The Condon Report (DTIC AD0680975)

Brief

Commissioned by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in August 1966 and conducted over roughly 18 months, the Colorado Project assembled physicists, atmospheric scientists, and psychologists under Dr. Edward U. Condon to evaluate UAP reports on scientific grounds. The central finding was direct: no studied evidence had advanced scientific knowledge, and further large-scale inquiry was 'probably not justified.' The report found no national security threat in any reviewed case and dismissed persistent secrecy allegations, attributing perceived cover-ups to routine delays in releasing preliminary data. It implicitly recommended discontinuing Project Blue Book and urged schools to stop crediting student work on UFO literature as science.

Metadata

Agency

University of Colorado / U.S. Air Force (sponsor)

Release

1968-01-01

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

374 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Programs

Project Blue Book, Project SIGN

Tags

scientific review, Project Blue Book, Project SIGN, Colorado Project, Condon Report, 1947-1968, atmospheric optics, radar analysis, photographic analysis, Robertson Panel

Key points

• The study's headline finding was that 21 years of UFO investigation had produced no addition to scientific knowledge and that further extensive study was probably not justified.p.15
• The Air Force formally guaranteed complete non-interference with Condon and his staff; the University of Colorado president attested that no suggestion was ever made to influence the investigation's conduct or the report's content.p.4
• AFOSR specifically requested a study 'conducted wholly outside the jurisdiction of the Air Force,' with unconditional scientific freedom guaranteed to all participating researchers.p.6
• The report found no evidence of national security threat in any UFO report reviewed, endorsing the Air Force's own 21-year assessment on this point without independent re-evaluation.p.20
• Condon concluded that what was popularly called government secrecy was 'no more than an intelligent policy of delay in releasing data so that the public does not become confused by premature publication of incomplete studies of reports.'p.20
• Without formally ordering closure, Condon stated that defense functions could be handled within existing intelligence and surveillance frameworks without continuing Project Blue Book as a dedicated unit.p.20
• The report identified atmospheric optics, radio wave propagation, and atmospheric electricity as genuinely incomplete scientific fields warranting continued funding independent of the UAP question.p.18
• The National Academy of Sciences committed to independently reviewing the study upon its completion, a commitment announced in the Academy's October 1966 News Report before fieldwork had begun.p.8
• Condon recommended that teachers not give students credit for school work based on UFO books and magazine articles, arguing such study 'retards the development of a critical faculty with regard to scientific evidence.'p.21
• The study's table of contents spans seven sections covering field studies, photographic evidence, physical evidence, radar and optical analysis, astronaut visual observations, case studies, historical aspects, and a statistical analysis chapter.p.10

Verbatim

• Our general conclusion is that nothing has come from :he study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge.

  p.15

• further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby

  p.15

• There has never been the slightest suggestion of any effort on the part of the Air Force to influence either the conduct of the investigation or the content of this report.

  p.4

• We have no evidence of secrecy concerning UFO reports. What has been miscalled secrecy has been no more than an intelligent policy of delay in releasing data so that the public does not become confused by premature publication of incomplete studies of reports.

  p.20

• the defense function could be performed within the framework established for intelligence and surveillance operations without the continuance of a special unit such as Project Blue Book, but this is a queition for defense specialists rather than research scientists.

  p.20

• the scientists involved will have complete freedom to design and develop techniques for the investigation of the varied physical and psychological questions raised in conjunction with this phenomenon according to their best scientific judgment

  p.6

Most interesting

• Despite being described in the war.gov listing as a 'two-year study,' the preface states fieldwork lasted approximately 18 months beginning in October 1966.
• Condon explicitly invited scientific disagreement with his conclusions, stating they 'will not be uncritically accepted by them. Nor should it be, nor do we wish it to be.'
• The report's appendices include a 1947 letter from General N. F. Twining to the Commanding General of Army Air Forces (Appendix R), one of the earliest official written acknowledgments of unidentified aerial objects in the military record.
• The Robertson Panel report from January 1953, a CIA-convened scientific advisory panel on UAP, was appended in full as Appendix U.
• Condon found 'rather less than some persons may have expected in the way of psychiatric problems related to belief in the reality of UFOs as craft from remote galactic or intergalactic civilizations.'
• Condon suggested content-analysis of press and television UFO coverage might yield data valuable to social scientists and communications specialists, a recommendation he acknowledged was low priority given the study's physical-science focus.
• The study's scientific director was also a Fellow of the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, not merely a departmental physicist, a credential detail the preface uses to establish the project's scientific standing.