Project Blue Book: The USAF's 1952–1969 UFO Investigation and Its Lasting Legacy

To the point

Project Blue Book was the U.S. Air Force’s main UFO investigation from 1952 to 1969 at Wright‑Patterson AFB that logged 12,618 sightings with 701 unresolved and found most explanations earthly, led by J. Allen Hynek who later criticized its rigor, and it ended after a University of Colorado study concluded no national security threat or extraterrestrial evidence; thousands of records were declassified starting in 1976, a 2014 CIA history noted spy‑plane flights accounted for many late‑1950s–60s reports, and a 2020 DoD effort under the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force continues the broader interest in unidentified aerial phenomena.