UFOs and Roswell
What are UFOs?
UFO stands for "Unidentified Flying Object". Let's look at each word:
- Object = (Obvious.) Something.
- Flying = (Obvious.) Not on the ground.
- Unidentified = The person reporting it does not know what it is.
It's the third one that gets people in trouble.
In 1969, the year the Air Force issued a summary of its Project Blue Book findings. In there is this breakdown of the 887 sightings documented in 1965:
- Astronomical events 245 (27.6%)
- Aircraft 210 (23.7%)
- Satellites 152 (17.1%)
- Hoaxes, imagination 126 (14.2%)
- Insufficient data supplied 85 (9.6%)
- Weather balloons 36 (4.1%)
- Still being processed 17 (1.9%)
- Unidentified 16 (1.8%)
Skeptical Inquirer Jan-Feb 2009; Vol.33, Issue 1 - the whole issue is devoted to UFOs
Here is a synthesis of the Roswell Myth
Flying Saucers and Frank Scully
Resources
- DOD wrap-up of Project Blue Book
- Iron Skeptic analysis of Gulf Breeze incident
- Staging a UFO hoax
- And... on the other hand
outline