Dr. Hynek and the UFO Photo Investigation of 1967

 This double-sized STTF article is separated into two parts, but printed here in its entirety.

We owe a special acknowledgment to Herschel P. Fink, the Detroit reporter who broke the original story in 1967 and followed up with a detailed 1968 article in True magazine.

 

Part One: 

"My boys have just taken a picture..."

 

Project Blue Book, the Expert Consultant, and his Staff 

Hector Quintanilla took over in 1962 as the chief of the U.S. Air Force’s Aerial Phenomena Branch of the Foreign Technology Division, better known as Project Blue Book. In his proposed 1974 book, UFOs, An Air Force Dilemma, Quintanilla explained the project operated. The office at Wright-Patterson AFB consisted of two officers, one sergeant, and one civilian stenographer, but they had resources on hand as needed. Each Air Force base had a designated UFO investigating officer, and it was one of those nearest the reported sighting that would conduct the initial investigation, submit his report to the project office at Wright-Patterson. If unexplained, they would contact the visit or contact the witness by telephone or mail requesting further information. “Although our office complement was small, I had at my disposal professional experts from all scientific disciplines. Wright-Patterson has the best Materials Laboratory in the world…” 

Blue Book’s most famous expert consultant was Dr. J. Allen Hynek, professor of astronomy at Northwestern University in Illinois. In the mid-1960s Project Blue Book had authorized Hynek to recruit assistance from colleagues in analyzing and processing UFO reports. Jacques Vallee, a young French ufologist who was pursuing his Ph.D. and working as a computer programmer, chiefly assisted in data management. Hynek later described his colleagues as, “an excellent scientific staff that could be employed from time to time.” William T. Powers was an electronics engineer at Dearborn Observatory who occasionally tackled UFO field work. Fred H. Beckman was an electron microscopist, and he chiefly provided photo analysis. Beckman was the newcomer; he’d caught the UFO bug in the flap of 1966, the one that brought a mixture of fame and infamy to Hynek. 

Unfortunately, these “invisible colleagues” were not available in March 1966 when the Air Force sent Dr, Hynek to investigate the Michigan UFO sightings that were making big news. After a brief and harried investigation, Hynek gave a press conference and suggested that some of the UFO sightings were caused by ignis fatuus, the combustion of marsh gas. The resulting public backlash against the “swamp gas” explanation caused the Air Force a great deal of grief and embarrassment. It also gave the saucer topic a big boost, and even politicians were demanding real answers. That started the ball rolling, and later that year, a scientific UFO study was finally launched, led by Dr. Edward Condon at the University of Colorado.
Meanwhile, there was friction between Hynek and Quintanilla. Hynek was increasingly vocal Blue Book’s scientific shortcomings.  Quintanilla’s book shows that he was irritated at the astronomer’s increasingly pro-UFO stance and stated that when Dr. Hynek began to be recognized as a UFO expert and celebrity in 1964, “Hynek began to change… He embarrassed me and the Air Force on a number of occasions… 1966 was the year which convinced me that Dr. Hynek had lost his usefulness to the project.” In 1967, Project Blue Book received over 70 UFO reports in the month of January alone. One of them was a photographic case that made major news, and it also caused further division between Quintanilla and Hynek. 

 

The Flying Hamburger of Michigan

Dr. Hynek was drawn into another big media case in Michigan, the sighting of the strange flight of a “hamburger-shaped object.” It began on a freezing Monday afternoon, January 9, 1967, when reporter Herschel P. Fink of The Detroit News received a phone call.

Betty Jaroslaw said, “My boys have just taken a picture of a flying saucer or something.” Her son, Dan told Fink, “I thought it was a flying saucer right away. That’s why I told Grant to take the picture. Dan added that he’d always believed in UFOs. “Now I know that they’re real.” The object in the photo appeared to be flying from the photographers left to right, a sleek saucer-like craft with some kind of tail structure or antenna at the rear. Once the boys were interviewed, they loaned copies of four of their five black and white 2 ½ x 3 ½ inch Polaroid prints for the paper to copy. After The Detroit News ran the story, it was swiftly picked up by national media. CBS Evening News covered the story, but most of what we can trace comes from newspapers. Below is the Associated Press story, edited together from versions printed in The Daily Oklahoman, Jan. 10, 1967, and the Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), Jan. 11, 1967: 

AP Wirephoto, Jan. 10, 1967

2 Brothers Report Sighting 'Saucer'

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) Two teen-aged brothers report they observed and photographed a disc-shaped flying object which they said hovered for 10 minutes behind their home, and within a mile of Selfridge Air Force Base. Dan Jaroslaw, 17, and his brother Grant, 15, showed photographs to a Detroit Free Press photographer to support their report of a disc-shaped, bi-colored flying object, slightly domed at the top with what appeared to be a slim mast at the rear. 

The Air Force said they knew nothing of the reported sighting despite the fact that a Coast Guard helicopter was operating in the immediate vicinity at the time.

Dan told reporters that he and his brother were behind their house on Lake St. Clair, about a quarter mile off the backyard of their Harrison township home outside of this Detroit suburb to take pictures of dye on the lake. The older brother said last night that "there were some dye tests being made on the septic tank to check for leaks, and Grant was going to take pictures of the dye on the lake when it (the object) was about a quarter of a mile in front of us on the lake." The brothers said they noticed the object about 2:30 p.m. They said it raced off to the southeast and disappeared in clouds. 

"About five minutes after it disappeared - it went real fast - a helicopter came up from behind us," Dan said. He added that his brother took pictures of both aircraft. Dan said, "We've seen a lot of strange aircraft from the base in the 14 years we've lived here, but never anything like this. It moved faster than any of the jets we see from the base." 

Numbers on the back of the photographs taken with a Polaroid camera, however, showed [two exposures] of the reported flying objects coming after the helicopter photo. The object was on Nos. 1 and 2, the helicopter No. 3 and the object again on 4 [which was missing, and 5].

Dan said four pictures were taken of the object. Last night, the family said that they had not shown the pictures to the Air Force, and would not do so. "They just might grab them and never give them back to us," Mrs. [Betty] Jaroslaw said. 

The youngsters denied having gotten any ideas about UFO's from a nationally-televised situation comedy series last night in which a youngster stirred his home city by getting some UFO pictures. [My Three Sons, January 5, 1967, "You Saw a What?"] Capt. Mina Costin, information officer at Selfridge, said the base operations officer, who coordinates reports of unidentified flying objects, the command post of the 1st Fighter Wing and the base radar station had neither sighted any UFOs nor had any reports of them despite the fact that Dan said "the helicopter could have seen it easily."

The three UFO photos the brothers shared were all taken from a slightly different angle, but the object was remained in almost the same position. The officers at Selfridge Air Force Base were impressed. Many UFO photographs are merely either specs or blobs shown against the sky, making it difficult to tell whether the object was a distant large object, or a small one nearby, suspended from a string or tossed into the air. The Jaroslaw pictures depicted an object with distinct features, and included some landscape with definite points of reference for investigation and analysis. 

The Evening Gazette (Worcester MA), Jan. 12, 1967

The Investigation of Major Raymond W. Nyls 

(No photo available)

Major Raymond W. Nyls, 47, was the Selfridge base operations officer, an amateur astronomer with an interest in UFOs and he was the one tasked as the local investigator for Blue Book. mentioned in the story above was. The day after the sighting, Nyls went to the scene at Harrison Township to investigate on behalf of Project Blue Book. He found the family very reluctant to talk about the sighting, and he was unable to view or obtain the original photographs. Nyls said, “It was a very funny family.”

Th boys told the press that they’d been home from school that afternoon because their mother was ill. Betty Jaroslaw, with her daughter and two sons lived in a two-story house on the shore of Lake St. Clair. According to Herschel P. Fink, the house “had been gutted in a fire almost two years before. Mrs. Jaroslaw and the two boys lived in the basement. The rest of the house, located in a fashionable lakefront area, remained uninhabitable. The boy's father [Alfred P. Jaroslaw], divorced from their mother, lived a few miles away with his second family in a new house.". Maj. Nyls reported that the “back yard looked like a junkyard.” At the spot where the photos had been taken, there was a structure made from 2 ½ inch iron pipe that had once been the frame for a swing set, and portion of the pipe was visible in at least one of the photos. From the location, he could see the frozen lake which eliminated the possibility that the object was just a boat on the water. There was no object in the yard that resembled the saucer in the photos. Later, he told the press, "The type of person and the type of camera involved would lead me to believe this is not a hoax.” Nyls obtained copies and enlargements of the photos from Herschel Fink of The Detroit News, who had seen the originals, and said they showed no sign of having been tampered with. Based on viewing the copies, Nyls described the UFO pictures as “the best I've ever seen." Major Nyls sent copies by plane to Wright-Patterson which were used in the Air Force’s subsequent attempts at analysis.

Nyls also conducted a typical investigation, looking for additional witnesses, gathering weather data, checking into air traffic, etc. About the only details that Nyls picked up that weren’t in the press was that the witnesses said the object was dull gray, and when asked to compare the size of it to an object held at arm’s length, said “baseball.” Nyls’ report stated the UFO had “hovered at low altitude, moved back and forth slightly and tipped slightly” for about ten minutes, then flew off very fast to the southeast. He characterized both witnesses as “reliable.” 

Major Nyls returned the next day to take measurements and photographs for the investigation. Mrs. Jaroslaw continued her refusal to share the Polaroids for examination. The family no longer wanted any attention, and Hershel Fink reported, “This refusal to show the original prints was part of a strange reaction by the Jaroslaw family to the initial newsbreak. The family went into hiding, refusing to be interviewed. Its unlisted telephone number was changed twice and large 'Keep Out' and 'Beware of Dog' signs were posted." (True magazine) 

Grant with his Polaroid Swinger. Degraded copy of the helicopter photo from PBB files.

The photo of the helicopter was problematic. There were 5 photos in all. Polaroid prints had information printed on the back, a manufacturing code and an exposure number, which was useful for keeping photos in order by the sequence shot. The brothers’ exposures showed: 1 & 2 the saucer, 3 was of a helicopter, 4 was of the saucer (but not shared with the news or Air Force), and 5 showed the saucer with a section of pipe of the right side. Despite what the boys said, the numbering sequence proved that the helicopter picture had been taken between the shots of the UFO, not afterwards. Another contradiction was that the helicopter was said to have flown closer to the boys than the saucer, but the picture had a coarser texture to the grain of the image, than the UFO pictures did.

The United Press International story from January 12, 1967, provided a few additional details:

“Air Force officials today were checking some ‘pretty interesting pictures’ of an unidentified flying object. ...Maj. Raymond Nyls… said the pictures "look pretty authentic… about the best I've seen." Nyls was unable to persuade the boys to give him the original photographs, however. He said he would gather information on weather conditions at the time and make a report… 

Maj. Hector Quintanilla of the Foreign Technology Division said with the original photographs, he would be able to determine the size and shape of the object "within a few inches." This would be difficult, he said, with copies. …[Regarding the Polaroids’ numbering sequence,] According to Nyls, this discrepancy can be attributed to the boys' excitement. ‘The type of person and the type of camera used would lead me to believe this is not a hoax,’ he said. Nyls said he also interviewed the pilot of the helicopter, who reported seeing nothing unusual.”

Expert Sees ‘No Hoax’ in Boys’ UFO Photos

Dr. J. Allen Hynek heard about the photos and called The Detroit News and asked to examine their prints and negatives made from the Jaroslaw Polaroids. The Chicago Daily News reported: “Negatives were made from three Polaroid prints were submitted to Hynek over the weekend. Jacques Vallee, a member of the Northwestern astronomy department, which Hynek heads, had the negatives analyzed by experts at the University of Chicago for evidence of a hoax.” That was mainly Fred Beckman, who began examining them with sophisticated equipment from the hospital. He checked the images with a flying spot electronic density plotter, then made new prints using coherent point source light to produce crisper images. After a full day of testing, Beckman found nothing in the photos to indicate tampering or that they were faked.

Beckman shared the good news with Hynek, who gave an exclusive interview to Herschel Fink, optimistically saying, “analysis so far does not show any indication of an obvious hoax.” He was favorably impressed by “the similarity of these pictures have to other photos I have seen and also to verbal descriptions I've taken from ostensibly reliable people," Hynek said. He added, “So often these reports and investigations go only to the head-scratching phase and no further. I want to go as far as we can on these pictures.” Fred Beckman was identified as “an expert in electron microscope photography and other precision photography.” Hynek said that since the two witnesses were related, it was “essentially a one-witness case. However, “Being Polaroid prints offers less chance for darkroom chicanery." He also thought the fact that there were multiple photos increased their credibility and believability.

 

The Detroit News, Jan. 16, 1967, thanks to Gary Posner.

That launched a lot of headlines across the USA. The Associated Press coverage carried headlines like, “Expert Believes Flying Saucer Shot Authentic.”

“'Saucer' Pictures Appear Authentic to Top Authority” (AP story)

 Beckley Post-Herald, Jan. 17, 1967

“Photos of UFO Appear Genuine, Expert Says”(AP story)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jan. 17, 1967

The Daily Egyptian (Illinois), Jan, 17, 1967

AP story in the Intelligencer Journal, Jan. 17, 1967

The AP also reported: 

“Lt. William Marley, primary analyst in the Blue Book office… and Hynek both pointed out that the Jaroslaw pictures have one advantage over most UFO pictures in that they contain points of reference to aid in judging depth. The pictures were snapped through a children’s swing. The branches of a small bush showing the [left] side and an iron pole shows on the [right].

Fred H. Beckman, a Hynek associate and expert in precision photography, already has subjected the copies to several tests. ‘I think we can pretty well rule out anything holding it up, Beckman said,’ referring to speculation the object could’ve been suspended from the swing by a thread.” 

Hold UFO Photo - Two brothers, Dan Jaroslaw, 17, left, and Grant, 15, view a picture of an unidentified flying object which they claimed to have made behind their home on Lake St. Clair with the camera Grant is holding. Pictures showed a saucer-shaped object with what appeared to be an antenna extending from an outer edge. (AP Wirephoto) (Jan. 17, 1967)

The version of the story from United Press International was less giddy, saying, “The Air Force's chief consultant on unidentified flying objects said Monday photographs of what is said to be UFO over Michigan may not be a hoax.” They summarized the same basic story noting, “Hynek said he will continue examining the photographs and hopes to have ‘something definite in a day or two.’” 

There was a hint of tension in the original reporting from The New York Times, Jan. 17, 1967, “'Saucer' Pictures Under Study for Authenticity,” which stated that “the two brothers and their mother, Mrs. Betty Jaroslaw, could not be found today. Last week, local reporters found members of the Jaroslaw family unresponsive to questions.”

The New York Times, Jan. 17, 1967

The 17^th was not only big for newspaper coverage, it was also the day the Air Force’s photo report by James R. Schuit (Intelligence Research Specialist) was completed. The one-page report contained two short paragraphs, saying, 

“Analysis of the available photography fails to provide any definitive information pertaining to the identification of the unidentified object. The original photography is required…”

Project Blue Book director Major Hector Quintanilla was not happy in either the non-conclusion, or in the massive publicity generated by Hynek’s comments. At some point, Project Blue Book had crafted a canned response for any inquiry about off-book comments made by Dr. Hynek:

It almost reminds us of the tape from the Mission Impossible show, that if the agent botched the job, “…the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.”

In the aftermath of the huge press, a story from the AP with far less reach appeared in the Ironwood Daily Globe, Jan. 18, 1967. The Air Force – and a possibly chastised Hynek – tried to bring the story back down to earth. 

AF Continues Study of UFO

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — The Air Force is continuing its investigation of photographs taken in Michigan last week of what appears to be an unidentified flying object, but has come to no conclusions, officers said yesterday. Spokesmen in project Blue Book at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the agency that investigates UFO reports, said they still had not viewed the original photographs taken last week near Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan. Two boys took photographs of a hamburger-shaped object with a projection at one end. Wright-Patterson officers have been studying copies of the photographs, but have said they could not make proper measurement evaluations or reach any definite conclusions until they looked at the original prints.

Meanwhile, Dr. J. Allen Hynek of Evanston, Ill., chairman of the Astronomy Department at Northwestern University, said in a telephone interview with The Dayton Daily News Tuesday he did not mean to put an "authentic" stamp on the pictures. Dr. Hynek has been consulted by the Air Force on UFO investigations in the past, but Project Blue Book officers said Tuesday he had not been consulted in regard to the Michigan photographs. "All I said (to a reporter) was that at first glance the pictures do not appear to be an obvious hoax," Dr. Hynek said. "I didn't mean to imply that it was not a hoax. What I meant to say was that if it was a hoax, it is a very clever hoax.”

Hynek had stepped in it and was backpedaling. When the Air Force questioned him about his endorsement of the photos, "Dr. Hynek informed our office that he only told the Associated Press that the photographs appeared to be of an authentic image. He claimed he was misquoted when the AP said that he, Dr. Hynek, stated the photographs were apparently authentic." (Jan. 26, 1967, memo from Lt. William F. Marley of the Aerial Phenomena Branch.)

William T. Powers

At the same time the above drama was playing out, another investigation was underway. Hynek had also asked Bill Powers to try his hand with the photos. Powers asked Maj. Nyls to return to the Jaroslaws' yard to collect data for photo analysis. Nyls (assisted by Airman 3c Charles R. Hill) spent three chilly hours on Jan. 18, using blowups of the UFO photos to determine the exact position and camera angle from which each had been taken, and meticulously measuring the branches of the bush and the dimensions of the swing frame.

Jaroslaw Picture #5

Nyls already had his suspicions, but while there, he discovered that the position of the UFO appeared higher in the last photo, but not from movement. Picture 5 had been taken from a kneeling position. Nyls made technical drawings with the site data, and once he was done, it was flown to Chicago so Powers could get started.

Maj. Nyls' Photos and technical drawings

With the data from Nyls, Powers began determining the UFO’s size and distance from the camera. He spent several hours creating diagrams and running calculations and triangulating the reference points. Powers produced a 27-page handwritten report, “Procedures for Evaluating Jaroslaw Photo,” mostly pages of drawings and trigonometry concluding, “A hoax cannot be ruled out. An object 3 3/4” in diameter hung from the pipe overhead could produce the same appearance.  … Nothing in the pictures suggests a distant object.”

Illustration – Nyls’ investigation photo with overlay of a Jaroslaw shot.

Knowing that, “The ultimate proof of a hoax is to be able to reproduce it,” Powers asked Maj. Nyls to give it a try. Meanwhile, the Air Force asked the CIA to help. 

 

Part Two: 

All the King’s Men

The Central Intelligence Agency and the Condon Study

The University of Colorado UFO study led by Dr. Edward U. Condon was underway, and one of the coordinators was Dr. Thomas Ratchford from the Air Force Research and Development Office. The Condon Committee was given access to CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) for technical analysis of alleged UFO pictures, but the agency’s input was to remain secret.

CIA-NPIC document on Condon Study

Hector Quintanilla wanted to borrow these resources to examine the Jaroslaw photos, and in a memo dated January 18, 1967, he asked Dr. Ratchford, “Please see if you can get some expert opinions with regards to the size of the alleged flying saucer. …If it all possible please expedite because the news media is clamoring for an expert analysis of the photographs. …I would not mention the organization. …I will be waiting anxiously for some kind of conclusion.” Quintanilla sent copies of the photos and Maj. Nyls’ data and measurements of the scene to the NPIC.

Dr. Condon’s people were interested, too. A letter from Robert J. Low to Condon, Jan. 27, 1967, mentioned “the two photographs by the two boys of the UFO over St. Clair Lake,” saying, “Just talked to Hynek who reports that Life [magazine’s] offer for the pictures was turned down. So I guess they don’t have them – at least not yet. [Dr. Thomas] Ratchford has advised me that Air Force Intelligence indicates they can’t tell much from the copies they have. The material they were working with was a copy. There has been too much degrading of the picture to tell anything. This means we must get hold of the original.”

The UFO group, National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, also wanted the pictures.  From “Photographs Under Study” in NICAP’s The UFO Investigator, Jan.-Feb. 1967:

“In conversations with the mother and the boy who took the pictures, and with the family lawyer, NICAP was promised a set of the Polaroid prints for analysis. However, the pictures have never been submitted and we are now informed that a major magazine is attempting to purchase them.”

 Hynek was getting the cold shoulder from Blue Book. Jacques Vallee’s journal for Jan. 30, 1967, records that, “Hynek went to Dayton without being able to see Quintanilla, who is still mad at him.”

Two weeks later, the CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center was finally completed. Dated February 17, 1967, “Photo Analysis of UFO Photography," the 2.5-page written portion stated, “This office cannot shed any light on the authenticity of this alleged UFO from this photo analysis.” Several problematic elements were mentioned, including, “the fact that the tail-section of the UFO was photographed in each case with the same cross-section exposed casts some suspicion on the authenticity of the UFO.”  Without having the original prints to examine, all they would say was, “inconclusive.”

Blue Book’s Mock Saucer

If the story was fading from the public’s memory, it got another boost in a nationally syndicated Sunday magazine newspaper supplement, This Week March 5, 1967. The article was by L. Jerome Stanton on the Condon Study, “The Final Word on Flying Saucers?”

This Week, March 5, 1967

It included a half-page shot of the brothers and their saucer photo, noted Hynek’s favorable appraisal, and stated, “Undoubtedly the photos will be shown to the University of Colorado group.” He was right, but they and everyone else were stumped by not having access to the originals.

Dr. Hynek had frequently been away from the university, busy with the press, fretting about what the Condon Study was doing, traveling, and giving lectures and interviews. (KABC-TV's Press Conference on Feb. 26, 1967).  One of those speaking engagements took him back to Michigan. The Associated Press story, March 23, 1967, “UFO Expert Speaks At Hillsdale College,” reported that Hynek still thought the Dexter UFO sightings were probably swamp gas, but “the case is not really closed.” The topic of the Jaroslaw pictures came up:

“Asked about Polaroid photographs taken by brothers Dan and Grant Jaroslaw outside Detroit last Nov. 9, Hynek-said he understands the Air Force hopes to be able to make a report on them in a few days. After two weeks of studying copies of the Jaroslaw photographs, Hynek reported that ‘the possibility of a hoax seems less likely (in photographs made with a camera of this type), although it has not been eliminated entirely.’”

Maj. Nyls’ report on the project to duplicate the photos is absent from Blue Book, but he seems to have been delayed until the second half of March. Nyls began by constructing a model out of balsa wood, rounder than the Jaroslaw UFO, but close enough. Then he painted it to match their photos, a light gray with a darker band around the center. When he returned to the Jaroslaw property, he suspended the model from the swing frame at two points with translucent fishing line. The Polaroid Swinger used a plastic fixed focus single element lens, and it did not have the resolution to detect a light-colored filament against the sky. The fishing line didn’t show in the pictures. “I couldn’t even make it out with my own eyes,” Nyls said. His first shot closely resembled the position of the saucer in the Jaroslaw photos. 

Maj. Nyls’ saucer photo #1

Then he swung the model out, capturing it pointed to the left, as if banking for a turn or descent. Afterwards, Nyls sent the two pictures to Hynek and crew for study. The photos were good. Nyls had said the boys’ UFO pictures, “the best I've ever seen," but his were even better.

Maj. Nyls’ saucer photo #2

Bill Powers had engineered the photo test, and the results proved that there was nothing unearthly about the boys’ pictures. When he was done, the Air Force issued a press release about Nyls’ photos, one that while damning, carefully avoided making any accusations:

23 March 1967

SELFRIDGE AFB, Mich - Major Raymond W. Nyls, Unidentified Flying Objects Officer here, took this photograph of a small model flying saucer he made himself. He stood in the same spot where the Jaroslaw brothers said they stood to take the photographs of the flying saucer they reported in January. Major Nyls suspended his model on a thin string hanging from an overhead pole. U.S. Air Force Photo

INFORMATION DIVISION, 1st Fighter Wing, Selfridge AFB, Mich 48045

The Detroit News, March 26, 1967, reported the word about Maj. Nyls’ photos. “They appear as almost duplicates of the originals,” Hynek said. “The ability to closely duplicate a UFO picture is very significant. Nyls’ test showed that is possible to essentially duplicate the Jaroslaw photos, using – and this is the most important – the identical model camera in the identical position and under the same basic conditions. This throws considerable doubt on the sighting and removes it from serious consideration as far as I’m concerned.” The boys, speaking to the press for the first time since the initial story, insisted it was genuine, not a hoax. Grant said, “We saw something out there and we took pictures of it. I don’t know what it was, but it was there. It was real.”

AP story, March 27, 1967

Alfred Jaroslaw, the boys’ father, was incensed at the hoax allegation (and the ribbing he was getting from friends). “This casts a lot of doubt on my boys and I'm convinced they photographed what they said they saw. No models were involved. I'm out to prove it was genuine.” He accused the Air Force of “covering up the truth about saucers” by casting aspersions on his sons. He requested a lie detector test for the boys. Further details were in the AP story below, including the father saying of the failed polygraph, "I probably will try another, and sodium pentothal — the truth drug.”

Battle Creek Enquirer, March 29, 1967

Herschel Fink reported that when Dan Jaroslaw was asked for his reaction, he said: “I don't want to say anything else, and I don't want anything else written. It's just as I said it was. Everybody’s bugging me.” The Jaroslaw family was represented by an attorney, and they had been courted by national magazines. 

For whatever reason, the Polaroid pictures were copyrighted in the name of Grant P. Jaroslaw, dated April 19, 1967, as “Helicopter [against sky],” and “UFO # 1 – 4 [Aircraft in snowscape.]”

 

The Official Inconclusion

The last contemporary news coverage of the case was in the Dayton Daily News, May 17, 1967.

"Officer's Saucer Photo Like Those of Two Boys" by Jack Jones was essentially on the Air Force closing the case. It showed a comparison of the Jaroslaw saucer photo to that of Maj. Nyls and said, “Blue Book officials here were careful not to use any words like 'hoax' or 'fake' in talking about the boys' pictures. They said they were unable to reach any conclusions about the case because of the unavailability of the original pictures for analysis. In the course of his investigation, Nyls tried to duplicate the setup of the boys’ pictures in order to aid in the photo interpretation."

Dayton Daily News, May 17, 1967.

In True, Maj. Hector Quintanilla, told Fink that the Air Force "doesn't like to openly call anything a hoax." Comparing the Jaroslaw and Nyls photos, he said, "We found the two pictures similar. If we had an original Jaroslaw photo I think we could have told the size exactly, but, using The Detroit News blowups, we were only able to tell that the object was about four inches long, with a plus or minus error factor of a couple of inches." As an aside, he said “We've thrown up lampshades and ‘frisbees’ and taken some wild pictures with the [Polaroid] Swinger. I was really surprised.” It made great saucer photos – at least great phony ones.

 

A detailed exposé of the story appeared in True (The Man's Magazine), March 1968, "A Tale of Two Saucers - or, Which UFO Hangs on a String?" by Herschel P. Fink, the original reporter who broke the news. He had almost whole story except for the interest by Dr. Condon’s study and the attempt by the CIA to analyze the pictures.

The picture kept showing up, and its likeness was included in the Playboy, Dec. 1967 article by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, “The UFO Gap” There was no mention of the Jaroslaw case, but their UFO was included in the illustration by Marvin Hayes. 

Readers would see the image twice; the binocular lenses were die-cut holes, so when they turned the page, the saucer was shown hovering above Moscow. The article did discuss photo evidence, though:

“If unimpeachable photographs can be obtained, it follows that the stimulus that gave rise to the report was accompanied by an actual image on the retinas of the witnesses… In any event, the existence of unimpeachable pictographs would represent incontrovertible scientific evidence that UFOs as we have defined them, exist.”

Due to the findings of the Condon Study, Project Blue Book closed in late 1969. Bill Powers moved on to other things. Dr. Hynek continued his work independently, and in 1973 opened the Center for UFO Studies, (CUFOS), with Fred Beckman as member of the scientific board. Over the next few years, the Jaroslaw case remained in the “inconclusive” limbo but was frequently featured in UFO literature as genuine. Chances are, it would have become far more famous had the UFO looked more like the stereotypical flying saucer.

Dr. Hynek kept copies of the Jaroslaw photos and sometimes showed (tinted) slides of them in his UFO lectures.

 

The Real Experts Speak

 

Not much is known about Dan and Grant Jaroslaw’s decade after the events, but it included both serving stints in the military. Afterwards, each returned home to Michigan.

In 1976, Dan, 26, Grant, 24, wrote a letter together to Dr. J. Allen Hynek:

 

“Dan suggested to make a model of a U.F.O., hang it up with a string, and if the photo turned out good, we could play a joke on our family and friends to see their reaction and then tell them the truth.

Dan made a quick model. Then we wrapped plain white thread with paper tape around two poles several times, and then taped the model to the threads. I was reluctant to waste the film, because I thought the threads and tape would be visible on the photo. The weather conditions were just right, the photo came out so real looking we took some more. At the same time we were taking the pictures, a helicopter flew over the area. Just for the heck of it, I photographed it, too.

We showed our mother the photos and pretended they were real. But before we knew it, while we were in another room, she had called the Newspaper.

Dan and I for some reason decided to let the paper have a story. We made it up as the reporter asked his questions. And said the helicopter was with the U.F.O. Also, we just didn't think the story would become as big as it did. We are sorry if we caused anyone any trouble over this.

"Respectfully,

Grant [P.] Jaroslaw

Dan A. Jaroslaw”

(Reproduced in The UFO Handbook by Allan Hendry, 1979)

 

The same year, Dr. Hynek produced 3 sets of UFO slides and audiotapes for Edmund Scientific. In the “UFO/IFO" collection, slide 4 showed the Jaroslaw saucer and in the accompanying tape, Hynek said he that back at the time, he had been only “partially convinced” that the photos were genuine. 

 

Duped and Re-Duped

 

If their letter of apology was sincere, the kids’ prank spun way out of control right from the start. It had happened before in other UFO cases, a joke where the target was fooled and reported it, getting the press or authorities involved. At that point, the choice for the perps usually comes down to: confess and face punishment and disgrace, or lie and pray to get away with it. Often, like in this case, secondary dupes unwittingly promote the hoax as genuine, here, Nyls, Beckman, Hynek and the press. In the case of the Jaroslaw boys, things may have been even messier with them defended, protected, and managed by their divorced parents. All we know for sure is that when the publicity and pressure was over, as adults, Dan and Grant confessed and apologized.

UFO literature presenting the UFO as authentic, even the AF imitation.

If not for their letter to Dr. Hynek, Dan and Grant’s photos would hang in the saucer hall of fame as UFO classics. Every hoax seems to have its champions and no explanation, evidence, or even confession will dissuade them. For whatever reason, the Project Blue Book files have only a few poor copies of the Jaroslaw photos, but there are several good versions of Maj. Nyls’ model. Decades later, the Jaroslaw photos occasionally are presented in articles and websites as if they were genuine. The twist? Often Maj. Nyls’ fakes are mistakenly presented as the “real” thing.

 

Grant Paul Jaroslaw died on November 2, 2004.

Daniel Alfred Jaroslaw (as of 2021) is still with us, one of the few UFO hoaxers known to have become a professional actor. At last report, he still has those notorious Polaroids from 1967, and still has an interest in the paranormal, aliens, and UFOs.

 . . .

 

For Further Reading

Project Blue Book ruled the Jaroslaw case “Insufficient data for evaluation… The measurement of the image does not substantiate the description given by the witnesses.” The summary noted: “Photograph was taken of the alleged UFO; however detailed investigation of copies of the original indicated a possible hoax.” There are two folders in the Blue Book files, one primarily for the case documents,  and a second on with mostly the photographs by Maj Nyls.  

APRO Bulletin, Jan – Feb. 1967, “Brothers Photograph Object” included a summary of the case and a letter with detailed analysis by James H. Frey of Detroit. He’d been in touch with Hynek’s team and rightfully concluded the photos were likely fakes based on numbering sequence and the positions of object relative to the metal frame and tree branches.

The Detroit News, Feb. 13, 1995, "The great Michigan UFO chase" 

For more on the Dr. Hynek’s collaborations with William T. Powers, Fred Beckman, Jacques Vallee, and the beginnings of the “Invisible College, see The Close Encounters Man by Mark O'Connell, 2017.

 “Metamorphosis” (part 3) by Gary P. Posner, his story of believing, then discovering the photos were fakes. 

Thanks to Clas Svahn and his associates at the Archives for the Unexplained (AFU) for additional newspaper clippings. Also to Louis Taylor for images, and Rich Reynolds for magazine material. 

Thanks to Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos for the supplemental data and images he furnished for this article. For updates on aerial phenomena news and historical research, check his UFO FOTOCAT blog. 

Directory the known discussions of The Jaroslaw Photos Featured in UFO Literature.

. . .

Copycats

It was suggested that the Jaroslaw brothers were copycats, inspired by a television show. In My Three Sons, January 5, 1967, "You Saw a What?," Ernie saw a flying saucer, but no one believed him. He goes back and manages to photograph it, then his father, Steve Douglas took the photos to the Air Force. General Carstairs told him that what the boy saw was a test flight of Project Moonbeam, and that it must be kept secret for national security. After being persuaded to lie for his country, Ernie had to be interviewed by a smug reporter on live television to protect the cover-up. Later, he’s made fun of at school. The show may not have had any influence on the boys, but it may have prompted Mrs. Jaroslaw’s fear the Air Force would take and hide the photos.

If the inspiration came from television, there’s another possibility. The week before the Jan. 10, 1967, debut of the Quinn Martin show, The Invaders, advertisements appeared in magazines and on TV.

The Detroit Free Press, Jan. 22, 1967, reported that a woman thought the photos were phony and had had taken a clam, stuck it in a snowbank and produced a similar picture. The newspaper duplicated her attempt and published the results next to the Jaroslaw’s photos.

Harold Pawluk of Los Angeles took a photo of a UFO that closely resembled the Jaroslaw UFO. The picture appeared in some California newspapers and in his old home in Canada. 

The Edmonton Journal, Feb. 15, 1967

Pawluk later wrote to say it was just a hoax.

The Edmonton Journal, Dec. 4, 1967

 

One of the unusual characteristics of the Jaroslaw “flying hamburger” was the antenna or pipe-like structure at its rear. In 1967, commercials for the McDonald’s hamburger franchise gave Ronald McDonald a “flying hamburger,” and it had a prominent exhaust pipe sticking up at its aft. Corporate appropriation - or coincidence?

 

UFOs and Alcohol

 

Before flying saucers came along, witnesses who reported seeing weird things like little green men or sea serpents were ridiculed for being drunk or crazy.  

The series of UFO events in 1949 at White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, were witnessed by credible observers working there, engineers, scientists, and technicians. Commander Robert. B. McLaughlin carefully wrote up the details of the sightings and forwarded them to the Pentagon. Shortly afterwards, the reply came from an admiral in the Navy's guided missile program, "What are you drinking out there?"

Drinking alcohol alters judgment, reasoning, decision making, and negatively affects sensory perception, memory, and psychomotor tasks. Booze does not typically cause people to see UFOs. Chronic alcohol abuse can cause hallucinations, but they are predominantly auditory, not visual. Drinking is more likely to cause someone to fail to notice something that is there, than to see something that’s not. Nevertheless, drinking is sometimes a factor in reporting UFOs.

On March 31, 1950, a UFO report came from San Diego. "An unidentified woman today telephoned local newspapers that a flying saucer landed on Highway 80 near Jacumba and ‘a little man jumped out and ran down the highway in the direction of Imperial Valley. He ran faster than Jesse Owens.’" Sherriff’s deputies responded but found no trace of the saucer or the little man. The US Navy also received a similar report, and it was covered in the following item from the United Press:

El Centro, California, March 31. (UP)  The El Centro Naval Auxiliary Air Station said telephone calls had been received at the station today similar to the San Diego “flying saucer” story and two planes and an automobile were dispatched to check the reports. Naval authorities who made the investigation returned from Jacumba and reported: “The man who reported the saucer story was drunk when he reported it. Was drunk when we got there. And was drunk when we left.”

The Jacumba saucer report came in on the last Friday night in March. The next day was April 1^st.

In John Keel’s 1988 essay, "The People Problem," he said, “the history of ufology has shown that a town drunk can have a real UFO experience as well as the town's police chief. The drunk would automatically receive a very low rating on the reliability scale.” 

Panels from “Mandrake the Magician” comic strip, 1966

Our next case demonstrates the problem alcohol brings to credibility.

Santa Monica, California, February 11, 1957 

Frank Robert Parker enlisted in the Army in 1942, serving as an aerial photographer and camera technician during World War II. After his discharge he attended the Los Angeles Arts Center, studying commercial photography and design. In 1951 he went to work for the Douglas Aircraft company in Santa Monica and became a master layout man drafting patterns for aircraft.

The trouble came Feb, 11, 1957, on a night out after work. Parker was arrested, but he insisted it was a misunderstanding. Parker was out in public and encountered some policemen. “I told him that I had a flying saucer in my car and they arrested me. I told them it was on the back seat of my car and they wouldn’t believe me. They wouldn’t even go and look.”

Athens Messenger (Ohio), Feb. 20, 1957

Frank Robert Parker later admitted to having “a few beers” before the encounter. The police jailed him overnight and charged him for public intoxication. At his court date, Parker brought his flying saucer to in an effort to convince Judge Mervyn A. Aggeler that he had been telling the truth when he was arrested. The judge said, “The charge is not that you were not telling the truth, but that you were intoxicated.”

Parker said he had been working six months on his flying saucer. It was a professionally-crafted disc-shaped model plane about 40” in diameter, sporting a central engine-powered propeller and a tail fin for stability. While he was in the drunk tank the saucer was left unguarded in this auto. “I’m glad no one carried it off. There’s a lot more work to go into it, but I think it’s going to fly when I have it finished. He plead guilty and was fined $20.

The Los Angeles Times, Feb. 16, 1957

 There’s no further documentation fate of his flying saucer or much on the life of Parker himself. He eventually left California and lived the rest of his days back home in Great Falls, Montana. Was Parker actually drunk? We can’t know for sure, but with liquor on his breath, talking about saucers did not help his case. 

Having a few drinks won’t make someone see a saucer, but it can fuel some loopy ideas about pranking a UFO report. Alcohol and saucers don’t mix.

. . .

For further reading on witness ridicule and alcohol, see the Blue Blurry Lines article: 

UFOs, Sea Serpents, Ridicule and Disinformation.

Sam Sawyer and the Flying Saucer Pirates

"Sam Sawyer learned …that the whole world was in grave danger! The threat came from the flying saucers. Two wrecked saucers had been recovered and found to be spaceships from another world!”

Thanks to Brian B. of the blog, What My Dad Saw, for his scans of Sam and the Flying Saucer Pirates. 

From the brochure, View-Master Reel List (early 1950s) PDF

Sawyer’s Inc. made View-Master, a viewer for "reels" sold separately, thin cardboard disks containing small transparent color photographs on film, seven stereoscopic 3-D pairs of images. The focus of View-Master was originally educational, and on travel and "cities of the world," but also included story reels for children based on things like fairy tales and cartoons. To achieve the 3-D effect, they used small clay sculptures and photographed the scenes with a stereoscopic camera. In 1950, they introduced “Adventures of Sam Sawyer.” Leland Green of Sawyers Inc. owned the character and series. 

According to J. Clement’s entry on creator Paul Sprunk at the View-Master Database:

“Paul Sprunk (1892 - 1963) was commissioned by Sawyer’s to create their own character, Sam Sawyer in 1950. He was never credited in the accompanying booklets. He had already worked on many Hollywood films as a miniature artist and had his own film studio.” 

“Adventures of Sam Sawyer” had six 1-reel stories, the first three released in 1950, then another group in 1951. The first and last reels featured Sam in space adventures.

1. Sam Flies to the Moon

2. Sam Finds a Treasure

3. Sam in the Land of The Giants

4. Sam in Darkest Africa

5. Sam in the Land of Ice

6. Sam and the Flying Saucer Pirates

 

The First Boy on the Moon

The stories were written for children, compact, short on details and characterization. As you’ll see in the opening line of “Sam Flies to the Moon,” it’s quickly established that our hero Sam is a scientist, inventor, and an intrepid explorer.

When Sam Sawyer finished his new rocket ship, he decided to fly it to the moon. Although the moon looked small and close at hand in the sky at night, Sam knew it was really a world in itself that circled the earth almost a quarter of a million miles away. He had often thought to himself, "If I were the first boy on the moon, maybe I would discover what kind of people live up there." Excited at the prospect of this, his most daring adventure to date, Sam loaded his ship, checked his space helmet and paralyzer gun, then climbed into his ship.

The titles for the seven scenes: 

1. Sam Sawyer enters his rocket ship. 2. Sam Leaves Earth for the Moon. 3.Sam Sets Foot on the Moon. 4. Sam Fights Moonmen with Paralyzer Gun. 5. Sam Struggles Hand to Hand with Moonman Leader. 6. Sam Surveys His Paralyzed Attackers. 7. He Rockets Back to Earth with Captured Moonman. 

Once he landed, Sam encountered the Moonmen, “strange man-like creatures. Their arms and legs were like metal tentacles, and their heads seemed to glow from within! Antenna-like projections served as ears and they carried short rods that emitted a weird red spark!” Sam was seen as a hostile alien by the Moonmen, and he used his paralyzer gun in self-defense. 

Sam decided to take (abduct!) the Moonman leader to Earth to show him that “we are not really monsters.” On the way, they become friends, and once there, “before he returned to his home on the moon, became convinced that human beings were, on the whole, decent peaceable people.

Sam Fights Moonmen with Paralyzer Gun

Sam’s first space mission had been for peaceful exploration, but not his second trip. He shot to kill, and the target was invaders in flying saucers. Before that voyage, a brief recap UFOs in culture circa 1950. 

In late 1949, writers Donald Keyhoe and Frank Scully both published flying saucer articles that were later expanded into bestselling 1950 book. Keyhoe’s book was based on documented events and speculation from military sources, which led him to proclaim in The Flying Saucers are Real that visitors from other planets were coming in spaceships and the US government was hiding the truth from the public. Far less credible was Scully’s Behind the Flying Saucers, based solely on the second-hand account of oil swindler Silas Newton. It was a whopper about wrecked flying saucers and the bodies of the little men found inside, captured for secret study by the US government. Together, these two books established a lore that has forever since shaped the public’s notions about flying saucers. Scully’s book was reprinted in paperback, giving it further exposure in 1951, just shortly before the release of Sam Sawyer’s flying saucer adventure.

Sam and the Flying Saucer Pirates

“Sam and the Flying Saucer Pirates” was reel 6 in the series.

Scene 1: From the story booklet: “Using secret information from the wrecked saucers,” Sam built a long-range radar-telescope to track the saucers’ point of origin, finding it be “Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our own sun.”

 

Sam's radar-telescope tracks a flying saucer.

Scene 2: Sam hopped into his spaceship and headed there. On his way, he spotted a saucer headed towards earth, so he blasted it to bits.

 

Atomic dischargers blow up the saucer from outer space.

Scene 3: Sam lands on their planet and finds a flying saucer factory, indicating they were gearing up to invade earth. Luckily, he thought to bring a bomb.   

Sam plants an H-time bomb at the flying saucer factory.

Scene 4: The Centarurians did not speak but communicated by “thought-waves” or telepathy. They carried weapons, rods that fired a red lightning-like ray that caused paralysis. Sam is abducted, and put in prison.

 

The men of star Proxima Centaruri paralyze Sam with ray-rods.

Scene 5: Sam had gone to their planet prepared for war, but when captured, tried to persuade them with thoughts of peace and friendship. It didn’t work. They’d been working for three centuries to construct a fleet to conquer earth, and they were launching the invasion soon.

The atomic blast rocks the planet.

Scene 6: Bodies of the wounded and dead lay outside the factory and saucer parts are scattered for miles.

Sam views the wreckage of the Centaurian space fleet.

Scene 7: On the voyage home Sam thinks about how he’s prevented war between the planets. Maybe someday, they’ll have friendship, commerce, and tourism instead.

Sam rockets homeward, mission accomplished.

 “Sam and the Flying Saucer Pirates” is a contemporary of the movies The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing from Another World. Each has its own take of flying saucer lore, but only in Sam Sawyer did we see a protagonist that was capable of thwarting the aliens’ attempt to dominate the earth. It's worth remembering, even if it was "only" a View-Master story.

. . .

SKYLITE: The Project to Mimic UFOs

 

The US government asked the McDonnell Douglas aerospace company to research the construction of an imitation flying saucer in 1970. At the time, the United States was led by President Richard Nixon, and Richard Helms served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Cold War with Russia  was hot. The US was mired in the Vietnam war and facing an expansion of the Soviet Union’s military forces in Cuba.

The UFO project may have been an offshoot of a prior contract with the CIA. In 1967 the CIA was doing business with McDonnell Douglas Company, and Project AQUILINE was to develop expendable unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles. According to CIA files, “Concentrated study was performed on a wide range of aerodynamic lift devices including balloons, ballistic glider, powered glider and helicopter types for this application. The powered glider was selected...” Aquiline was a small bird-like drone, test flown at Area 51.

From CIA files on Project AQUILINE

Meanwhile, McDonnell Douglas had a study project from 1967 to 1970 led by Dr. Robert M. Wood with the goal of duplicating the performance and propulsion reported in UFOs. Dr. Joseph M. Brown talked about working on the Advanced Propulsion Research Group in his 2004 book, The Grand Unified Theory of Physics.

“Dr. Robert M. Wood (was) the deputy director of Research at Douglas Aircraft Company, in Santa Monica, California… Wood believed that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were spacecraft built and manned by extra-terrestrials… Furthermore, he had great confidence in his ability. ‘If extraterrestrials can build a flying saucer, so can I.’”

Describing the team, Dr. Brown said,

“Dr. Darell B. Harmon, Jr… held beliefs about UFO’s similar to Dr. Wood... that UFO’s were powered by anti-gravity propulsion and I was researching gravity so he hired me in spite of my disbelief in extraterrestrials. Thus the Wood-Harmon-Brown team was formed to invent a new propulsion system… In addition to the mathematical physicist, Leon (A. Steinert), we hired an experimentalist Harvey Bjornlie, a retired Los Angeles, California police detective Paul Wilson, a UFO ‘buff” Stan Friedman, and a psychic Chan P. Thomas... Our budget was less than $100,000.00 per year."

Dr. Wood described the group’s origin in his article for the October 2008 issue of the MUFON Journal, "McDonnell Douglas studied UFOs in 1960s," saying, “we opened up an account with an insipid title (Advanced Concepts) and internally called it the BITBR project (for Boys In The Back Room).”  Wood said he managed a team saying he devoted only about 10% of his time to the project, “Only Brown, Thomas and Wilson were full time (and later, Friedman).” During its four years of operation and $500,000 expended, the group conducted research including everything from lab experiments to field studies, investigating haunted houses, ESP and interviewing UFO Contactees.

In BITBR’s 59-page “Advanced Vehicle Concepts Research” presentation, May 2, 1968, the team summarized the goals of the project for management and stated what they had achieved to date. Page 50 mentioned the goal of building a UFO-like spacecraft, a DFO, (possibly for Douglas Flying Object). 

“A DFO can be built within our scientific limits.” It also mentioned, “analysis and duplication of UFO data.” The presentation closed by asking for another year’s funding, and stated, “Bring in DoD at end of year if results warrant.”

The company hoped to build flying saucers for the US government. That almost happened. In a section near the end of Wood’s MUFON article he revealed:

"Covert Applications
The only contact with the government about the Project came towards the end of the spring of 1970 when there was interest expressed by one of the intelligence agencies. This resulted in a draft proposal to ‘mimic, imitate or duplicate the observables associated with UFOs.’ We called this potential opportunity Project Skylite, and prepared a good deal of technical information in anticipation of contract work. It never materialized with McDonnell Douglas to my knowledge."

MUFON UFO Journal, Oct. 2008

The footnote for the passage cited: "Wilson, P. ‘Charts Defining Parameters of Design.’ Six pages, dated June 2, 1970."

The timing for Skylite was strange. The US government shut down Project Blue Book at  the end of 1969, so this would seem to have been unrelated to any study of UFOs. They must have been working towards some other goal. Earlier Project Aquiline CIA documents stated that “The obvious risk is loss of an unmanned aircraft over denied territory and the resulting political implications therefrom.” They thought that since the aircraft was small and unarmed, the risk was minimal. However, it’s possible the CIA considered developing another spy platform, something that would be unrecoverable, vanish like something unearthly.

 

The Project Skylite Documents

BITBR hired W. Paul Wilson, Jr. for his detective skills to be used in interviewing UFO witnesses, but he was also an engineer, and he also assisted the team in technical research. Files on the McDonnell Douglas UFO study and Project Skylite surfaced when UFO archivist Louis Taylor purchased them from the owner of a house previously occupied by Paul Wilson's widow. “The documents were found rotting away out in the barn.”  Material on the BITR study was published online back in 2007. The Project Skylite material was finally published online by Louis Taylor in October 2020, documents and parametric studies, all hand written by Paul Wilson between April and June of 1970.

Paul Wilson’s first page of an outline of the Project Skyline objectives, dated 4/5/70.

Electrical & Mechanical Systems to Produce Simulated UFO Observables

1. Illusion of physical objects with three-dimensional positivity in space - long & short term affects.

A. Sensed by visual, acoustical, photographic, radio and other EM instrumentation.

B. Large, very light, transparent bags inflatable with ionizable combustible gases. Spherical or saucer shaped.

(1) Bag should be constructed of highly combustible materials that completely vaporize or disintegrate without residue when contain gases or plasma is ignited.

 (2) Ionize contained gas is by means of high energy radar beams (local or objective operated).

(a). The geometric configuration of inflated bags are held to those dimensions that would resonate with the frequencies of exciting radiation.

(b) Parabolic umbrellas for maximum energy concentration.

(c) Spherical resonate cavities for maximum energy absorption.

 (3) Gas mixture and/or system may contain, short half-life high energy radioactive materials to initiate ionizations & emit particle radiation signals.

 (4) Combustible gases at critical mixtures and/or temperatures may be ignited by radio controlled igniters, laser beams, or by spontaneous combustion at predetermined times.

 

Electrical & Mechanical Systems to Produce Simulated UFO Observables

Proposed shape and structure for the Skylite UFO simulators

“UFO simulator” is how the project was referred to in early internal documents. BITBR went well beyond just spoofing the appearance of a UFO in flight, they also wanted to duplicate other “UFO observables” such as the shape, illumination, sounds, that were reported. Apparently for this project duplicating high speed flight was not a goal except perhaps in the “vanishing” of the balloon when it disintegrated. As for the radar cross-section and electromagnetic signature they desired, that would be accomplished with a “metallic coating for maximum reflectivity.” 

Skylite Parametric Studies, 5/18/70

The aerial platform was intended to be built around Edmund Scientific “Giant Weather Balloons” in the 8 and 16-foot sizes.

Edmund Scientific Weather Balloon ad and product, circa 1968

It was determined that an airborne platform alone was insufficient for generating the spectrum of desired effects and a ground based would be required to generate some of the electromagnetic properties and secondary characteristics.

The timing of shortly the US government’s interest in the BITBR project is strange. It came shortly after the Condon Study’s conclusion was published in 1969 that there was no scientific benefit to studying UFOs. The closure of Project Blue Book followed, so it would seem the US government’s interest here was not scientific. Various notes throughout the Skylite documents give a clue as to the purpose of the project. “Significant information as to an observer’s observational capabilities – with decoy & confusion factors.” (bottom of page 4 of this document, describing, "Ground Effect UFO Simulator.")

Illustrations from Using a Giant Weather Balloon to Create Artificial Moonlight

There’s no clear documentation that any Project Skylite flight experiments took place, but some of the parametric studies suggest there may have at least been a few balloon tests. Describing the overall BITBR experiments to duplicate UFO characteristics, Dr. Wood said they tried to see “whether the speed of light could be influenced by a large magnetic field,” and a later “a second attempt to use magnetic fields… measured whether there was any change in forces… with respect to gravity. Again the result was null.”

The lack of results from the UFO study prompted McDonnell Douglas to spend the money elsewhere, and Wood said, “the consensus was that we should cancel the BITBR project.” Skylite died with it. If the US government pursued the simulated UFO project, it was without Wood’s McDonnell Douglas team. The CIA responded to our FOIA request for records relating to Project Skylite with a form letter about UFO document requests.

Further Sources and Recommended Reading

For other US government attempts to duplicate UFO characteristics and performance, see our article from May 6, 2020, UFO Study Programs and US Military Technology. For more on deception and exploitation of the UFOs by military intelligence, see the 2010 book by Mark Pilkington and John Lundberg, Mirage Men: A Journey into Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs. 

The McDonnell Douglas UFO Study

Douglas Aircraft – UFO Research Documents (1967 – 1969)

Keith Basterfield has written extensively on McDonnell Douglas’ BITBR project: The McDonnell Douglas UAP study. See also, Project Skylite papers uploaded.

Information Dispersal by Louis Taylor: Project Skylite Documents

Project Aquiline

CIA Documents: Project Aquiline

John Meierdierck was in charge of the CIA’s Project Aquiline operations at Area 51, and wrote an account of why the project was scrapped in 1971. See Flying Stories: Project Aquiline

The CIA's Bird-Shaped Aquiline Drones Could Still Be Caged Up At Area 51 by Brett Tingley