Air Materiel Command Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1947-1948

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3. Investigations made

a. In addition to analyzing the reports concerning flying discs and other phenomena observed both in the United States and elsewhere in the world, the Directorate of Intelligence, USAF, has taken the following action:

(1) Requested the Air Material Command to conduct an independent investigation. The results of this study are contained in a Headquarters, AMC letter, Subject: "AMC Opinion Concerning 'Flying Discs'," dated 23 September 1947, which includes recommendations for further study of this problem.

(2) Sought information from appropriate agencies to determine whether the phenomena might be the result of highly classified project being conducted under United States auspices. Responses to date have not indicated existence of any American developmental work which might explain the reported observations.

(3) Submitted to a group of scientists the question whether the "flying saucer" observations might be the result of some natural phenomenon, such as falling meteors. While it was admitted there was a possibility some few of the incidents could have been caused by natural phenomena, the scientists concluded that such phenomena could not have been responsible for all of the observations.

(4) Requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation to check the possibility that the "flying saucer" episodes might be the result of a deliberately planned subversive effort to create mass hysteria, possibly Communist-inspired. Backgrounds of the first four persons who had reported sightings of flying disc were investigated by the FBI, with negative results in each case.

(5) Forwarded to the Air Weather Service a list of the first ten sightings reported by responsible persons for comparison with dates and locations of the release of meteorological balloons. The resultant check indicated there was no connection, or coincidence, between meteorological balloons aloft and the times, dates, and locations of the selected sightings.

(6) Investigated the possible existence of foreign aircraft projects which might be related to these observations. Of interest in this regard are two German designs that could be under current exploitation by the U.S.S.R.

(a) The Horten Brothers' "Parabola," a flying wing of low aspect ratio and a very low induced drag. The plan forms of this design were crescent shaped.

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