[ExI] The Scientific Study of UFOs

[Terry W. Colvin]

This is an extract of my college term paper: 

Hostile Skeptics and True Believers -- A Fortean Approach 
Terry W. Colvin 
Western International University 
CAP 485 Integrated Capstone 
Professor -- Dr. Loyd Ray Ganey Jr. April 29, 2004 

I now have a BA in Behavioral Science.

Terry 




              The Scientific Study of UFOs 

Careful reading of the full report reveals that 25-33 percent 
of the reports remained unsolved.  Condon's personal views and 
his laissez-faire oversight contributed to the personality 
conflicts, hypocrisy, and incompetence of the work and to the 
overall negative tone of the report's executive summary 
(conclusion).  Media reviewers read only the conclusion 
and scanned the numerous technical chapters thereby contri-
buting to downplaying any need for further study. Case studies 
and a brief history of UFOs lead to the "scientific context" 
chapters, e.g. perception and reporting, optics, radar, sonic 
boom, atmospheric electricity and plasma, and balloons. 
Twenty-four appendices give the flavor of U.S. government 
handling of UFO reports from the late 1940s through the 
late 1960s. Critics such as Dr. J. Allen Hynek, USAF con-
sultant on Project Blue Book, and Dr. James E. McDonald, a 
University of Arizona atmospheric physicist, stated the 
Condon Report was a setup to rid the USAF of its public 
relations nightmare and that some allegedly explained cases 
were actually unknowns, respectively. See web site: 
< http://www.ncas.org/condon/ > for the complete study 
on-line (Condon, 1969). "The 1968 Scientific Study of 
Unidentified Flying Objects is presented complete with 
graphics, equations and photographs. This was the final 
report of a US Air Force-funded university study per-
formed by Edward U. Condon et al. It is sometimes called 
"Project Blue Book", named after the Air Force structure 
for handling UFO reports prior to 1966." [Published review 
of Terry W. Colvin in Fortean Times] The U.S. Air Force 
beat a hasty retreat out of the official UFO business 
following an independent evaluation of its work by the 
University of Colorado. Headed by physicist Edward Condon, 
the two-year Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects
drew three conclusions: 

1) UFOs didn't represent a technology beyond the 1969 level 
of understanding; 
2) they didn't threaten national security; and 
3) continued study of the phenomenon probably wouldn't 
contribute anything to modern science (Condon, 1969). 

Statement by Dr. McDonald: "The Condon Report, released in 
January, 1968, after about two years of Air Force-supported 
study is, in my opinion, quite inadequate.  The sheer bulk 
of the Report, and the inclusion of much that can only be 
viewed as "scientific padding", cannot conceal from anyone 
who studies it closely the salient point that it represents 
an examination of only a tiny fraction of the most puzzling 
UFO reports of the past two decades, and that its level of 
scientific argumentation is wholly unsatisfactory. Further-
more, of the roughly 90 cases that it specifically confronts, 
over 30 are conceded to be unexplained.  With so large a 
fraction of unexplained cases (out of a sample that is by 
no means limited only to the truly puzzling cases, but 
includes an objectionably large number of obviously trivial 
cases), it is far from clear how Dr. Condon felt justified 
in concluding that the study indicated "that further 
extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the 
expectation that science will be advanced thereby (Condon, 1969).


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Terry W. Colvin
Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand
Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand
http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/
[Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site]