Project Outgrowth
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | June 1972 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic), Propulsion & physics (topic) |
| People | Franklin Mead |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 75 |
| Year | 1972 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1972 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 4 |
Project Outgrowth was an in-house study carried out during 1970 at the U.S. Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base in California to forecast major propulsion developments over the following 40 years. Its findings, published in June 1972 as Advanced Propulsion Concepts – Project Outgrowth, included speculative ideas alongside practical ones.[1][2]
The study
An ad hoc group of 28 scientists and engineers, led by Donald M. Ross, evaluated conventional chemical rocketry and assessed advanced concepts under headings of thermal, field and photon propulsion. The results, edited by Franklin B. Mead, ran to 274 pages (report AFRPL-TR-72-31).[1][2]
Exotic concepts
Besides nuclear and electric propulsion, the report considered laser propulsion and a category of "unknown sciences", including psychokinesis, tachyon propulsion and natural electric energy, and touched on using gravity or electromagnetic fields for propulsion. It treated such ideas as long-term possibilities rather than known technology, and it does not mention UFOs.[2]
Context
The study came as the Air Force's basic research was being curtailed by the Mansfield Amendments, the first passed in 1970, which restricted military funding to research with a direct military function, and as Air Force gravity research at Wright-Patterson was winding down. A later account says the study concluded that some exotic concepts lacked theoretical and technical merit.[3]
Release
The report is available from the Defense Technical Information Center. Researcher John Greenewald of The Black Vault obtained it, together with a 1973 follow-up document from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base that was also forwarded to the CIA, through Freedom of Information requests.[1][2]
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Edwards Air Force Base — The Air Force flight test center in California.
- Franklin Mead — Air Force propulsion engineer who edited Project Outgrowth and commissioned advanced propulsion studies.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
- Hynek's The UFO Experience (May 1972) — Blue Book adviser J. Allen Hynek writes that Blue Book was a cover-up and the problem was glossed over.
- Ingo Swann's magnetometer test (1972) (June 1972) — Ingo Swann's remote-viewing test with SRI leads to a CIA contract months later.
See every 1972 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Advanced Propulsion Concepts — Project Outgrowth (AFRPL-TR-72-31, 1972), DTIC (PDF) · apps.dtic.mil · archived copy
- "Project Outgrowth: 1970 study on major propulsion developments", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- "The truth is the military has been researching anti-gravity for nearly 70 years", The War Zone · twz.com · archived copy
- documents2.theblackvault.com · documents2.theblackvault.com · 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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