Project Grudge was a brief program by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to study unidentified flying objects (UFOs). It took over from Project Sign in February 1949 and officially ended in December 1949. Project Blue Book began in 1952 after Project Grudge concluded.

History

Project Grudge was created to help reduce public worry about UFOs and to show that UFOs were not unusual or special. Officials said that sightings of UFOs could be explained as regular planes, balloons, stars, planets, meteors, tricks of the eye, sunlight reflecting off objects, or even large hailstones. Project leaders suggested that the project should be made smaller because the U.S. Air Force's involvement in studying UFOs made people more likely to believe in them and caused a sense of fear similar to what happens during a war. On December 27, 1949, the Air Force announced that the project would end.

Conclusions

Project Grudge released its only official report in August 1949. The report's conclusions included the following: The "Recommendations" section suggested that Air Force personnel should get basic training in topics related to astronomy.

Response

An article by Sidney Shallet was published in two issues of the Saturday Evening Post on April 30 and May 7, 1949. The article supported Project Grudge's conclusion that most UFO sightings could be explained by ordinary events, and that some UFO reports were created by people with unusual ideas or deliberate hoaxes.

Astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek criticized Project Grudge, stating that the project focused more on influencing public opinion than on scientific study. Former intelligence officer Edward J. Ruppelt also criticized Project Grudge, saying he believed UFOs might be of alien origin and that he had seen the military and U.S. government attempt to dismiss the idea that UFOs could come from outer space. Both Hynek and Ruppelt claimed that Project Grudge did not conduct a fair or scientific investigation of UFOs.