Projct:f Blue Book
f
or more than twenty years, from
1 94 8 through 1 9 69. the United States Air Force was charged with
investigating UFO reports. During most of that period, the respon sibility lay with a task force code-named Project Blue Book. Proj ect Blue Book evolved from two previous air force studi es
Proj ects Sign and Grudge - that had been formed to investigate UFO reports but had floundered because of inexperi ence and disorga
nized procedures. With the rash of UFO sightings in 1 952, the need
for a more systematic study of UFOs became apparent, and Proj ect Blue Book was inaugurated . Led by Captain Edward ]. RuppeIt, staff ers developed quick, concise methods of evaluating sightings . Wit
nesses received an eight-page questionnaire , photographs and neg atives were a n a lyz e d , and fi e l d in terviews were c o n d u c te d . Investigators consulted astronomical d a t a , monitored aircraft flights, and checked weather records. On the whole, the Proj ect Blue Book team successfully weeded out UFO reports that were obvious hoaxes or could be attributed to natural phenomena. But the group operated under an undisguised bias that UFOs did not exist. Thus, for the small percentage of cases not readily solved, investigators had two choices: admit they had failed to identify the obj ect or embrace any remotely feasible expla nation . Both options were exercised. On the following pages is a representative sampling of Project Blue Book cases, including some of the original documentation with names deleted by the air force for reasons of confidentiality.
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