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The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Back in Print after 45 years, the book they didn't want you to Read. Edward Ruppelt was in Charge of the Air Forces Project Bluebook in the 50's. His book is one of the first that shows what the US government actually knows about UFO's. In this landmark work that is now republished with a forward by Drunvalo Melchizedek, Ruppelt discusses: Have US Jet Fighters ever fought with UFO's? Was the Maury Island Mystery a hoax? Did flying saucers ever really buzz the white house? Are there authentic photos of UFO's? And what is the true story behind the Lubbock Lights?
As the Houston Chronicle said in 1955 "Others who have written on this subject intimated they were conferring with officials in the inner sanctum. This book, which may well become the bible of the UFO devotees, makes clear that Ruppelt is the inner sanctum".
As the Houston Chronicle said in 1955 "Others who have written on this subject intimated they were conferring with officials in the inner sanctum. This book, which may well become the bible of the UFO devotees, makes clear that Ruppelt is the inner sanctum".
180 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2003
4 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Edward J. Ruppelt
14 books7 followersUnited States Air Force officer probably best known for his involvement in Project Blue Book, a formal governmental study of UFOs.
He is generally credited with coining the term "unidentified flying object", to replace the terms "flying saucer" and "flying disk" - which had become widely known - because the military thought them to be "misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance.
He is generally credited with coining the term "unidentified flying object", to replace the terms "flying saucer" and "flying disk" - which had become widely known - because the military thought them to be "misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance.
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April 16, 2025
THE HEAD OF PROJECT BLUE BOOK GIVES HIS THOUGHTS
Edward Ruppelt (1923-1960) was a USAF officer who was the head of Project Blue Book, after it replaced Project Grudge. He wrote in the Foreword to this 1956 book, “This is a book about unidentified flying objects---UFOs---‘flying saucers’; it is a report because it is the first time that anyone, either military or civilian, has brought together in one document all the facts about this fascinating subject. With the exception of style, this report is written exactly the way I would have written it had I been officially asked to do so while I was chief of the Air Force’s project for investigating UFO reports---'project Blue Book.’..
“It was only after considerable deliberation that I put this report together, because it had to be told accurately, with no holds barred. I finally decided to do it for two reasons. First, there is worldwide interest in flying saucers; people want to know the facts. But more often than not these facts have been obscured by secrecy and confusion, a situation that has led to wild speculation on one end of the scale and an almost dangerously blasé attitude on the other. It is only when all of the facts are laid out that a correct evaluation can be made.
“Second, after spending two years investigating and analyzing UFO reports, after talking to the people who have seen UFOs… and after discussing the subject with many very capable scientists, I felt that I was in a position to be able to put together the complete account of the Air Force’s struggle with the flying saucer.
This report has been difficult to write because it involves something that doesn’t officially exist… the Air Force has officially said that there is no proof that such a thing as an interplanetary spaceship exists. But what is not well known is that this conclusion is far from being unanimous among the military and their scientific advisers because of the one word, ‘proof’; so the UFO investigations continue. The hassle over the word ‘proof’ boils down to one question: what constitutes proof? Does a UFO have to land at the … Pentagon[?]… Or is it proof when a ground radar station detects a UFO, sends a jet to intercept it, the jet pilot sees it, and locks on with his radar, only to have the UFO streak away at a phenomenal speed? Is it proof when a jet pilot fires at a UFO and sticks to his story even under the threat of court-martial? The … answer may be the answer to the question, ‘Do the UFOs really exist? I’ll give you the facts---all of the facts—you decide.”
He describes in detail one UFO report, then comments, “The problems involved in this report are typical. There are certain definite facts… the pilot did see something and he did shoot at something, but no matter how thoroughly you investigate the incident that something can never be positively identified. It might have been a hallucination or it might have been some vehicle from outer space; no one will ever know. It was a UFO.” (Pg. 5)
He includes another report (from 1947) from a crew of technicians, which stated, “No smoke… engine noise, or other .. means of propulsion were noted. The color was silver… It is estimated that the object was in sight about 90 seconds… The following is our opinion about this object: It was man-made, as evidenced by the outline and functional appearance. Seeing this was not a hallucination or other fancies of sense.” (Pg. 21-22)
He recalls, “Dr. J. Allen Hynek was one of the most impressive scientists I met while working on the UFO project, and I met a good many. He didn’t do two things that some of them did: give you the answer before he knew the question; or immediately begin to expound on his accomplishments in the field of science.” (Pg. 35)
He explains, “Why can’t experienced pilots recognize a balloon when they see one? If they are flying at night, odd things can happen to their vision. There is the problem of vertigo as well as disorientation brought on by flying without points of reference. Night fighters have told dozens of stories of being fooled by lights.” (Pg. 45)
He recounts, “the official attitude toward UFOs had drastically changed in the past few months. They didn’t exist, they couldn’t exist… Any further investigation by the Army would be a waste of time and effort. This drastic change in official attitude … was difficult for many people who knew what was going on inside Project Sign to believe… On one side was the faction that still believed in flying saucers… On the other side were those who didn’t believe in flying saucers. At one time many of them had been believers… Many of them could see the ‘I don’t believe’ band wagon pulling out in front and just jumped on. This change in operating policy… was so pronounced that … many people, wondered if there was a hidden reason for the change… This period of ‘mind changing’ bothered me… From what I could see… any mind changing… should have been… sceptics changing to believers. Maybe I was just playing the front man to a big cover-up… The anti-saucer faction was born because of an old psychological trait, people don’t like to be losers… The people on the UFO project began to think that the brass didn’t consider them too sharp so they tried a new hypothesis: UFOs don’t exist… The new look in UFOs was officially acknowledged… when an order … changed the name of the UFO project from Project Sign to Project Grudge.” (Pg. 58-59)
He continues, “With the new name … came the new objective, get rid of the UFOs… it didn’t take much effort to see that this was the goal of Project Grudge… To reach their objective Project Grudge … opened a new age in the history of the UFO… the ‘Dark Ages’ would be [the] most appropriate [title].” (Pg. 60)
Of the ‘Lubbock Lights’ in 1951, he comments, “it is… one of the most interesting and most controversial collection of UFO sightings ever reported… they weren’t birds, they weren’t refracted light, but they weren’t spaceships. The lights… have been positively identified as a very common and easily explainable natural phenomenon. It is very unfortunate that I can’t divulge exactly the way the answer was found because… I promised the man complete anonymity.” (Pg. 110)
He notes, “Radar… will give an accurate measurement of speed and altitude… but radar is not infallible. There is always the problem of weather. To get accurate radar data on a UFO, it is always necessary to prove that it wasn’t weather that was causing the target… radar reports… shouldn’t take the place of visual sightings.” (Pg. 117)
He reports “a long period of close cooperation between Project Grudge and ADC [Air Defense Command]… None of them were believers in flying saucers, but they recognized the fact that UFO reports were a problem that must be considered. With technological progress what it is today, you can’t afford to have ANYTHING in the air that you can’t identify, be it balloons, meteors, planets or flying saucers.” (Pg. 128)
He asserts, “No flying saucer report in the history of the UFO ever won more world acclaim than the Washington National Sightings… Besides being the most highly publicized UFO sightings in the Air Force annals, they were also the most monumentally fouled-up messes that repose in the files.” (Pg. 156) Later, he adds, “the Washington National Airport Sightings are still unknown. Had the press been aware of some other UFO activity in the United States during this period, the Washington sightings might not have been the center of interest..” (Pg. 170-171)
He concludes, “I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to what the final outcome of the UFO investigation will be, but I am sure that within a few years there will be a proven answer… Maybe the final answer will be that all UFOs that have been reported are merely misidentified known objects. Or maybe… the earth is being visited by interplanetary spaceships. Only time will tell.” (Pg. 243)
This book will be of great interest to anyone studying UFOs.
.
Edward Ruppelt (1923-1960) was a USAF officer who was the head of Project Blue Book, after it replaced Project Grudge. He wrote in the Foreword to this 1956 book, “This is a book about unidentified flying objects---UFOs---‘flying saucers’; it is a report because it is the first time that anyone, either military or civilian, has brought together in one document all the facts about this fascinating subject. With the exception of style, this report is written exactly the way I would have written it had I been officially asked to do so while I was chief of the Air Force’s project for investigating UFO reports---'project Blue Book.’..
“It was only after considerable deliberation that I put this report together, because it had to be told accurately, with no holds barred. I finally decided to do it for two reasons. First, there is worldwide interest in flying saucers; people want to know the facts. But more often than not these facts have been obscured by secrecy and confusion, a situation that has led to wild speculation on one end of the scale and an almost dangerously blasé attitude on the other. It is only when all of the facts are laid out that a correct evaluation can be made.
“Second, after spending two years investigating and analyzing UFO reports, after talking to the people who have seen UFOs… and after discussing the subject with many very capable scientists, I felt that I was in a position to be able to put together the complete account of the Air Force’s struggle with the flying saucer.
This report has been difficult to write because it involves something that doesn’t officially exist… the Air Force has officially said that there is no proof that such a thing as an interplanetary spaceship exists. But what is not well known is that this conclusion is far from being unanimous among the military and their scientific advisers because of the one word, ‘proof’; so the UFO investigations continue. The hassle over the word ‘proof’ boils down to one question: what constitutes proof? Does a UFO have to land at the … Pentagon[?]… Or is it proof when a ground radar station detects a UFO, sends a jet to intercept it, the jet pilot sees it, and locks on with his radar, only to have the UFO streak away at a phenomenal speed? Is it proof when a jet pilot fires at a UFO and sticks to his story even under the threat of court-martial? The … answer may be the answer to the question, ‘Do the UFOs really exist? I’ll give you the facts---all of the facts—you decide.”
He describes in detail one UFO report, then comments, “The problems involved in this report are typical. There are certain definite facts… the pilot did see something and he did shoot at something, but no matter how thoroughly you investigate the incident that something can never be positively identified. It might have been a hallucination or it might have been some vehicle from outer space; no one will ever know. It was a UFO.” (Pg. 5)
He includes another report (from 1947) from a crew of technicians, which stated, “No smoke… engine noise, or other .. means of propulsion were noted. The color was silver… It is estimated that the object was in sight about 90 seconds… The following is our opinion about this object: It was man-made, as evidenced by the outline and functional appearance. Seeing this was not a hallucination or other fancies of sense.” (Pg. 21-22)
He recalls, “Dr. J. Allen Hynek was one of the most impressive scientists I met while working on the UFO project, and I met a good many. He didn’t do two things that some of them did: give you the answer before he knew the question; or immediately begin to expound on his accomplishments in the field of science.” (Pg. 35)
He explains, “Why can’t experienced pilots recognize a balloon when they see one? If they are flying at night, odd things can happen to their vision. There is the problem of vertigo as well as disorientation brought on by flying without points of reference. Night fighters have told dozens of stories of being fooled by lights.” (Pg. 45)
He recounts, “the official attitude toward UFOs had drastically changed in the past few months. They didn’t exist, they couldn’t exist… Any further investigation by the Army would be a waste of time and effort. This drastic change in official attitude … was difficult for many people who knew what was going on inside Project Sign to believe… On one side was the faction that still believed in flying saucers… On the other side were those who didn’t believe in flying saucers. At one time many of them had been believers… Many of them could see the ‘I don’t believe’ band wagon pulling out in front and just jumped on. This change in operating policy… was so pronounced that … many people, wondered if there was a hidden reason for the change… This period of ‘mind changing’ bothered me… From what I could see… any mind changing… should have been… sceptics changing to believers. Maybe I was just playing the front man to a big cover-up… The anti-saucer faction was born because of an old psychological trait, people don’t like to be losers… The people on the UFO project began to think that the brass didn’t consider them too sharp so they tried a new hypothesis: UFOs don’t exist… The new look in UFOs was officially acknowledged… when an order … changed the name of the UFO project from Project Sign to Project Grudge.” (Pg. 58-59)
He continues, “With the new name … came the new objective, get rid of the UFOs… it didn’t take much effort to see that this was the goal of Project Grudge… To reach their objective Project Grudge … opened a new age in the history of the UFO… the ‘Dark Ages’ would be [the] most appropriate [title].” (Pg. 60)
Of the ‘Lubbock Lights’ in 1951, he comments, “it is… one of the most interesting and most controversial collection of UFO sightings ever reported… they weren’t birds, they weren’t refracted light, but they weren’t spaceships. The lights… have been positively identified as a very common and easily explainable natural phenomenon. It is very unfortunate that I can’t divulge exactly the way the answer was found because… I promised the man complete anonymity.” (Pg. 110)
He notes, “Radar… will give an accurate measurement of speed and altitude… but radar is not infallible. There is always the problem of weather. To get accurate radar data on a UFO, it is always necessary to prove that it wasn’t weather that was causing the target… radar reports… shouldn’t take the place of visual sightings.” (Pg. 117)
He reports “a long period of close cooperation between Project Grudge and ADC [Air Defense Command]… None of them were believers in flying saucers, but they recognized the fact that UFO reports were a problem that must be considered. With technological progress what it is today, you can’t afford to have ANYTHING in the air that you can’t identify, be it balloons, meteors, planets or flying saucers.” (Pg. 128)
He asserts, “No flying saucer report in the history of the UFO ever won more world acclaim than the Washington National Sightings… Besides being the most highly publicized UFO sightings in the Air Force annals, they were also the most monumentally fouled-up messes that repose in the files.” (Pg. 156) Later, he adds, “the Washington National Airport Sightings are still unknown. Had the press been aware of some other UFO activity in the United States during this period, the Washington sightings might not have been the center of interest..” (Pg. 170-171)
He concludes, “I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to what the final outcome of the UFO investigation will be, but I am sure that within a few years there will be a proven answer… Maybe the final answer will be that all UFOs that have been reported are merely misidentified known objects. Or maybe… the earth is being visited by interplanetary spaceships. Only time will tell.” (Pg. 243)
This book will be of great interest to anyone studying UFOs.
.
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