From Russia, with love : UFO articles from US Department of the Navy's Office of Naval Research and US "Air Force and Space Digest" - UFOs are comets and/or balloons

A Russian colleague (Mikhail Gershtein) has kindly provided me with some US material that I have not previously seen: UFO articles from the US Department of the Navy's Office of Naval Research's "Research Reviews" and the US "Air Force and Space Digest".

The US "Air Force and Space Digest : The Magazine of Aerospace Power" was published by the Air Force Association. The November 1959 issue of that publication included an article by Donald H Robey, "a young physicist associated with the Convair-Astronautics Division of General Dynamics". The article suggested that flying saucers "may be the remnants of space- born icebergs which many scientists now believe are the stuff of those eerie visitors from the void—comets...". 

"Research Reviews" was published by the US Department of the Navy's Office of Naval Research. An issue from February 1957 includes a UFO article by Urner Liddel, the head of the Nuclear Physics Branch of the ONR. He wrote that reports of UFOs occasionally "served a rather useful purpose, for they have helped us to locate valuable equipment flown by the large SKYHOOK balloons". 

These articles should be read in conjunction with the articles I recently uploaded from "The Airman", the "official magazine of the US Air Force".

I have added these articles to the folder I recently created for UFO articles from mainstream (i.e. non-UFO) publications in the USA, which is separate to the older (and much larger) folder in the online archive for UFO periodicals from the USA.

  

John Schuessler's papers on "Detection and Identification of Unidentified Flying Objects ... Using Existing Technology" (January 2000 and September 2000) now online

John Schuessler had kindly previously given me permission to upload his 13 page January 2000 paper "Detection and Identification of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) Using Existing Technology".  He has now also given permission for me to upload his 43 page September 2000 paper with an almost identical title but different content ("Detection and Identification of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) Using Existing Technology" - September 2000).

This further paper appears to be an annex and/or update to John's January 2000 paper, containing source material and some comments/ideas, including related potential action by Robert Bigelow's NIDS and its SAB.

Since I've been spending time recently on UFO detection and tracking projects (_lots_ more on which will be posted very soon...), I found this further paper an interesting supplement to other material.

(This further paper was sourced from the Theodore Rockwell Papers (MSS Rockwell), Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon).

John has also previously kindly given permission for me to upload scans of:

(1) John Schuessler's Potpourri News newsletter

(2) John Schuessler's UFO Potpourri newsletter

(3) The MUFON Medical Committee newsletter

(4) Several of John's other monographs/papers, including papers on UFO-related human physiological effects.

108 issues of SETI League's "SearchLites" ("The World's Longest Running SETI Publication") now added - Includes comments on ufology

Russian researcher Mikhail Gershtein has helpfully drawn my attention to "SearchLites", the newsletter of the SETI League.

The website of the SETI League states that SearchLites is "the world's longest running SETI Publication" and also gives permission for reproduction in whole or in part, provided credit is given.  

So, I have now added searchable copies of 108 issues of SeachLites to the USA folder of the online archive that I have been helping to create.

Various issues of "SearchLites" contain comments on UFOs and ufology. 

For example, one issue (Volume 6 No 2) contains an article by Allen Tough that argues in favour of adopting wider strategies to attempt to detect extraterrestrial intelligences since "We have no idea of the origins, history, thought patterns, emotions, ethics, core values, purposes, technological capacities, or other major characteristics of extraterrestrial intelligence".  That article raised the possibility of searching for "smart probes" that could have reached our solar system - but was at pains to distinguish any such search by SETI scientists from ufology:  

"All of us in the SETI field worry about being confused with the UFO field. We encounter this confusion in our classrooms, at the faculty club, at social gatherings, in legislatures, and in donors' offices. But there is no need to let our fear and anger lure us into poor decisions about our own scientific strategies. If our sober assessment concludes that smart probes could have readily reached our solar system, for instance, then we should have the courage to search for them. To reduce confusion, we should frequently point out that our scientific approach differs from the UFO field in three key ways: 

(a) we are deeply committed to skepticism, verification, peer review, and the scientific method; 

(b) we build in strict safeguards against hoaxes, self-delusion, and erroneous data; and 

(c) we adopt protocols to avoid premature and immodest claims."

I'll try to get permission to add searchable copies of some other SETI newsletters/magazines soon.

If there are any other SETI newsletters that are worth added, feel free to mention them to me and I'll look into the permission position. 

UFO articles from Flying magazine, Desert magazine and Michigan Technic (1950-1981)

With thanks to Mikhail Gershtein in Russia, Igor Kalytyuk in Ukraine, Barry Greenwood in the USA, Patrice Seray in France and others, I will be uploading further UFO articles from various mainstream non-UFO magazines this week - mainly from America and France. (In addition, I will hopefully find time to post the first tranche of material regarding UFO tracking/detection projects and post more on various UFO databases).

With their help, I have now added articles from Flying magazine, Desert magazine and Michigan Technic magazine. These various articles about UFOs range in date from 1950 to 1981.

I have added these articles to the existing section for UFO articles from non-UFO periodicals from the USA.  (That section is separate from the much larger folder for UFO periodicals from the USA, which continue to be uploaded once permissions can be obtained).

I continue to be torn about whether to upload further articles from publications with semi-naked individuals (almost always women) on their front cover.  I don't want to offend anyone, but some of the relevant articles are interesting. Also, the type of magazine in which they were originally published is part of the social history of ufology and I don't wish to inadvertently rewrite the history of this subject by censoring this element of its past.

More soon.

US Air Force booklet "Aids to Identification of Flying Objects" (1968) - searchable PDF

In 1968, the US Air Force wrote a booklet entitled "Aids to Identification of Flying Objects".  

This slim booklet (only about 35 pages) sought to cover a wide range of potential explanation for UFO reports - including meteorological and astronomical factors (such as mirages, sundogs and moondogs) radar sightings, physiological aspects, psychological factors, visual perception.

While the scope was wide, the content was - well - less than impressive.  

Anyone that wants to be able to address basic explanations from skeptics or official authorities for UFO sightings should be familiar with the content of this brief booklet.

Click on the image below for a link to this booklet, which I have included in the folder containing other UFO books/booklets that I've obtained permission to upload or are in the public domain.

"The Airman", the "Official Magazine Of the U.S. Air Force" - UFO articles (1960s-1970s)

"The Airman" magazine, which described itself as the "Official Magazine Of the U.S. Air Force", has featured various articles about UFOs written by members of the US Air Force - including by Lt Col Lawrence J Tacker and by Major George Ogles.

Those articles included a cover item about the Project UFO television series and the assistance provided by the US Air Force in its production, in addition to a two-part article entitled "What Does The Air Force Really Know About Flying Saucers?".

I've uploaded material from several issues of "The Airman" from the 1960s and 1970s. 

Also, Tom Mohr has helpfully provided a scanned copy of a reprinted combined copy of the two-part article mentioned above (which I've included in addition to the original separate articles).

Click on the image below for a link to the relevant folder, which I've included in the relatively new and still growing section I created for UFO articles from non-UFO magazines (which are separate from the much larger collection of UFO magazines/newsletters which I've uploaded, after getting relevant permissions).