Highly Improbable Flight

I have just taken a trip into the distant past: 1948.

In order to understand how Dr. J. Allen Hynek wound up working for the Air Force's first UFO study effort, "Project Sign," I thought it might be helpful to read up on the Real McCoy: the actual Project Sign documents.

It's amazing, and instructive, to see how the Air Force approached the UFO problem 60-some years ago... The Introduction unequivocally states that the information gathered and assessed in Project Sign is to determine whether UFOs present a national security threat, then it goes on to classify four (4) different types of objects:

1. Flying discs, i.e., very low aspect ratio aircraft
2. Torpedo or cigar-shaped bodies with no wings or fins visible in flight
3. Spherical or balloon-shaped objects
4. Balls of light

It's kind of amazing to me that less than a year into the flying saucer phenomenon, the Air Force was able to identify four distinct styles...

In 1948, the U.S. Air Force was keenly aware that flying discs came in many shapes and sizes.

The Intro then goes on to say, "The possibility that some of the incidents may represent technical developments far in advance of knowledge available to engineers and scientists of this country has been considered. No facts are available to personnel at this Command that will permit an objective assessment of this possibility. All information so far presented on the possible existence of space ships from another planet or of aircraft propelled by an advanced type of atomic power plant have been largely conjecture. Based on experience with nuclear power plant research in this country, the existence on Earth of such engines of small enough size and weight to have powered the objects described is highly improbable."

So what they're saying is, hell yes, it's possible that these are atomic powered space ships from another planet!