Condon Report

Popular name for the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, written by Edward U. Condon, edited by Daniel S. Gill-mor, and released by the U.S. government in 1969. The project grew out of a critical review of Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force structure for reviewing UFO reports, by the Air Force's Scientific Advisory Board in March 1966. The next month, a hearing on UFOs was conducted by the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

Subsequently commissioned by the U.S. Air Force, the Condon study occupied 15 months investigation of reports of unidentified flying objects. The report was skeptical and ascribed most UFO sightings to weather balloons, stars, birds, insects, optical illusions, or atmospheric phenomena. The tone and conclusions of the report flatly repudiated earlier rumors that the U.S. government accepted the reality of flying saucers, stating, "Our general conclusion is that nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge." As a result, the U.S. Air Force canceled Project Blue Book in December 1969, and, as a whole, ufology entered a period of decline.

During the writing of the report a controversy arose as charges were made that the study was a sham and that Condon had already reached his conclusions before the project began. Several UFO groups withdrew their support. Ufologists who read the report noted that many of the cases cited had no assigned explanation. Slowly a reaction built. In 1972 J. Allen Hynek wrote The UFO Experience, in which he critiques the report and charges the Air Force with incompetence in handling UFO reports. The following year he founded the Center for UFO Studies (now the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies ).

Sources:

Condon, Edward U. Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects. Springfield, VA: National Technical Information Service, 1968. Reprint, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1970.

Hynek, J. Allen. The UFO Experience: A Scientific Enquiry. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1972.

Saunders, David R., and R. Roger Hawkins. UFOs? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went Wrong. New York: World, 1968. Reprint, New York: New American Library, 1968.