SUBJECT: UFO DEFINATION FILE: UFO1420
unidentified flying object
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An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an unusual aerial or potentially
airborne object that cannot be readily identified even after expert analysis of
the available data in the report of the object. Approximately 90% of raw UFO
reports are interpreted as misperceptions of conventional objects, hoaxes, or
hallucinations. The remaining 10% constitute the UFO enigma. The date of the
earliest UFO sighting is unknown. Some UFO researchers believe that there were
UFO sightings in ancient times. The evidence for such sightings, however, is
scanty and therefore purely speculative. Most UFO researchers date the
beginning of the UFO phenomenon with the sighting of dirigiblelike "mystery
airships" over the United States during 1896-97. The next significant group of
reports came during World War II from Allied and Axis pilots who reported
seeing strange metallike objects, which they called "foo fighters," in
controlled flight around their planes. In 1946 people in Europe, particularly
Scandinavia, reported large-scale sightings of silent "ghost rockets." None of
these phenomena has been satisfactorily explained.
The UFO phenomenon entered public consciousness on June 24, 1947, when private
pilot Kenneth Arnold reported sighting nine circular objects flying across his
airplane's path in the skies over the state of Washington. He described their
movements as being like "saucers skipping over water" and the term flying
saucer was born.
Since 1947 there have been UFO sightings in nearly every country. Occasionally
the number of sightings rapidly increases and a UFO wave ensues. For instance,
UFO waves occurred in France and Italy in 1954, in New Guinea in 1958, and in
the USSR in 1967. In the United States, waves occurred in 1947, 1952, 1957,
1965-67, and 1973. UFO researchers have been unable to predict or explain UFO
waves. Attempts to link them to media publicity about UFOs, hysterical
contagion, or "societal stress" have proved unsuccessful. Although intensive
publicity has prompted people to report sightings they had previously made,
such publicity is not considered responsible for new reports.
The number of UFO sightings is great. In 1973 a Gallup poll indicated that 11
percent of the adult population in the United States had seen what they thought
was a UFO. So far more than 50,000 worldwide sighting reports have been
computerized. A study of these reports suggests that UFO sightings are random,
and no pattern of UFO witnesses has been found. Witnesses cut across economic,
class, racial, and educational lines. A greater percentage of reports, however,
have come from people living in rural areas than from those living in urban
areas. The reasons for this disparity are unknown.
Witnesses report a great variety of sizes and shapes of UFOs, including
amorphous and changing-shape objects. The classic "two bowls joined at the rim"
shape is reported often, but reports of objects shaped like cigars, squares,
balls, triangles, rings, and hats are also common.
The majority of reports are of objects seen at great distance, but reports of
close observations also exist. Some of the most intriguing reports are of
objects seen on or near the ground. Often the person claims that the object
left a residue or mark on the ground. Such a sighting is called a "trace case."
Sometimes the object is claimed to have had a physical effect on an electrical
or mechanical device, causing television interference or automobile engines to
stall.
Claims of witnessing the occupants of a UFO have come from sober, reputable,
reliable people. These reports must, however, be separated from those of the
infamous "contactees," who in the 1950s claimed ongoing contact with "space
brothers" who often gave them flying-saucer "rides" to other planets. UFO
researchers regard contactee claims as spurious.
The U.S. Air Force attempted to study the UFO phenomenon from 1948 to 1969
through its Project Blue Book. After collecting reports for 21 years, it
concluded that UFOs did not represent a threat to the national security, and it
could find no evidence that UFOs were of extraterrestrial origin. In 1953,
however, the Central Intelligence Agency suggested that the USSR might be able
to use "flying-saucer hysteria" as a psychological warfare weapon against the
United States. Therefore, from 1953 to 1969, the U.S. Air Force was concerned
mainly with the incidence of UFO reports and never seriously considered the
idea that UFOs per se might represent anomalous or unique phenomena.
Other institutions and scientists have also confronted the phenomenon. A 1953
study by the Battelle Memorial Institute resulted in inconclusive findings.
From 1966 to 1969 the University of Colorado conducted an extensive study of
UFOs.
The project director, physicist Edward U. Condon, concluded that UFOs did not
represent a threat to the national security and were not anomalous; several of
the staff scientists, however, strongly disagreed with his conclusions. In
recent years scientific interest in the subject has grown, but adequate funding
for another scientific inquiry has not yet materialized. Scientists and
academicians have used their own time and funds to study UFOs, but progress has
been slow and difficult. Until a systematic, impartial, and long-term study of
the problem can be developed, UFOs are likely to remain one of the most
puzzling mysteries of our times. DAVID M. JACOBS
Bibliography: Hendry, Allan, The UFO Handbook (1979); Hynek, J. Allen, The UFO
Experience: A Scientific Inquiry (1972); Jacobs, David M., The UFO Controversy
in America (1975); Sagan, Carl, and Page, Thornton, eds., UFOs: A Scientific
Debate (1973).
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