Project Sign
The first official USAF UFO investigation which started in January 1948. Its brief was to determine what UFOs were. It lasted until February 1949, its final report saying that 20% of the cases were unexplainable.
Project Sign was the first official U.S. Air Force program dedicated to the systematic investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), established in late 1947 and active through 1948. It was a direct predecessor to Project Grudge and ultimately to Project Blue Book.
Establishment
[edit | edit source]Project Sign was initiated at the end of 1947 at the specific request of General Nathan F. Twining, Chief of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, following the wave of widely publicized UFO sightings triggered by the Kenneth Arnold Sighting in June 1947 and the Roswell Incident the following month.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base became the home of Project Sign and all subsequent official USAF public UFO investigations.
The Estimate of the Situation
[edit | edit source]Project Sign's most significant and controversial product was its initial intelligence estimate — called the "Estimate of the Situation," written in late summer 1948. According to Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the estimate concluded that:
- Flying saucers were real craft.
- They were not manufactured by the Soviet Union or the United States.
- They were likely extraterrestrial in origin.
This conclusion was rejected by General Hoyt Vandenberg, the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, who cited a lack of physical proof. Vandenberg reportedly ordered the estimate burned, and Project Sign was subsequently dismantled.
Outcome
[edit | edit source]Project Sign was officially declared inconclusive. It was succeeded at the end of 1948 by Project Grudge.
Significance
[edit | edit source]Project Sign is notable for producing — at least according to Ruppelt's account — the only official U.S. government intelligence assessment to seriously consider the extraterrestrial hypothesis as a probable explanation for UFO reports. Its suppression by General Vandenberg set a precedent for how subsequent programs would handle evidence that pointed toward unconventional conclusions.
