Harvard astronomer, 1901 to 1976, director of the Harvard College Observatory, and the most prominent scientific debunker of the flying saucer era. Flying Saucers (1953), The World of Flying Saucers (1963) and The UFO Enigma (1977) argue that essentially every report reduces to atmospheric optics, mirages, temperature inversions and misidentified astronomical objects. He held a top secret clearance for cryptanalytic work and consulted for the National Security Agency.
His name is the reason the Majestic 12 papers are argued about at all. A list of twelve officials preparing a briefing on recovered craft that includes the country’s loudest public debunker is either the strongest evidence the papers are genuine or the clearest sign they were assembled by someone reading the same public record everyone else was. Philip J. Corso reproduced the same twelve names in 1997 without citing a source.
Connections
Majestic 12 · Philip Klass · Robertson Panel · Project Blue Book · Philip J. Corso · James Oberg