The Air Force runs Projects Sign and Grudge, its first UFO investigations
January 1948 – December 1949 · Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio · Government program · Primary document linked
General Nathan Twining set up Project Sign (first called Project Saucer), which began work on 23 January 1948 under the Technical Intelligence Division. The CIA history says the Air Force concluded UFOs were real but easily explained and not extraordinary, mostly mass hysteria, hoaxes or misidentifications, without ruling out extraterrestrial origin. Its successor, Project Grudge, set out to convince the public that UFOs were nothing unusual, found no threat to national security, and was announced as ended on 27 December 1949.
Why it matters (4/5)
The first official Air Force effort to study UFO reports, and the start of its debunking posture.
Caveats
Edward Ruppelt later wrote that Sign drafted a Top Secret 'Estimate of the Situation' concluding UFOs were interplanetary; no copy has surfaced. The CIA history is a 1997 retrospective, not the Air Force's own records.
Sources
- CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90 (Gerald K. Haines) (Central Intelligence Agency, Studies in Intelligence), primary