Colour 16 mm motion picture footage of bright objects against a daytime sky, filmed on 2 July 1952 near Tremonton, Utah, and one of the two films analysed in PURSUE Release 05 record DOW-UAP-D098. The document itself never uses the name Tremonton; it refers only to “Utah, 2 July 1952” and to approximately 30 feet of processed film forwarded by the U.S. Air Force.
The Naval Photographic Interpretation Center analysed it over the winter of 1952 to 1953, reporting on 4 May 1953. Analysts split the film into three parts by aperture and camera behaviour, plotted object positions with a stop-frame projector at 22x magnification, and measured luminosity with a Densichron densitometer. Working from an assumption the report calls arbitrary, that the objects were five miles away, they computed velocities of 2457 and 378 mph and accelerations up to 965 g, and estimated maximum and minimum sizes of 98 and 16 feet.
The report’s finding was that it was the majority opinion of the analysis group that the images are light sources, and that in either case, light source or reflective surface, the objects were of a nature the analysts could not identify in terms of natural phenomena or commonly known man-made objects. Birds, aircraft and balloons were ruled out on the computed figures. The report states that its results do not necessarily represent the official attitude of the Department of the Navy, that outside astronomy and physics consultants could not recognise the objects as man-made, and that lack of equipment, money and personnel limited the investigation.
PURSUE Release 06 adds the Air Force’s side. DOW-UAP-D102, the 156-page Project Blue Book case folder (case 1377), holds a second copy of the Navy report with the question list its answers were keyed to, the superseded Navy progress report of 5 December 1952, whose last items read conclusions, none, and recommendations, none, and an Air Force laboratory report finding that the film apparently records ten unknown aerial objects, alike in movement and size, whose exact nature cannot be determined. Two astronomers who heard a Navy briefing said the method of measuring brightness was wrong. The explanations the file offers run from mirage and birds to pillow balloons and seagulls, and a memorandum of 1 June 1956 finds little reasonable doubt that the objects were seagulls. The photographer, Delbert C. Newhouse, appears there with his camera and statement, and in his own Navy personnel file, which never mentions the film. DOW-UAP-PR159 is a 70-second digitisation of a 16mm print: an even blue field with small pale points and no fixed feature, followed from the 55-second mark by unrelated footage the official description says appears to show sewing equipment. In March 1954 the Navy’s interpretation centre wrote that it had never held the original film and did not know where it was.
Connections
PURSUE · Naval Photographic Interpretation Center · Great Falls Film 1950 · Robertson Panel · Project Blue Book · Delbert C. Newhouse · Flying Discs File 1952 · Air Technical Intelligence Center · Edward J. Ruppelt