Editing Unidentified flying object (section)

=====USAAF and FBI response to the 1947 sightings=====
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Following the large U.S. surge in sightings in June and early July 1947, on July 9, 1947, [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI,<ref name="AP-20130329" /> began a formal investigation into selected sightings with characteristics that could not be immediately rationalized, such as Kenneth Arnold's. The USAAF used "all of its top scientists" to determine whether "such a phenomenon could, in fact, occur". The research was "being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial phenomenon," or that "they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled."<ref>{{cite web |title=Federal Bureau of Investigation FOIA Documents – Unidentified Flying Objects |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25706/25706.txt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110121822/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25706/25706.txt |archive-date=November 10, 2012 |access-date=September 7, 2013 |website=[[Project Gutenberg]]}} Internal FBI memo from E. G. Fitch to [[D. M. Ladd]] concerning a request by General George F. Schulgen, Chief of the Requirements Intelligence Branch of Army Air Corps Intelligence, for the FBI to help with their investigation of UFO reports.</ref> Three weeks later in a preliminary defense estimate, the air force investigation decided that, "This 'flying saucer' situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around."<ref>[[#Hall & Connors|Hall & Connors 1998]], p. 83</ref>

A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the [[Air Force Logistics Command|Air Materiel Command]] at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base|Wright Field]] reached the same conclusion. It reported that "the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious," and there were disc-shaped objects, metallic in appearance, as big as man-made aircraft. They were characterized by "extreme rates of climb [and] maneuverability", general lack of noise, absence of a trail, occasional formation flying, and "evasive" behavior "when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar", suggesting a controlled craft. It was therefore recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up. It was also recommended that other government agencies should assist in the investigation.<ref group="note">The so-called [http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/twiningopinionamc_23sept47.pdf Twining memo of September 23, 1947] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226081323/http://www.majesticdocuments.com/pdf/twiningopinionamc_23sept47.pdf |date=February 26, 2009 }}, by future USAF Chief of Staff, General [[Nathan Farragut Twining|Nathan Twining]], specifically recommended intelligence cooperation with the Army, Navy, [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]], the Defense Department's Joint Research and Development Board, Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]] (NACA), Project [[RAND]], and the [[Nuclear aircraft|Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft]] (NEPA) project.</ref>