELTCHAPTER ONEProject Blue Book and the UFO StoryIn the summer of 1952 a United States Air Force F-86 jet interceptorshot at a flying saucer.This fact, like so many others that make up the full flying saucerstory, has never before been told.I know the full story about flying saucers and I know that it hasnever before been told because I organized and was chief of the AirForce's Project Blue Book, the special project set up to investigateand analyze unidentified flying object, or UFO, reports. (UFO is theofficial term that I created to replace the words "flying saucers.")There is a fighter base in the United States which I used to visit