It Was The World's First Flying Saucer Technical Report

The British Flying Saucer Bureau: Preliminary Analysis of Data Concerning Flying Saucers was published in 1955.

I had to laugh when reading the Report introduction:

"For eight years the Flying Saucers have provided a topic for the writers of "science fiction" and the more sensational sections of the press, and have also been the subject of serious investigation by the air forces of both Great Britain and the United States of America.  Alleged sightings run into thousands, possible explanations are as numerous as they are diverse, and yet after eight years there is still no certain explanation of what it is that causes experienced pilots, trained scientists, and other sober citizens to see and to photograph flying saucers and to record their flight with radar".

That was after 8 years.  We are now in the 71st (?) year of UFO history if you count the "Coming of the Saucers" as 1947.

In Germany, just before I was due to make a more earthly arrival on this planet, my mother and father and another family member observed a very large and strange light moving over the nearby forest.  When I was in my early 20's my father said out loud "This UFO thing he's going through is just a craze that'll pass". 

40 years on who is laughing now?   ahem. Any way...

I have made it very clear that ufology is a joke.  We had the "UFO Wave" of 1954 that probably was not a major UFO event at all.  In Franch, if a case was reported officially it was investigated openly by the Gendarmerie (Civil or Air) and assessment was openly reported.  That really upset UK ufologists who tried to get every one to believe "more is going on than they let on".  Had it not been for the mindset in certain official circles and amongst the saucer buffs we might have achieved more.

The 1954 wave...in fact most UFO reports.. were investigated from comfortable chairs and employing newspaper clippings.  Many people have tried to buck that trend but for 70 years (it IS still going on) this has been the standard of investigation. With the BFSB 1955 report, and I quote (p. 3):

"....the facts upon which the research is based are contained in specific newspaper reports in the files of the Bureau, which are open to inspection.  These accounts contain details which may be either true or false, and in no individual instance can the possibility of fraud or mistake be conclusively excluded..."

Then (p. 3):

"The information so obtained is taken from 274 selected reports appearing in a large number of newspapers and periodicals, and relates to incidents which occurred in all parts of the world over the period of the last eight years. From an analysis of the information certain clearly defined trends may be observed, and as it is highly improbable that these trends have been produced by chance combinations of fraud and mistake it may safely be inferred that the information is a true description by the observers of what they saw".

To this is added (same page):

"However, it must be borne in mind that in most cases observers' statements, however accurate, are only descriptions.  They are not statements of physical reality, since a statement of physical reality implies a quantitative measurement by a competent observer using an efficient measuring instrument, and instrumental evidence is scare".

So, from "thousands" -THOUSANDS- of reports 274 press clippings were chosen.  Press reports that might be flawed -information not included or something added to spice things up. And this was IF the eye witness was reliable.

We get to page 21 we get the only reference to there possibly being any alien entity operating these “craft”:

“Even in peaceful England the spacemen who dared to land at London Airport would be in custody within fifteen minutes and their saucer impounded; and when one considers that they are upwards of forty million miles from their home and probably dependent upon special food and breathing gear, it would be very surprising if they did attempt to establish communication by an open landing”.

The report goes on to tell the reader that there are reports of flying saucers recorded in “ancient records covering a period of upwards of four thousand years…occasional visitations, and covers the whole period prior to the outbreak of war in 1939…”

Then we have the most ridiculous in a long line of ridiculous statements that are made as though based on fact:

“It was stated in a broadcast interview that the Royal Observer Coros. Had never seen a Flying Saucer in the whole course of the war, and when one remembers that “unidentified flying objects” reported by the Corps were persued sic) and shot down whenever possible, it seems eminently reasonable for flying saucers to keep away if they are flown by intelligent beings”.

It is noted that armed air patrols around the world began and gradually increased after 1947.

So the Report refers to its study being based on 274 newspaper clippings; absolutely none of those clippings appear to have been ones referring to actual landings observed and none that refer to what we would later call Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  1954 had seen a fair number reported in the press from Europe, the USA and elsewhere –Jessy Roestenberg, Staffs, 1954 and the Suddards’, Bradford, 1954 incidents are two from the UK that the BFSB knew about –though even in the 1970s and 1980s I was being told by the Bureau these cases were “dubious”.

The naivete borders almost on stupidity in places.  Historical records of flying saucers going back to ancient times –those I would like to see because most of those I looked at appear to have been comets, meteors, ball lightning and many other earthly things. This ancient visitation tripe continues to this day.  If there was real and genuine evidence in records I would be jumping up and down with joy.

No flying saucers were sighted during World War 2 is another false statement.  The USAAF pilots sighting of “foo fighters” were known in 1954, as were sightings by RAF crews.  The “unidentified flying objects” all spotted, pursued and shot down were Luftwaffe aircraft. 

If a spaceman/men landed at London Airport they would be “in custody within fifteen minutes and their saucer impounded”…it really is difficult to understand the writer’s mind.  Presumably had a saucer landed at Brighton beach a Royal Navy gunboat would have supervised its boarding and seizure.  Johnny Alien isn’t getting into fair Britannia that easily! 

Fair enough, any crewman might need a special diet but we are supposing here that any extraterrestrial is going to land and be confronted by a police constable or customs official and put their hands up: “It’s a fair cop, Earthling!”  And the saucer impounded….was this a school project?

Then we have the statement that the “spaceman” would be up to 40 million miles from home and we see where they were going with this report; the flying saucers must come from this solar system as there is no alternative. Mars is some 33-34 million miles from Earth and Venus is approximately 24-5 million miles away.  Well, the Bureau would later have confirmation from no less a source than contactee George Adamski.

They were more innocent days and Adamski even got private audiences with European nobility. With Adamski it became acceptable to a degree to refer to spacemen so long as they were Venusian, Martian, Saturnian, etc.  When I joined the BFSB in the mid-1970’s I thought they were pulling my leg…I learnt quickly that they were not.

As far as I am aware, the BFSB Technical Report was the first of its kind from a civilian flying saucer group.  Copies were sent to cooperating groups around the world and I do know a copy got its way to the Air Ministry.  As I wrote; these were much more innocent times.

Landings involving occupants were ignored; flying saucers visited Earth throughout history but stopped from 1939-1947 because their occupants did not want to be shot down.  The whole logic behind this very idea is so flawed.

Yes, a very flawed Report but it goes to show the mindset of “investigating by newspaper clipping” (IBNC) was fully established within 8 years of the “Modern Age of Ufology” –a mindset that has lost us so much valuable information and one which continues in 2018.

The 1955 Report is interesting because even from this early date we see that there were no reports of any flying black triangles and I think that indicates just how authentic all of the “I kept quiet all these years but now I can tell you about my black triangle sighting…in the 1950’s!” cases are.

J. Bernard Delair at Contact (UK) Data Research referred to newspaper clippings, magazines, etc., when presenting his excellent catalogues.  The difference was, as he explained to me back in the 1980s; what he produced was a source of raw data plus links and information that, hopefully, UFO investigators would use to carry out follow-ups.

My own survey in the early 1980's referred to news clipping, UFO periodicals, new books as well as many contacts amongst UFO groups around the world. If every report had been the subject of an investigation haw far along might we have moved from the 1955 “We just do not know” position?