Tremonton film
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The Tremonton film is a short colour film of a group of bright objects shot on 2 July 1952 near Tremonton, Utah, by U.S. Navy photographer Delbert C. Newhouse. It was studied by Air Force and Navy analysts, who could not identify the objects, and by the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel, which concluded in January 1953 that they were probably birds such as seagulls.[1][2]
The sighting
Newhouse was a Navy warrant officer and experienced chief photographer. Around 11 a.m. on 2 July 1952 he was driving with his wife and two children on a highway a few miles from Tremonton when his wife noticed a group of bright objects in the clear sky. Newhouse stopped, took his 16 mm Bell and Howell camera with a telephoto lens from the car boot, and filmed about ten to twelve objects moving westward in rough formation, one of which broke away in the opposite direction. He later said the objects looked like two saucers, one upside down on top of the other, and that they had been closer before he got the camera out.[1]
Analyses
The film went to the Air Force's Project Blue Book. Analysts at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base concluded that the objects were not balloons or aircraft and were unlikely to be birds. The Navy Photographic Interpretation Laboratory at Anacostia then made a detailed frame-by-frame study, reportedly involving about 1,000 man-hours, plotting the motion and brightness of the objects; it found no sign of flapping and suggested that the objects were self-luminous and not birds, balloons or aircraft.[1]
Robertson Panel
In January 1953 the panel of scientists convened for the CIA under physicist H. P. Robertson viewed the film. Astronomer Thornton Page said the objects resembled seagulls he had seen soaring in bright sunlight, and the panel concluded that they were probably birds; it also criticised the Navy's light-measurement method. UFO researchers have disputed the bird explanation, pointing to Newhouse's description and the earlier analyses.[1][2]
Later reviews
The film was reviewed again as case 49 of the Condon Committee report (1968), which also favoured birds. Robert M. L. Baker Jr., who examined it in 1955 and testified to Congress in 1968, found the motion unlike soaring birds but reached no definite conclusion. Newhouse said parts of the original film were missing from the copy returned to him. In September 2026 the film was included in the U.S. government's release of UFO files.[1][3]
References
- Patrick Gross, "The Tremonton, Utah film, July 2, 1952", UFOs at close sight · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Robertson Panel — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- United States UFO files — 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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