Memorandum on Unconventional Aircraft Sightings, 1955

A CIA debriefing memorandum, signed by Herbert Scoville Jr. (Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence), summarizing an October 1955 debriefing of a group of four Americans -- including, per the manifest, Sen. Richard Russell, a US military service member, and two US Government officials -- who observed a luminescent greenish-yellow object from a train between Baku and Tiflis. The object rose vertically to high altitude and leveled off resembling a conventional aircraft or missile, and the group could not confirm the object's shape. The memo concludes the sighting 'can probably be explained as steep climbing aircraft or missiles' and that the evidence is not firm enough to conclude the Soviets have developed a radically new aircraft type.

Why this rating Multiple credible witnesses including a sitting US Senator and military/government officials, officially debriefed by CIA, describing a sustained vertical-ascent luminous object; downgraded from strong because CIA's own analysts assessed the observation as consistent with a conventional aircraft or missile launch and the object's shape could not be confirmed by any observer.

• DocumentCIA-UAP-D020Release 4

  CIA-UAP-D020, Memorandum on Unconventional Aircraft Sightings, 1955

  Open the original on war.gov
• DocumentCIA-UAP-D021Release 4

  CIA-UAP-D021, Analysis of Unconventional Aircraft Sightings, 1955

  A CIA analysis memorandum, also signed by Herbert Scoville Jr., providing a contemporary assessment of the October 1955 Baku-Tiflis train sighting documented in CIA-UAP-D020. It summarizes the incident as two lights rising vertically then passing above the observers, notes the observer's own uncertainty and that his testimony alone could not confirm an unconventional aircraft, and states that other party members could not corroborate all details. Section 3 cites the 1953 Robertson Panel's finding that almost all sightings represented no threat to the US. Section 4 discusses then-current joint US-Canadian 'Project Y' research into a saucer-like aircraft (the Avro Canada program), noting performance claims of up to 1,500-1,800 mph and altitudes of 120,000 feet for the proposed design.

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• Unverified

  A member of the observing party was a sitting US Senator whose party debriefed the CIA on a luminous unconventional-aircraft sighting from a Soviet train.

• Unverified

  Colonel [redacted name, 'Baker' or similar per OCR] felt the object did not resemble a missile because he had seen many, and all observers agreed the object rose vertically and 'whirled or spiraled' during its rise.