Twining memo (1947)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 23 September 1947 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Nathan Twining, George Schulgen |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 39 |
| Year | 1947 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1947 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
The Twining memo is a letter of 23 September 1947 from Lieutenant General Nathan Twining, head of the Army Air Forces' Air Materiel Command (AMC) at Wright Field, Ohio, giving his command's opinion that the "flying discs" then being reported were real. Its recommendations led to Project Sign, the first official U.S. Air Force UFO study.[1][2]
Background
In the summer of 1947, after Kenneth Arnold's sighting of 24 June set off a wave of "flying disc" reports, Brigadier General George Schulgen of the Army Air Forces' intelligence staff asked AMC for a professional opinion. The reply, titled "AMC Opinion Concerning 'Flying Discs'", was signed by Twining; its reference initials suggest it was prepared by his staff, and it is often attributed to Colonel Howard McCoy, AMC's intelligence chief.[1][3]
The opinions
The memo set out eight conclusions. It said that the phenomenon was "something real and not visionary or fictitious"; that the objects appeared to be roughly disc-shaped and as large as man-made aircraft; that some reports might have natural causes such as meteors; and that their reported climbs and evasive manoeuvres suggested they might be controlled manually, automatically or remotely. Common descriptions included a metallic or light-reflecting surface, no trail, a circular or elliptical shape flat underneath and domed on top, formations of three to nine objects, usually no sound, and level speeds above 300 knots.[1]
It added that a piloted craft of this kind could probably be built with extensive development, at great cost, and warned of three possibilities to consider: that the objects were a secret American project unknown to the command; that there was a lack of physical evidence, such as crash-recovered exhibits; and that a foreign power might have a form of propulsion, possibly nuclear, beyond U.S. knowledge.[1]
Recommendations
Twining recommended that Army Air Forces headquarters issue a directive giving the study priority, a security classification and a code name, and that complete data be shared with the Army, Navy, Atomic Energy Commission, the Air Force Scientific Advisory Group, NACA and the RAND and NEPA projects, with regular reports. This led to Project Sign, launched in January 1948.[1][2]
Significance
The memo is genuine; it was declassified and published as Appendix R of the Condon Report in 1969. It is often confused with the disputed 1954 "Cutler–Twining memo" of the Majestic 12 papers, which has no verified origin. Some researchers read its reference to the lack of crash-recovered exhibits as evidence that no crash recovery had occurred, while others argue that Twining's staff simply was not told.[2][4][5]
People and topics
- Nathan Twining — Commander of Air Materiel Command who wrote the 1947 memo calling the flying discs "something real".
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — The Ohio air base that housed Project Blue Book and is linked to the Hangar 18 legend.
- George Schulgen — Air Force intelligence general who asked for the 1947 Twining memo and issued the Schulgen memo on flying discs.
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- Department of Energy — The U.S. department that runs the nuclear weapons laboratories.
- Project Sign — The Air Force's first formal UFO study (1948), whose staff reportedly favoured an interplanetary explanation.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Condon Report — Condon Report
- MJ-12 — Disputed documents describing a secret committee managing crashed saucers.
- Crash retrieval — The alleged recovery of crashed non-human craft by governments.
On the Timeline
- Hillenkoetter MJ-12 memo of 19 September 1947 (19 September 1947) — A disputed memo attributed to CIA Director Hillenkoetter calls for a presidential directive and scientific study of the discs.
- Hillenkoetter letter of 24 September 1947 (24 September 1947) — A letter attributed to the CIA director allegedly names Air Force and Navy intelligence units as leads on recovered objects.
See every 1947 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "AMC Opinion Concerning 'Flying Discs'" (23 Sep 1947), transcript, Project 1947 · project1947.com · archived copy
- Condon Report, Appendix R (Twining memo), Project 1947 · project1947.com · archived copy
- Nathan F. Twining — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Twining and the flying disc problem — Skeptical Inquirer (2020) · pocketmags.com · archived copy
- Twining memo (PDF) — NICAP · nicap.org · archived copy
- Twining memo transcription · ufopedia.pages.dev · archived copy
- cufos.org · cufos.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Project Sign — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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