March 1952 / T054
Project Blue Book begins before the Washington sightings
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
Witness account
The revived Air Force UFO investigation adopted the name Project Blue Book in March 1952. It continued the institutional line of Sign and Grudge and developed procedures for receiving, investigating and classifying reports. The familiar Blue Book case collection also contains earlier cases inherited from those predecessors.
Public record
National Archives and military archival guides identify March 1952 as the redesignation date. The program’s files survive as a major documentary collection.