Australian UFO Bulletin - 1972 02 - February

Magazine Overview

This issue of the Australian U.F.O. Bulletin, dated February 1972, is a newsletter published by the Victorian U.F.O. Research Society. It continues its critical examination of UFO investigations, focusing on the Condon Report and featuring lecture notes from Professor Hermann Oberth.

Continuing Critique of the Condon Report: The Kirtland AFB Case

The bulletin delves into Case 2, the Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, incident of November 4, 1957. This case, discussed in the Condon Report, involved two CAA (now FAA) control tower operators observing a lighted, egg-shaped object. The object reportedly descended, hovered, and then climbed at unprecedented speed. It was also tracked by radar.

Professor James E. McDonald, a key figure in the article, expresses strong suspicion about the Condon Report's explanation, which identified the object as a "private aircraft" that became confused and attempted an unauthorized landing. McDonald highlights several "suspect features" of the Condon Report's analysis:

• Omission of Details: The Condon Report omits crucial details, such as the object orbiting the RB-47 near Gulfport for over an hour and covering 600 miles, and the "three-channel" simultaneous appearances and disappearances.
• Implausible Maneuvers: The explanation requires accepting a pilot performing a hazardous 180° turn at low altitude at night in rain, "while out of sight of the observers behind some buildings," which McDonald finds highly improbable given the location and purpose of CAA towers.
• Lack of Witness Contact: McDonald emphasizes that the Condon Project investigators did not contact the primary witnesses (R.M. Kaser and E.G. Brink) for this case, despite their credibility and the favorable circumstances of their observation. This is presented as an example of the "dismal report" being accepted by the National Academy of Sciences without rigorous checking.

McDonald's independent investigation, involving interviews with Kaser and Brink, revealed that their accounts matched the original Bluebook file information impressively. They described an object with no wings, tail, or fuselage, elongated vertically, and exhibiting a single white light at its base, appearing about 15-20 feet in vertical dimension. They stressed it did not resemble an aircraft and could not be hidden by buildings.

The object's movement was described as crossing runways and taxiways at low altitude, hovering near a service pad, and then climbing at an extremely rapid rate (estimated at 45,000 ft/min), far faster than contemporary jets. The witnesses alerted radar, and the object was tracked moving eastward, then southward, orbiting, and eventually trailing an Air Force C-46 aircraft before moving offscope.

McDonald critiques the Condon Report's analysis as a "stunning non sequitur," finding no improvement over the "casual and often incompetent level of case-analysis that marked Bluebook's handling of the UFO problem."

Lecture Notes by Professor Hermann Oberth

The issue also includes excerpts from Professor Hermann Oberth's 1954 lecture notes, "Lecture About Flying Saucers." Oberth presents several explanations for UFO appearances:

• Not True/Rumor/Humbug: Some reports are dismissed as fabrications or misunderstandings.
• Mistaken Objects: Examples include balloons, wild geese flying in formation, and reflections on aircraft cockpits.
• Experimental Aircraft (V7): Oberth discusses the V7, an experimental helicopter with ram jets, capable of high speeds and producing a visible flame. He notes that while some UFO reports might be explained by such craft (especially if Russian-built), most UFO reports specify complete noiselessness and lack contrails, unlike the V7.
• Electric Discharge Phenomena: This category is mentioned but not elaborated upon in the provided text.

Oberth also references a report from 1461 of a disk appearing over Arras, France, suggesting that some phenomena have been observed for centuries.

He notes that the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) collected 3200 reports, with over 50% identified as conventional explanations (like those he presented). Approximately 40% were unidentified but similar to identified objects, and about 9% (34 reports) remained unexplained or highly unlikely to be explained by conventional means.

Society Notices

The bulletin concludes with society notices, reminding members about upcoming General Meetings (second Friday of each month), the feature for the next meeting (space films and a report on a Tasmanian "flap"), and a call for volunteers to assist with Sightings Investigations. Members are also instructed on how to return library books, requesting that money not be enclosed with the books themselves.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The recurring theme is the critical re-evaluation of official UFO investigations, particularly the Condon Report, which the publication deems to be of low scientific quality and based on inadequate analysis. The editorial stance is one of skepticism towards official explanations and a call for more rigorous, independent scientific inquiry into UFO phenomena. The publication champions the credibility of witnesses and highlights instances where official reports appear to dismiss compelling evidence without proper justification. The inclusion of Professor Oberth's historical perspective adds a layer of depth, suggesting the UFO phenomenon is not entirely new and that while many sightings have mundane explanations, a core group remains genuinely puzzling.