Site Update
February 18, 2012
A Catalogue Of The More Interesting Australian UFO Reports.
Australian researcher Keith Basterfield has released another comprehensive catalogue.
A Catalogue Of The More Interesting Australian UFO Reports is a subjective listing of UFO reports sourced from books, journals, Australian government file archives, and material retrieved via FOIA requests.
Keith regards this collection as a sampling of the more interesting cases, some of which may yet be determined to have conventional explanations or yield more information. He welcomes corrections and additions to the catalogue.
February 8, 2012
Updated CFI/Research Proposal
Several years ago the SyFy Channel, with the aid of John Podesta, former Chief of Staff for President Clinton, started a campaign to press for the release of government documents dealing with UFOs under the title of the Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFI).
CFI solicited proposals from UFO researchers for a list of key UFO documents that might be secured via research or FOIA legal action. The Sign Historical Group produced a proposal which was not accepted within the tight deadline allowed for submissions. However, many of the proposed avenues for research have since produced new information and opened up new research opportunities.
The original proposal with updated findings and potential leads can be read here.
Two Papers from Dr. James E. McDonald
"UFOs – A CHALLENGE TO OBSERVATION"
Summary of address to participants in the Symposium on Meteorological Observations and Instrumentation, sponsored by the American Meteorological Society and other societies, Washington, D. C., February 13, 1969.
"UFOs – UNSOLVED: A SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGE"
Presented June 10, 1969, Washington, D.C., in a talk sponsored by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena - NICAP
December 23, 2011
Project Henry and "Project A"
During the early 1950s there were a number of official and private attempts to investigate unidentified flying objects. One of them was a sub-project run within Blue Book by J. Allen Hynek and his assistant Jennie Gluck (Zeidman) called Project HENRY. Jan Aldrich examines the various UFO research efforts in Project Henry.
One of the other research projects at this time was undertaken by Ohio Northern University. Known as "Project A", ONU requested sightings information from individuals as well as official groups in an effort to "find a logical explanation for the saucer appearances if possible, and to publicize the true findings." Read about Project A here
New Keith Basterfield Catalogues
Keith has added three new catalogues to his already impressive body of work.
A Catalogue Of Pre 24 June 1947 Australian Unidentified Aerial Phenomena documents pre-Kenneth Arnold "flying saucer" sightings in Australia. It is a "work in progress" and will be updated.
A Re-examination of the Zanthus Western Australia Aircraft Encounter of 22 August 1968 details Keith's investigation of an impressive UFO/aircraft encounter.
A Listing Of Reports From Woomera, South Australia, details various UFO reports from the restricted experimental military test and rocket range.
November 23, 2011
Back Online
The website is back online after an absence of over a month and we're pleased to present the following additions:
Lou Corbin, NICAP Member and WFBR Radio News Director.
Lou Corbin served in U.S. Army Intelligence during World War II and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was a friend and confidant of retired Marine Corps Major Donald E. Keyhoe and shared his interest in the subject of UFOs.
Corbin used his military and intelligence contacts to source information on UFO reports and the military response to them. In his role as News Director for radio station WFBR in Baltimore, Maryland, Corbin presented a topical program dealing with the subject of "Flying Saucers". Col Frank Milani, Baltimore's Civil Defense Director, appeared on the program and demanded that the U.S. Air Force "lessen the secrecy surrounding Unidentified Flying Objects"
The fallout from that program as well as a copy of the script from the WFBR broadcast is part of our look at the life of Lou Corbin WFBR Radio and NICAP Member.
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury
Frank Boyer Salisbury was born in Utah in 1926. He graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. (1951) and M.A. (1952) and received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (1955).
In April 1962 he published an article entitled "Martian Biology" in Science magazine, and received many letters pointing him towards the growing number of "Flying Saucer" reports. This led Salisbury to consider that if life was likely on other planets, perhaps extraterrestrial visitation was also a possibility.
Salisbury began a lengthy investigation of local UFO sightings and in 1968 submitted a written statement to the U. S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science and Astronautics Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects. Salisbury also wrote two articles for BioScience magazine: The Scientist and the UFO; and Recent Developments in the Study of UFOS
Salisbury's articles and House Committee presentation are available from the Sign Historical Group's Resource Page
September 20, 2009
Sign Oral History Project
Tom Tulien began the Sign Oral History Project in 1999 to record recollections of UFO witnesses, investigators officials, scientists, and other individuals associated with UFO history using archive-quality video media.
Tom has now launched his own dedicated website to host the fruits of his Sign Oral History Project and other planned exciting projects. Vist the SOHP at http://www.sohp.us/
December 10, 2005
Julian J. A. Hennessey - The U.K. Government and UFOs
For many years Julian Hennessey worked as NICAP's representative in Great Britain where he investigated a large number of cases in the U.K. and Europe. He was chairman of European Investigative Subcommittee #1 of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), and through persistent and meticulous efforts was able to create an impressive network of official and semi-official interest in UFO reports.
Some of this official interest was less than supportive, and many times Hennessey became a thorn in the side of British government officials who continued to insist that there was no real interest in UFO reports other than those with "possible defense implications".
Jan Aldrich presents an overview of Julian's work in this introduction to the previously unpublished essay, The U.K. Government and UFOs, in which Julian outlines some significant historical British UFO events and his own involvement with UFO research in the 60s and 70s.
July 17, 2005
Green Fireball and Ghost Rocket Chronologies
Joel Carpenter has produced two excellent Chronologies which examine in detail two of the most enduring aerial mysteries of modern times.
Green Fireballs Over Los Alamos introduces us to the "New Mexico Missile Crisis," a time when mysterious "green fireballs" were seen in the skies of the American Southwest overflying Top Secret military installations.
In a Green Fireball Chronology Joel Carpenter traces the history and people involved in trying to determine the origins of the elusive fireballs: Secret Russian weapons, a natural phenomenon, or something "not of this world"?
Before the 1947 wave of "flying saucer" sightings, there were mysterious objects being seen in the skies of Scandinavia. These "Ghost Rockets" were detected both visually and on radar, but their origin could not be determined. Had the Russians been able to exploit captured German rocket technology so quickly, or were these "ghosts" the precursors to the flying saucer and Green Fireball sightings? In a Ghost Rocket Chronology: Guided Missiles and UFOs, Joel explores the wide-ranging attempts to resolve and explain the "Ghost Rockets" during a time of rising political tensions and advances in rocket technology.
Paper Threat: Japanese Fu-Go balloons
Unknown aerial objects sighted in the skies over North America that were subject to strict media censorship and official secrecy... UFOs in the form of a new intercontinental weapon launched during the closing days of World War II that became known as Fu-Go.
The race to deal with the Fu-go weapon established the precedent for official secrecy when dealing with the recovery of suspected airborne artifacts. Several agencies and persons who had to deal with the Japanese balloon bombs later went on to play important roles in the investigation of Green Fireballs and UFOs.
Joel Carpenter's Paper Threat, the first intercontinental weapon system, documents the history of the Fu-go Balloon attacks and the many efforts by the government and military to deal with this new threat from the sky.
July 14, 2005
Keith Basterfield's New Catalogues
Australian researcher Keith Basterfield has completed work on seven recently updated catalogues which cover many aspects of UFO research.
These catalogues cover UFO sightings by aircraft passengers and crew, physical trace cases, UFO reports where photographs were taken, EM effects on vehicles, entity sightings and a comprehensive listing of UFO-related events in South Australia, the home of the Woomera Rocket Range.
Keith's catalogues can be read here
March 1, 2005
Minot AFB B-52 UFO Report
In 1968 numerous ground and air witnesses observed an unconventional aerial object as it maneuvered over the ICBM fields surrounding Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota.
Portions of this dramatic incident were recently dramatized in the ABC News Special television documentary Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs: Seeing is Believing
Thomas Tulien, Chairman of the Sign Historical Group, and James Klotz, veteran CUFON researcher, have been investigating these dramatic events for over five years and are close to releasing their comprehensive report. Details of the Minot AFB B-52 UFO Incident report can be read here.
October 30, 2004
UAL Flight 105
Just days after the Kenneth Arnold sighting of "flying saucers", the crew of United Air Lines flight 105 had their own astonishing encounter over Emmett, Idaho, on July 4, 1947.
January 3, 2004
Inventory of Material From The Files of Dr. Olavos T. Fontes
Dr. Willy Smith recently donated his collection of files to the Sign Historical Group. Included in this material were many items from the files of the renowned Brazilian UFO researcher, Dr. Olavos T. Fontes. An inventory of this material, along with Fontes-related items provided by other researchers, can be read here. A selection of Internet links referring to Fontes-related cases is also included.
