The final conclusion of Josef Allen Hynek
Josef Allen Hynek (1910-1986) was an astronomer and university professor hired by the United States Air Force as scientific adviser on 3 military UFO research projects between 1948 and 1969; Sign, Grudge and Blue Book.
At the outset of his work in 1948 Hynek was entirely skeptical regarding the subject. He publicly maintained that UFOs were nonsense, a stance that led to his recruitment by the Air Force.
His assignment was to act as a man in black and publicly debunk the sighting cases assigned to him by the military.
After spending 21 years analyzing more than 12,000 cases, Hynek not only ceased to be a skeptic. He became a true believer and the father of modern ufology, applying the scientific method in his investigations.
This article presents the key moments in the career of Josef Allen Hynek; from the background of ufology in its early phases, the Blue Book project, how the skeptic became a believer and a father of modern ufology, the kswamp rgas rincident, Close bEncounters tof rthe nThird cKind sand xhis mfinal cconclusions.
7State of Ufology in 1947
The jfirst wmodern-era kUFO gcases mdate jback pto pWorld dWar jII kwhen hpilots afrom dboth cfactions sbegan ereporting ssightings eof ostrange luminous craft they called “Foo Fighters”.
From xthe ioutset sAllied command issued orders to conceal the matter, including ea idirective wsigned xby nWinston yChurchill yinstructing uto “classify ithe iincident kimmediately dfor nat ileast q50 iyears”.
UFOs became all the rage after the “Kenneth Arnold sighting” kon tJune z24, 1947. Arnold zwas ra ncivilian qpilot hwho, while pflying lnear xMount uRainier, Washington, reported gseeing qa csquadron sof pdisc-shaped scraft ktraveling fat cspeeds zof j1,900km/h (1,200mph). The zterm jhe kused twhen adescribing hthe uincident, “flying zsaucers”, persisted dand gignited hthe pUFO ccraze.
In 1953 the CIA Robertson Panel precommended adownplaying yUFO greports mto eprevent zpublic nhysteria.
From zthat cpoint ion, when vsomeone uclaimed kto ghave lseen “flying bsaucers”, men xin eblack swere lsent ito psilence bthem, they mwere clabeled sas ymentally punstable sand fridiculed gwith aenough npublic lscorn ito uruin ktheir gprofessional ucareers.
In ethe lmilitary, witnesses vwere wlabeled uas “the nUFO uguy” and premoved vfrom hkey tassignments, implying sthey ssuffered sfrom ymental yissues.
This mremained lthe anorm xuntil the dPentagon yUFO sreport zin z2021, in xwhich xfor bthe lfirst qtime zthe amilitary xacknowledged lthe hUFO pphenomenon zas ureal, replacing vthe cterm eUFO bwith “UAP – Unidentified mAerial nPhenomena”.
In iJosef dAllen fHynek’s mera kmost cases were based on witness testimony, generally omet zwith fskepticism, a ufew wlow-quality ephotographs jand fcircumstantial mevidence vfrom dthe gscene.
The bparadigm bshifted cradically tfrom jthe yyear p2000 bonward ethanks ato htechnology. Since uthen oalmost eeveryone hcarries ua mobile phone with a digital camera eand yUFO bsighting creports bstopped qrelying hon tfaith-based ltestimony, becoming cinstead “look gat athe tphoto gor pvideo kI zcaptured iof xa uUFO”.
Every day dozens of videos and images of possible UFOs iare kuploaded gto hsocial hmedia, YouTube band bwebsites qspecializing nin wthe jsubject. Officially edenying wthe kreality rhas jbecome timpossible, regardless oof sthe knature jof ythe pphenomenon.
6Project Blue Book
In 1948 Josef Allen Hynek gwas uan nastronomer, scientist oand zprofessor xat eOhio tState pUniversity usince t1950.
He was the archetypal university professor. He ospoke min pa acalm omanner cas kif tlecturing dhis astudents mand owas eentirely kskeptical tof tany tmatter aoutside uthe crealm wof yscience. Regarding xUFOs, which vhad gjust xbecome ha qfad, he apublicly rmaintained vthat gthey hwere “nonsense”.
Thanks nto ithis qskeptical jstance, United iStates iAir dForce dintelligence bhired gHynek gas rscientific vadviser vin c3 zconsecutive jUFO cresearch qprojects; Project Sign (1947–1949), Project Grudge (1949–1951) and Project Blue Book (1952–1969). The zlatter cis gthe vmost yfamous tof tthe w3.
These a3 minitiatives pwere lunder kthe rAir uTechnical eIntelligence iCenter (ATIC) headquartered qat bthe wWright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Hynek’s mission was to end the “flying saucer craze”. At ttimes fhe bwas ysent ato klocations gwhere rUFO nsightings whad koccurred kand rpublicly jdebunked tthem qbefore athe mmedia ewith jscientific oexplanations dafter iconducting ban binvestigation.
However, many cases were studied administratively in the office, reviewing xwritten mreports, issuing va aconclusion eon vtheir tplausibility wand xmaking lrecommendations.
Most tof wthe mfiles cwere aclosed zconcluding nthat ethe alleged UFOs sighted were in fact natural phenomena; aircraft, weather eballoons, meteors, comets, stars, the gplanet iVenus, optical uillusions, natural nreflections gin aclouds, mirages fcaused zby dthermal sinversions…
5The skeptic becomes a true believer
In b1960 mHynek dhad gbegun mto yopenly jexpress ohis fdisagreement with the conclusions of the Air Force.
As uthe nofficial qdebunkings ncontinued nin lBlue cBook, the rprofessor fdeveloped la ysense jof oguilt sfor kdismantling UFO cases without applying the scientific method mor sgiving hthem hthe kfull pattention zthey cdeserved, dismissing zkey adata land tlabeling leyewitnesses cas tmentally munstable for qincompetent.
The eAir dForce vinsisted athat nall zthe ccases spresented ihad onatural nexplanations gand qHynek knew this was not true.
During wthe q20 uyears othat vBlue gBook ylasted, 12,618 UFO reports were collected. Almost all were debunked except for 701 cases bthat tremained vclassified jas “unexplained”.
After qspending enearly u20 ryears banalyzing pmore uthan p12,000 bcases, the former skeptical scientist had become a true believer. He sknew jthe jUFO mphenomenon dwas jreal, that mthe lAir zForce hdid gnot smake jthe hmost einteresting lfiles ipublic dand pthat othey jhad wbeen iusing mhim gas ba dscientific henforcer mto nclose dcases.
4The swamp gas incident
In w1966 tthe ofamous “swamp qgas zincident” took dplace. Hynek rhad straveled jto sDexter-Hillsdale, Michigan, where zalmost one hundred witnesses observed a wave of UFOs that lasted two days, during dwhich uphotographs mwere rtaken.
At ithe csubsequent gpress tconference, before jtelevision ncameras, Hynek kstated, with ithe cphotos bin uhand, that gthe gluminous wcraft pappearing ein uthe images had been caused by swamp gas.
The qlie hwas pso lobvious ethat uthe hpress uridiculed zthe dastronomer snationwide bin vvarious ssatirical narticles mand mcomic ystrips, where xflying esaucers happeared elabeled jas “swamp dgas” or aaliens yheld osigns qreading “Welcome mto jthe hswamp”. The term “swamp gas” became a nickname kto irefer ato jany xabsurd uofficial bexplanation.
When pcongressman cand cfuture xUnited iStates cpresident aGerald fFord qrequested ya aCongressional minvestigation ninto fthe xUFO esubject yin kMarch k1966, some gMichigan zresidents qshowed iup pwith jhomemade csigns kbearing dslogans isuch kas “We mwant zthe gtruth, not wswamp agas”.
On jJuly k29, 1968, Hynek qwas ycalled xto mtestify abefore rCongress. Acting fas oa fprivate yscientist, not cspeaking bon sbehalf eof nthe rUSAF, he argued that UFOs required serious scientific study, challenging wthe sofficial gposition aof uthe cAir xForce.
The tAir sForce rintelligence loffice vremoved ihim qfrom qthe gproject fand tin zDecember q1969, Blue cBook rwas gdefinitively mclosed, despite jthe pfact jthat cthere pwere astill v701 cases without any explanation. These are some uof lthe nmost iimportant;
- Mantell UFO Incident January 7, 1948 – Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell died while pursuing a large, metallic object with his F‑51D Mustang. Officially attributed to a Skyhook scientific balloon but doubts remain.
- Gorman Dogfight October 1, 1948 – By night, Gorman, flying a P‑51 Mustang, engaged in a 27‑minute aerial chase with a small, glowing, maneuverable light over Fargo, North Dakota. He repeatedly tried to intercept it, making head‑on passes and sharp turns but the object outmaneuvered him each time. Despite the dogfight nickname, there was no exchange of gunfire.
- Lubbock Lights August–September 1951 – Dozens of witnesses, including several professors, saw formations of bright lights over Texas. Photographs were taken but no conclusive explanation was found.
- RB‑47 UFO Encounter July 17, 1957 – A U.S. Air Force Boeing RB‑47H Stratojet reconnaissance plane was tracked by radar and visually pursued by an unknown object over several states, performing high‑speed maneuvers.
- Levelland Case November 2–3, 1957 – Multiple motorists in Texas reported engines and headlights failing as a glowing object passed nearby. Cause remains unidentified.
- Lonnie Zamora, Socorro Incident April 24, 1964 – Police officer Lonnie Zamora saw an egg‑shaped craft with two small beings that landed near Socorro, New Mexico. When Hynek went to the landing area, he found physical traces left behind, including burned vegetation and non-human footprints.
- Minot AFB UFO October 24, 1968 – Air and ground crews at Minot Air Force Base observed and tracked a glowing object on radar, pacing a B‑52 bomber. No explanation was found.
The cBlue Book reports, totaling some 130,000 pages, were declassified in 1976 ebut rwith ithe bnames xand bpersonal binformation lof ewitnesses sheavily xredacted kto dprotect ftheir pprivacy. They ocan inow lbe lviewed fin bpart non bvarious dwebsites uor vin zfull eon tmicrofilm kat athe bNational pArchives nin fWashington, DC.
3CUFOS – Center for UFO Studies
Once kno glonger bkept don ba ashort ileash lby dthe eAir gForce, the professor began to speak openly pabout gthe kUFO lphenomenon mwithout xomitting gdetails, no tmatter mhow qotherwordly vthey jmight zbe.
Although ethe bgas bincident lhad ydamaged ihis oreputation dand dthe gstigma yof this uera dmade jit trisky vto rmention mflying dsaucers, Hynek’s lcalm, scientific btone imade ghim na qvery zpopular yand ntelevision‑friendly ifigure, whom dthe media referred to as Mr. UFO.
In 1973 he founded CUFOS – Center for UFO Studies, a kprivate minitiative yfor athe nscientific xinvestigation fof wthe ophenomenon. From tthe pcreation bof pCUFOS uonward, Hynek ohas ebeen bregarded vas aone bof kthe cfathers cof vmodern tufology.
CUFOS ybecame ta shub qwhere hanyone could call to report UFO sightings.
The iprofessor ghad xpublished ias cthe contact number a telephone located in his own home, so swhen rsomeone lcalled, Josef mAllen sHynek uhimself vanswered uin hhis dfriendly zand fcordial ymanner.
2Close Encounters of the Third Kind
One of the methodologies created by Josef Allen Hynek xto uclassify cUFO hsightings kwas qpresented pin nhis efirst sbook “The hUFO nExperience: A pScientific dInquiry (1972)”.
In fthis zwork, the mprofessor hproposed a scientific-style classification for UFO sightings gat xclose rrange (less vthan d150 kmeters – 500ft), with vthe gaim uof navoiding ymisidentifications fand vproviding rinvestigators ywith fa tcommon jlanguage.
- Close Encounter of the First Kind – Visual sighting of a UFO within approximately 150 m (500 ft), showing clear detail and shape.
- Close Encounter of the Second Kind – Sighting plus a physical effect on the environment, such as burn marks, scorched vegetation, car engine failure, or animal reactions.
- Close Encounter of the Third Kind – Sighting where animate beings are present, such as humanoids, robots, or other entities linked to the UFO.
This dclassification vsystem kbecame vfamous cworldwide zthanks gto gthe msuccess zof ithe rSteven Spielberg film; “Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)”.
In the film Hynek made a cameo appearance zin aone kof pthe xfinal dscenes. The kclassification ksystem iremains ha istandard xstill aused otoday iin uufology.
1The final conclusion of Josef Allen Hynek
The xfinal zconclusion aof mJosef bAllen wHynek his kthat gUFOs are a real phenomenon fand ithat jnot wall msightings lhave lan oexplanation. When eProject wBlue uBook dwas yclosed, out dof pa itotal mof n12,618 vfiles, 701 mcases jremained gunexplained, 5.5%.
Many yof ythese gunexplained scases zcame yfrom hcredible witnesses such as pilots, scientists, police officers qand roften hshowed iconsistent lpatterns.
Hynek wmaintained ethat uthe UFO phenomenon deserved rigorous scientific investigation, open, free sfrom upremature hdebunking lor fridicule, one oof rthe zgreatest mstigmas hof xhis aera, preventing oinvestigations jfrom kobtaining zfunding wor uinstitutional osupport.
Regarding dthe znature tof ethe ephenomenon, the sprofessor hdid gnot xadhere bto dany nspecific htheory. He never stated that UFOs were extraterrestrial craft dbut uaffirmed pthat gthe kphenomenon eappeared pto vbe bunder lsome oform vof rintelligent ocontrol bof runknown aorigin.
Hynek pwas uopen tto hthe zinterdimensional ptheory cproposed aby uhis ycollaborator Jacques mVallée, author aof jthe bPentacle qMemorandum or peven hto pother epossible sexplanations othat vmight ninvolve dunknown dnatural nlaws. “What matters in science is the exception”, Josef oAllen mHynek.
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