For UFO Study? - The Black Vault

i • . : ' • . ' . . • • . ' • • • - .
. caused by anomulous propagation. ,-V ""'•",,,. " ' "-?'. "^ to 1968, Hartmunn concluded that nine
* Targets with the same general char- V"'"^~" """^Ns.
wcre probably fakes, seven were misacteristics
were picked up under simi- f '"* /!/'^'-':\ . identified natural phenomena, 12 prolar
weather conditions 3 days after the j '• ' :/ ' - ,%.'\ .
;
vided insufficient data for analysis, and
original sighting, and were picked up , J ' - •'_ " ; ." -'''-V : •' seven wcre possible fakes. None proved
on still a third occasion while SRI ex-
!^ .- "• ^ , r ' '^ to be "real objects with high strangeperts
were on the scene. , ^^. j^,^-->"^l^"^ tV"** ness." •'"••
R. T. H. Collis, of SRI, called the •... ^ f-. ^'""" X " f ''', ! ""-'• ' - ' Of 18 older "classic" cases studied,
Vandenberg episode "a landmark case v.
" "' v,T>-^';>,, V ,"_*•'. Hartmann concluded that only two
. in the whole area of UFO studies" and .. • ~^ . j \"., '>\ -. _ cases raised perplexing questions.. One
said it provided an "important object .,'. l ; -..'*'-: ^T^," - : H was a 1950 McMinnvile, Oregon, case,
lesson" in how specific sightings can :'.'.' \, . ?! ^' $- / K,. which involved photographs that Conbe
inappropriately juxtaposed and mis- ; ^2 _ „,* '-.•':.'' L T'N,, ^on called "too fuzzy" for good analinterpreted
to produce a seemingly . ^^f 1'v'"''"''***"'• ''•• - ^ y s ' ls> ^ut wmcn Hartmann identified
mysterious event. f^'I" ' I '-~lk ;^V-vVV»>! as "one of the few UFO reports in
The-Colorado report is laced with L ,, ' ' J \'/~^^ f'•'•" '-'' •-'' which all factors investigated, geoother
examples of puzzling UFO inci- t— —->>• •— •'< ' &M -- £.;.. '^ j .V-.i'. \ metric, psychological, and physical, apdents
that suddenly became less myste- Edward U.'Condon P ear to nc consistent with the assertion
riotis when they were subjected to sci-
that an extraordinary flying object, silentific
scrutiny. The examples are too very, metallic, disk-shaped, tens of
numerous to review in detail, but the extraterrestrial intelligence, is needed ' meters in diameter, and evidently artifollowing
three cases will give some idea to explain UFO's. • • . ficial, flew within sight of two witof
the extent to which sophisticated lab- t* Many UFO reports allege that nesses." The other case involved movies
oratory techniques were able to shed automobile ignitions, engines, or head- taken at Great Falls. Montana, in 1950
light on the UFO problem. lights have failed when UFO's hovered which seemingly indicated the presence
> One of the most dramatic bits, of overhead, presumably because the UFO of "real.objects with high strangeness."
:
physical evidence cited to prove that . had been the source of a strong mag- However, Hartmann said p his study
flying saucers arc "real" is a piece of netic field. However, the Colorado turned up no "conclusive evidence" of
magnesium that supposedly came from project was unable to detect any mag- the existence of "flying saucers."
: a flying disk that exploded off the netization in the few such cases it stud- The two perplexing photographic
coast of Brazil in 1957. The case was icd. In one case, a seemingly responsi- cases wcre not the only UFO incidents
first publicized by a Brazilian society We woman reported that her car that the Colorado project was unable
columnist who claimed he had received seemed to be under the control of a to explain. Perhaps the most puzthe
metal from a fisherman who wit- UFO, and that various mechanical and zling incident ocurred at Lakennessed
the explosion, though the fisher- electrical functions were later found to heath Air Base in England in 1956.
man has never been located or idcnti- be impaired. Ford Motor Company A UFO that seemed to be traveling at
fied. An interested UFO buff obtained specialists who examined the car 2 great speed, perhaps 4000 miles per
the metal from the columnist and, ac- months later found no faults not attrib- hour, wus tracked by radar operators
cording to his account, had it analyzed utable to ordinary causes, and no sig- on the ground, simultaneously with apin
a Brazilian government laboratory, nificant magnetic or radioactive anom- patently corresponding visual sightings
where analysis supposedly showed it to alics. .
:
-of round, white, rapidly moving obbe
of greater purity than human tech- > Since much of the evidence cited jccts which changed directions rapidly. •
no.logy could produce. by UFO enthusiasts involves photo- Two fighters were sent up to intercept
The Colorado project managed to graphs of supposed flying objects, the the UFO. One pilot even reported airobtain
a sample of this magnesium and Colorado project analyzed numerous borne radar contact and radar gunhad
it analyzed by neutron activation. available photographs with great care. lock, but no sooner were his guns
the most sensitive analytical method Using sophisticated geometric tech- locked on, than the UFO seemed to
currently available, in a laboratory of niques that require a pair of pictures whiz around behind him. The UFO
the Internal Revenue Service. The showing substantially the same scene then tailed the plane despite intense
magnesium turned out to be "not near- from two different camera locations, a evasive maneuvers by the pilot. Conly
so pure" as magnesium produced in photogrammetrist employed by the tact was not broken until the aircraft
1957 by Dow Chemical Company. It Raytheon Company was able to dem- returned to base, low on fuel. Gordon
did, contain an unusual pattern of im- onstrate that one widely publicized D. Thayer, who conducted optical and
purities, most notably a relatively high pair of UFO photos-from Roseville, radar analyses for the project; calls
strontium concentration, but Dow rec- Ohio, had been taken in a sequence, this "the most puzzling and unusual
ords indicate that as early as 1940 the and at a time interval, different from case in the radar-visual files. The apcompany's
laboratories made mag- that claimed by the owner of the pic- parently rational, intelligent behavior
nesium containing essentially the same tures. of the UFO suggests a mechanical deconcentration
of strontium. Most of the photographic detective vice of unknown origin as the most
Interestingly enough, Saunders, the work was performed by .William K. probable explanation of this sighting."
psychologist formerly associated with Hartmann of the University of Ari- The scientists who criticize the Con-.
the project, cites the pattern of impuri- zona, and involved such techniques as don report attach great significance to
ties in the Brazilian case as one of analyzing shadow patterns or other de- the residue of perplexing cases, and
fhrcc "facts" that lead him to conclude tails in the picture. Of 35 photographic suggest that even a few such cases may
that a new theory, possibly involving cases investigated, from (he years 1966 indicate that there is an extraterrestrial
17 JANUARY 1969 . • ' 2 6 1