collect and evaluate all information relating to UFO sightings which could be construed as of concern to the national security. Captain Edward Ruppelt claimed that Project SAUCER was the informal name of Project SIGN and it was designated a high priority. However, in an interview with an employee of Project SIGN, the employee claimed the project started a year earlier, in 1946, and that Project SAUCER was its original, informal name.[3] A dearth of data and information is associated with this effort.[4]
Project SAUCER investigated one of the first well-known accounts provided by a private pilot, Kenneth Arnold. The pilot claimed that on June 23, 1947, while flying near Mount Rainier, Washington, he saw nine, large circular objects flying in a formation, objects that periodically flipped and were traveling at 1,700 miles per hour. He also compared the flight characteristics as the "tail of a Chinese kite."[5][6] Arnold described their shape as "saucer-like aircraft." His account was picked up by several media outlets, and the term "flying saucer" emerged.[7]
Results: Project SAUCER did not find evidence of extraterrestrial technology.
Project SIGN (January 1948–February 1949)
Background: Project SAUCER was formalized into an official, high-priority program named Project SIGN. The Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) assumed control of Project SIGN on January 23, 1948. (ATIC later became the National Air and Space Intelligence Center NASIC). The impetus for this effort was to determine if these objects might be Soviet secret weapons or "extra-planetary" objects. The staff seemed confident that after a few months of work they could reach a conclusion. As part of their work, the staff at Project SIGN reviewed all of the military's intelligence on German weaponry and aeronautical capabilities to determine if some might have fallen into Soviet possession.[8]
Results: The project evaluated 243 reported UFO sightings, and in February 1949, it concluded that "no definite and conclusive evidence is yet available that would prove or disprove the existence of these unidentified objects as real aircraft of unknown and unconventional configuration."[9] Project SIGN determined that nearly all were caused by either misinterpretation of known objects, hysteria, hallucination, or hoax.[10] It also recommended continued military intelligence control over the investigation of all sightings. It did not rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial phenomena.
- Although the historical account is unsubstantiated and derived from only one source, Project SIGN staff in late July 1948 allegedly drafted, signed, and sent a report ("Estimate of the Situation") up the military chain for approval. This report allegedly concluded that UFOs were "interplanetary" in origin, but it was rejected by USAF Chief of Staff General Hoyt S. Vandenberg as lacking proof.[11]
- This rejected report may have resulted in the Pentagon leadership's loss of confidence in the staff at Project SIGN leading to the establishment of Project GRUDGE, which some sources claim possessed an institutional bias for debunking UFO claims.[12]
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