ATIC soon got the word to set up a completely new project for the investigation and analysis of ufo reports.  Since I had made the review of past ufo reports I was the expert, and I got the new job.  It was given the code name Project Blue Book, and I was in charge of it until late in 1953.  During this time members of my staff and I traveled close to half a million miles.  We investigated dozens of ufo reports, and read and analyzed several thousand more.  These included every report ever received by the Air Force.

For the size of the task involved Project Blue Book was always understaffed, even though I did have ten people on my regular staff plus many paid consultants representing every field of science.  All of us on Project Blue Book had Top Secret security clearances so that security was no block in our investigations.  Behind this organization was a reporting network made up of every Air Force base intelligence officer and every Air Force radar station in the world, and the Air Defense Command’s Ground Observer Corps.  This reporting net sent Project Blue Book reports on every conceivable type of ufo, by every conceivable type of person.

What did these people actually see when they reported that they had observed a ufo?  Putting aside truly unidentifiable flying objects for the present, this question has several answers.

In many instances it has been positively proved that people have reported balloons, airplanes, stars, and many other common objects as UFO’s.  The people who make such reports don’t recognize these common objects because something in their surroundings temporarily assumes an unfamiliar appearance.

Unusual lighting conditions are a common cause of such illusions.  A balloon will glow like a “ball of fire” just at sunset.  Or an airplane that is not visible to the naked eye suddenly starts to reflect the sun’s rays and appears to be a “silver ball.”  Pilots in F-94 jet interceptors chase Venus in the daytime and fight with balloons at night, and people in Los Angeles see weird lights.

On October 8, 1954, many Los Angeles newspapers and newscasters carried an item about a group of flying saucers, bright lights, flying in a V formation.  The lights had been seen from many locations over Southern California.  Pilots saw them while bringing their airplanes into Los Angeles International Airport, Air Force pilots flying out of Long Beach saw them, two CBS reporters in Hollywood gave an eyewitness account, and countless people called police and civil defense officials.  All of them excitedly reported lights they could not identify.  The next day the Air Force identified the UFO’s; they were Air Force airplanes, KC-97 aerial tankers, refueling B-47 jet bombers in flight.  The reason for the weird effect that startled so many Southern Californians was that when the refueling is taking place a floodlight on the bottom of the tanker airplane lights up the bomber that is being refueled.  The airplanes were flying high, and slowly, so no sound was heard; only the bright floodlights could be seen.  Since most people, even other pilots, have never seen a night aerial refueling operation and could not identify the odd lights they saw, the lights became UFO’s.