History
Project Blue Book: 12,618 Reports
The Air Force's UFO desk ran from 1947 to 1969. Its filing cabinet is the backbone of this archive — and its own summary numbers are the most quoted statistics in the subject.
Program · 1947–1970
Project Blue Book
The U.S. Air Force's standing UFO investigation office, 1947-1969. Logged 12,618 sightings and left 701 unexplained.
Discussed in
4History
The Report That Closed the Office
A federally funded university study concluded that further UFO research was not scientifically justified. Eighteen months later, Project Blue Book was gone.
The Collection
Why These Files Exist Now
A 2023 law created a single federal collection for records on unidentified anomalous phenomena. Understanding that law explains everything about how this archive is shaped.
Analysis
What 10,285 Case Files Look Like in Aggregate
Parsing every case-file title yields a map and a timeline. Both contradict the popular version of this story — and one of them is quietly misleading.
Named in these records
9| Title | Level | Objects | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARCHIVES: NATIONAL: PROJECT BLUE BOOK: UFO SIGHTINGS | fileUnit | 73 | 40027753 |
| Project "BLUE BOOK" | series | 0 | 542184 |
| Project Blue Book Motion Picture Films | series | 0 | 61934 |
| Sound Recordings Relating to Project Blue Book Unidentified Flying... | series | 0 | 1142703 |
| Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) | item | 0 | 2838871 |
| Project Blue Book Administrative Files | series | 0 | 595175 |
| Project Blue Book Case Files on Sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) | series | 0 | 595466 |
| Project Bluebook Artifacts | series | 0 | 23857160 |
| Records of Investigations of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) Relating... | series | 0 | 45484701 |