What was Project Blue Book?
Tom DeMary – 18 February 2005
How are the UFO reports organized?
There is a microfilm roll index and a report index at the beginning of NARA
roll #1. The order of the UFO reports is approximately the same as in
the report index. The order of the reports is basically by date.
There are, confusingly, some reports out of order and a few which are
not listed on the report index.
Briefly, the index to the contents of each of the NARA microfilm rolls begins
on roll #1, page 3. Rolls 184
and 88−94 contain the reports and
photos; rolls 85−87 contain the
administrative files and prepared reports. Following the roll index
is the report index, beginning on page 12. The report index includes
the Project Sign incident number (for Project Sign reports), a PBB
case number, the date and place of the report, the official PBB
solution to the report, and an occasional comment, usually about
missing reports. A report index page usually lists the reports in
increments of one or more complete months, though a single, busy
month may require more than one page.
The UFO reports begin on page 477 after the end of the report index. Page
477 is a repeat of the report index page for June 1947, and the
reports for June 1947 begin on page 478. Most reports have a summary
card (labeled Project 10073 Record). There are no other separators.
Each subsequent report index page is followed by the reports listed
on that page. There is sometimes unlisted material between these
sections. For instance, there is a card for the “Mantell”
incident as expected at 7 Jan 1948, but the rest of the report is
inserted after the last entry for March 1948. Please refer to “Using
the Project Blue Book Archive” below for help on locating
individual reports.