DOW-UAP-D097, Project Sign Progress Report, 1948
This file contains an initial report from the Air Materiel Command regarding Project Sign. Project Sign was a 1948-1949 U.S. Air Force program to investigate the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFO). The report details 100 UFO sightings from 1947-1948. The file also contains an article excerpted from “The Aeroplane,” an aviation-focused periodical magazine published between 1911 and 1968, titled “The Biology of the Flying Saucer.”
The summary above is sourced from the released file metadata as published to war.gov. The analysis sections below are original to this tracker.
Text of the document
Machine-extracted from the PDF war.gov published (its text layer or OCR), so expect errors, especially in names, numbers and handwriting; the PDF is the authoritative copy. Lines that did not extract as readable text are left out. Showing about 1000 words from pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 of 45.
PAGE 1
AIR KATERI BL COWAND Wright-Patterson Air Force Base SUBJECT, Projeot "BIOi" • TOs Chief of Staft United Statea ilr Poree ATTN s Director ot Int-,lligenoe l. Thie ie an initial report on unidentified flying objecta aa direoted by Rq, USAY letter dated SO Deoember 1947, signed by General submitted beginning 1 July 1948. tion ot reports received directly by Hq, AMC and thoee forwa.rded by the Direotor ot Intelligence, USAF. ~. Schedules of activities of lighted night-flying adTertising blimps have been secured a.nd crosa-oheoked at thi.a Headquarters to consider them as a possible souroe ot incident nporta. 4. Inoloaure l represents a tabulation am breakdoWll of all available reports through l February 1948. 5o The following ia a series of interesting observation• that were noted when rev19Wing the many incident 0ase11 a. Rigll rate of olimb, aa well aa the apparent a.bi lity to remain mot1onleu or hover for a oonBiderable length of tiu o bo The objeot was described aa being oval, d1ac or 1auoer- t ehaped ~l times. d. Reported sizes have varied from that of a 26-oent pitoe to 260 feet in diameter, and from the aise or a puraui t plane to tht ePulk of six B-29 airpl.&nea.
PAGE 2
Subject, Project "SIG!i" e. »umber of objects per aighting, t. Exhaust traile were reported 23 times. g. Speed has been eetime.ted throughout the entire range from very alow or hovering to supersonio. 6. Incloaures 2 and 5 are anlargementa of photographt taken of Incident f40o Inoloaure 4 1s an evaluation of inolosure 2 by thie Headquarters. Attention 1s iovited to the marked aimilarity between incloaurea 2 ands. and inoloaure 6. Similarity also exiata between 7. Representatives from tbie Headquartere visited Dr. Ining Langmuir of the P~sea.rch Laboratories. General Electric Comp&ny. Schenectady, N. Y. to discuss Project "SIGN". It was the opinion of this acienti st that prosent a.vai l!I. ble data does not encompass suffi cient information to enable a positive identific~tion to be ma.deo Dr. :.a.n&muir was relucts.nt to consider the so-called "flying discsM as a reality. However, it io be'lieved at this neadquarters that it is possible to oonstruot a low aspeot ratio airoraft that would d~pli oate many of the appearance and performance oharaoteriatics of reported "flyint discs~. Experts have agreed that thie would be possible through the intelligent application of boun:lary layer control. FOR THE COMMANDING GENERAL: 2. Photo Chief ot Intelligence 4. Eval of Incl 2 6. Horten Parabola 6. Biology of I'lying Se.ucor
PAGE 3
No. Date Hour Location Sighted P'rom Air Field, Muroc, Calif. ll Jul not stated Seattle, Xashington l r.:.round Redmon, Oregon l!S not stated not stated Toronto, Canada 1 Ground
PAGE 4
Incident No. Observed No. Date dour Location Sighted From 26 10 Jul 47 not stated Harmon Field, Newfoundland l Ground 10 Jul 47 Hamon Field, bewfoundland l Ground 29 23 Jun 47 not stated Bakersfield., Calif. 10 Ground 31 mid-December early a.m. Northern Arizona l Ground 32 not stated after dark Columbus, Ohio 1 llr 7 Jan 41! 133&.l'T,OO"' Oocbnan Field, Ky. (south of) 1 Ground south of Cape dlanco, 20 miles \
PAGE 8
Incident Observer' s No . Occupation Jo1aneuvers Heatner le s/sgt, USAF Not stated ~!ot stated le ~fot stated Horizontal anrl tipht circles !lot stated 2 :Uaj, USAF Descended from an intennediate Not stated altitude in an oscillating fashion almost to the ground, then started climbing again to a very high altitude and moved off slowly in the distance. 3 liajor, USAF Oscillating in a downward twirl- Not stated ing movement 4 Capt, USAF Falling at three times the rate ?!ot stated of a parachute 5 Patr olman, ?ortland Dippi nP, up and down in oscillat-- Not stated Police Dept. ing motion 6 Sgt, Oregon Police Following each otner Clear with little or no cloud forma 7 Patr olman, Portland Not stated Clear with little Police Dept., former or no cloud forma Air Force pilot tion Patrolman, Portland Straight line formation; last Clear with little Police Dept. Pri disc fluttered very rapidly in or no cloud for.na vate pilot side-way arc tion Patrolman, Portland Strai~ht line fonnation; last Clear with little Police Dept . ?ri disc fluttered very rapidly in or no cloud forma vate pilot side-way- are tion 9 Capt., Harbot pilot Discs wo'.lld oscillat e and Not stated times a full disc would be vis~ ibl e, then a half-moon shape, t hen nothing at all
PAGE 9
Incident ObaerTer' s 10 Capt, United Airlines Straight-away horizontal flight lot stated ll Coast Guard Horizontal flight Kot stated 12 Deputy Sheriff Mot stated Not stated lS !lot stated Not stated Bot stated 14 Sot ste.ted FUpping around Mot stated 15 Jot stated Not stated Iot stated 16 Mot stated Hot stated Mot stated 17 Private pilot Straight horizontal flight Clear as crystal 18 llot stated Horizontal flight Clear 19 Farmer Straight course - were flying Cloudless and about a city block apart. one sunny behind the other 20 lot stated Straight course lot stated 21 lot stated Single file Rot stated 22 Wot stated Flashing Bot stated 24 lot stated Shooting up and down Clear 25 Not stated Hori&ontal flight Bright moonlight 26 llecba.nic lot atated Not stated 27 TWA Representative llot stated Clear 28 Lt Governor lot stated Kot stated 29 ffest Coe.st Pilot. Bot stated lot stated 30 Ca.pt. USAF. Asst Climbing and descending ver- Solid overcast Operations Officer tioally turns around one place. Moved to another position and circled more. Turns required 30-40 seo. Diaaeter estimated at 2 miles.
PAGE 10
Incident Observer's loo Occupation Maneuvers Weather SOb Traffic Air Controller Bobbing up and down Overcast 30o lot a~ated Climbing and de~oending High overcast Profe11or and Bead Mone Clear or Aero Kn.gineering T/Sgt, USAF Jone High acattered olouds Visibility unlimited. High scattered lfot stated 33c Capt, USA1 Kay have been turning High overcast with BIS High ecattered, vi ei bility unlimited Col, Ky. State Police Kone 3:Sf Capt, USAF (Plight Not stated :S3g Unknown Mot stated Not stated 34 Judge Bone 36 CAA Official Sot stated Rot stated
Where this file fits in the PURSUE archive
This file is one of DoD's 282 files in the Trump PURSUE disclosure. Within the DoD agency block it ranks #154 of 282 by Anomalousness Index. Across the entire 478-file archive it ranks #278 of 478.
That places it in the lower-scoring band of the archive (278 of 478 by score), typical of investigative-record style files where the report is paper-based rather than instrumented.
Anomalousness Index: 56/100
Evidentiary weight that this encounter remains unexplained after conventional analysis. Not a probability of extraterrestrial origin - that number is not honestly computable from the released files and this tracker refuses to publish it.
🤖 AI-ASSISTED SCORING · methodology
The six rubric components break down for this file as follows. Each component has a weighted contribution to the final score; the per-component explanation below describes what this file's particular value on that component means in the rubric's framework.
Reported by a witness with no instrumented record. The lowest tier in the rubric's sensor axis. Eyewitness perception in field conditions, even when the witness is highly credentialed, scores below capture by any instrumented modality. This report reached the federal record through the Department of War.
Trained U.S. military personnel reporting from an operational mission context. A high witness-credibility tier, ranked in the rubric below astronaut, trained-aviator, and federal-agent testimony. This is the witness profile shared by the entire AARO-submitted infrared-capture cluster that anchors the 66-point score band.
Single-witness or single-instrument capture. This is the corroboration tier for the overwhelming majority of the PURSUE archive on the released metadata - the rubric records the honest limit of the underlying record rather than inferring multi-witness corroboration that the released summaries do not establish. A small number of files with an independent second witness or instrument score on the multi-witness/multi-instrument tier above this one.
No kinematic measurements - speed, acceleration, vector - are published in the released file with sufficient precision to score on the kinematic axis. The rubric does not infer kinematic anomaly from narrative observer estimates. Every file in the archive carries this value, which is itself an observation about the disclosure: kinematic-grade telemetry was not part of what was released.
A conventional candidate explanation has been considered but is not dispositive. Every file in the archive scores this way - reflecting that the underlying release metadata systematically caveats strong determinations in either direction. The released summaries warn against reading them as conclusive analytical judgments, and the rubric respects that.
Released as open after formal review by the originating agency. The file passed through a review process and was published in that posture - a stronger disposition signal than 'unresolved with no review,' because review has occurred and the open status is the agency's published conclusion.
Bottom line on the score: the Anomalousness Index of 56/100 reflects evidentiary weight that this specific file's encounter remains structurally unexplained by the rubric's six axes - it is not a claim that the underlying event involved anything non-conventional, and it is not comparable across rubrics that use different weights. For the full per-axis weights and the rubric JSON, see /methodology.
Related files in DoD
Other PURSUE files in the same category, ranked by Anomalousness Index.
DOW-UAP-PR024, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023
DOW-UAP-PR072, "ADMINISTRATIVE REVISION: IIR 1777 J0032 22 Kazakhstan - UAP in the vicinit…
DOW-UAP-PR106, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2020
DOW-UAP-PR108, Unresolved UAP Report, Western United States, 2020
DOW-UAP-PR109, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2015
DOW-UAP-PR110, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2020
Verification
SHA-256:
This hash is the SHA-256 of the file body war.gov served on the verification date above. War.gov has re-processed some file bodies since first release (re-compression + OCR, no content removed - see /changes); we re-verify and record the change rather than silently serve a stale hash. How to check this yourself →