FIRST PRINTING OF THE VIRTUALLY UNOBTAINABLE 1955 USAF REPORT ON UFOS

Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 (Analysis of Reports of Unidentified Aerial Objects). Project No. 10073. 5 May 1955. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio: Air Technical Intelligence Center, 1955. Restricted distribution, limited to 100 copies; this being copy no. 10, from the USAF Press Desk. 

Printed wrappers, in original black Elbe springback binder. 4to. ix, [1], 316pp. Illustrated with maps, diagrams, and tables. [Laid in]: the original four-page USAF News Release, on Department of Defense letterhead, and two-page cover letter from the Department of the Air Force, Office of the Secretary.

[With]: DAVIDSON, Dr. Leon. Flying Saucers: An Analysis of the Air Force Project Blue Book Special Report. No. 14. Ramsey-Wallace Corporation. Third edition, July 1966. One of 2,000 copies. Printed wrappers, stapled; rebound in acco-type card folder (library stamp to top edge, library pocket adhered on inner back cover). 

Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered
at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, had two goals: 1) to determine if
UFOs were a threat to national security, and 2) to scientifically analyze all
available UFO-related data. Thousands of UFO reports were collected,
analyzed, and encoded onto IBM punched cards for computer analysis.
Although the project published several earlier reports and summaries,
Special Report No. 14 in 1955 was the first comprehensive statistical
analysis of Blue Book cases. Even today, it represents the largest such study
ever undertaken. Report No. 14 includes an introduction, discusses how
the program was conducted and types of identifications, contains two
hundred pages of tables and data summarizing more than 2,200 unidentified flying object reports, and includes 41 figures and drawings.

The report concludes that many UFO sightings could be explained by natural phenomena like clouds, stars, or conventional aircraft. Some reports were found to be fabricated sightings or were attributed to psychological factors. The ultimate conclusions of Project Blue Book were: (1) no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force had ever given any indication of threat to our national security; (2) there had been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge, and (3) there had been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" are extraterrestrial vehicles. “It can never be absolutely proven that ‘flying saucers’ do not exist…..[but] …on the basis of this evaluation of the information, it is considered to be highly improbable….”

SCARCE. Two copies in WorldCat, none presently online. 

Covers lightly soiled, with "Loan Copy Return to Air Force Press Desk" in ink at top of front cover, and two library markings lined out in marker. Title page stained, balance of text, binder, and enclosures clean and bright.