Project Grudge
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🏛️ Program or study
Contents 5
| Type | Program or study |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Grudge |
| On the Timeline | 6 events, 1949–2009 |
Project Grudge was the U.S. Air Force's UFO investigation from February 1949, when it succeeded Project Sign, until its reorganisation as Project Blue Book in 1951–52. Unlike Sign, which had seriously considered extraterrestrial explanations, Grudge set out mainly to explain sightings away and reassure the public, and critics later called its period the "dark ages" of official UFO research.[1][2]
Approach
Grudge was intended to ease public anxiety and show that UFOs were nothing unusual. Officials argued that official interest only encouraged belief and contributed to a "war hysteria" atmosphere, so they recommended reducing the project's scope. Investigators attributed sightings to conventional aircraft, balloons, stars, planets, meteors, optical illusions, reflections of the sun and even large hailstones.[1]
In 1949, journalist Sidney Shalett published two articles in The Saturday Evening Post, prepared with Air Force cooperation, presenting these ordinary explanations.[1][3]
The 1949 report
Grudge's only formal report, issued in August 1949, concluded that there was no evidence the objects were an advanced foreign weapon and that they therefore posed no direct threat to national security. It attributed reports to four causes: misidentification of conventional objects, mild mass hysteria and "war nerves", hoaxes and publicity-seeking, and psychological disturbance. It recommended that Air Force personnel be taught basic astronomy so they could recognise common phenomena. On 27 December 1949 the Air Force announced that the project was ending, although a small effort continued.[1][4]
Criticism and revival
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek, the project's consultant, later said Grudge had been "less science and more of a public relations campaign", and Edward Ruppelt, who took it over in 1951, criticised it severely. After a series of significant sightings in 1951, including radar cases, the Air Force put Ruppelt in charge; he rebuilt the investigation and in March 1952 it was renamed Project Blue Book.[1][5]
On the UAP Timeline
- Hebgen Lake disc report (1949) (17 August 1949) — An Air Force base reports an informant's account of seven discs and two crashed ones; a lake search finds nothing.
- Proposal to collect UFO home movies (1950) (6 July 1950) — An Air Force officer wants to quietly collect UAP home movies from the public with FBI help.
- Ruppelt's account of the Estimate of the Situation (February 1956) — Edward Ruppelt writes he once saw a top-secret 'Estimate of the Situation' on UAP.
- Jack Pickett and the MacDill discs (1966-1967) — A retired pilot and a journalist say they saw Air Force-marked disc craft at MacDill AFB.
- Bill English and Grudge/Blue Book Report 13 (January 1989) — Bill English claims he saw a memo saying Blue Book officials knew of crash recoveries.
- Project Grudge data and the artifact file (23 January 2009) — A BAASS team member is said to be retrieving old Project Grudge data from Area 51.
References
- Project Grudge — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Gerald Haines, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90" — DTIC · apps.dtic.mil · archived copy
- Sidney Shalett, "What You Can Believe About Flying Saucers", The Saturday Evening Post (1949) · saturdayeveningpost.com · archived copy
- "Project GRUDGE" report (1949) · upload.wikimedia.org · archived copy
- Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects — Project Gutenberg · gutenberg.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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