[BLANK] radar-visual unidentified-object report — August 5, 1958

The publicity fanfare given to the UFO controversy by the press, publishers, writers and others, reached a high pitch during 1952 and developed a tendency on the part of the public to question the Air Force's handling of the alleged "menace" presented by flying saucers. This came to a climax in late July 1952 during the much publicized Washington Flying Saucer sightings which purported to show flying saucers over the Capitol but which were in reality blips on radar scopes created by quite unusual atmospheric conditions. CHART 1 - Frequency of UFO Reports This chart illustrates the effect of the conservative, scientific approach of Life and Look magazines on UFO reports for that period, in contrast to the newspapers' treatment of the Washington Radar "Flying Saucer" incidents and General Samford's press conference. Fourth, the submission of all UFO data collected since 1947 to scientists in and out of the Air Force to determine whether or not a trend or pattern existed to indicate the nature or existence of the so-called flying saucers. Fourth, there is a total lack of any physical or material evidence — not a piece - scrap - or a minute fragment of these so-called "flying saucers" was ever found. In early 1955, five books written on "Flying saucers" were published. Up to now, six motion pictures in circulation having "flying saucers" as their theme have been produced. The main plot of this movie is centered around two colored film strips of so-called "flying saucers." These film strips were previously submitted to the Air Force for examination, and consist primarily of moving spots of light against a blue sky. The subject has seized UFO PROGRAM A brief history of the Unidentified Flying Object program would, I think, help you to understand some of its problems and determine its status. The program started in 1947 when on 27 June of that year a private civilian flyer named Kenneth Arnold sighted what looked to him like several disc shaped objects near Mt. He described them as "flying saucers", a term that was forceably and with much sensationalism brought to the public's attention by the press. At a briefing conducted by the Subcommittee on Space Exploration on 5 August 1958, a briefing at 1400 hours, 5 August 1958, was presented to members of the Subcommittee on Air Force activities in the field of procedures used in handling and analyzing reports of unidentified flying objects.