ck fins or nobs. These crossed each other at intervals,
suggesting either rotation or oscillation of slow type.

No smoke, flames, propeller arcs, engine noise, or other plausible
or visible means of propulsion were noted. The color was silver,
resembling an aluminum-painted fabric, and did not appear as dense as
a parachute canopy.

When the object dropped to a level such that it came into line of
vision of the mountain tops, it was lost to the vision of the
observers.

It is estimated that the object was in sight about 90 seconds. Of
the five people sitting in the observation truck, four observed this
object.

The following is our opinion about this object:

It was man-made, as evidenced by the outline and functional
appearance.

Seeing this was not a hallucination or other fancies of sense.

Exactly four hours later the pilot of an F-51 was flying at 20,000
feet about 40 miles south of Muroc Air Base when he sighted a "flat
object of a light-reflecting nature." He reported that it had no
vertical fin or wings. When he first saw it, the object was above him
and he tried to climb up to it, but his F-51 would not climb high
enough. All air bases in the area were contacted but they had no
aircraft in the area.

By the end of July 1947 the UFO security lid was down tight. The few
members of the press who did inquire about what the Air Force was
doing got the same treatment that you would get today if you inquired
about the number of thermonuclear weapons stock-piled in the U.S.'s
atomic arsenal. No one, outside of a few high-ranking officers in the
Pentagon, knew what the people in the barbed-wire enclosed Quonset
huts that housed the Air Technical Intelligence Center were thinking
or doing.

The memos and correspondence that Project Blue Book inherited from
the old UFO projects told the story of the early flying saucer era.
These memos and pieces of correspondence showed that the UFO
situation was considered to be serious; in fact, very serious. The
paper work of that period also indicated the confusion that
surrounded the investigation; confusion almost to the point of panic.
The brass wanted an answer, quickly, and people were taking off in
all directions. Everyone's theory was as good as the next and each
person with any weight at ATIC was plugging and investigating his own
theory. The ideas as to the origin of the UFO's fell into two main
categories, earthly and non-earthly. In the earthly category the