U.S. Air Force Releases Thousands of Pages Of Declassified UFO Files

Huge news for UFOlogists: nearly 130,000 pages of fully searchable archives, dubbed the Project Blue Book Collection, are now available on truth-seeking website the Black Vault.

Military Timesreports:

UFO enthusiast John Greenewald has spent nearly two decades filing Freedom of Information Act requests for the government's files on UFOs and other phenomena. On Jan. 12, Greenewald posted the Blue Book files — as well as files on Blue Book's 1940s-era predecessors, Project Sign and Project Grudge — on his online database, The Black Vault.

Project Blue Book was based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Between 1947 and 1969, the Air Force recorded 12,618 sightings of strange phenomena — 701 of which remain "unidentified."

The National Archives has made these files available to public on microfilm in its Washington headquarters. Parts of the Project Blue Book files have previously been posted online in various locations, Greenewald said. But his webpage is the first time the complete files have been posted in PDF form in a searchable database.

The site has records available for browsing by year or keyword; as yet, there are none officially relating to the big daddy of UFO conspiracies: the alleged 1947 spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico. Project Blue Book officially ended on Dec. 17, 1969, but the truth, as they say, may still be out there.

Update: We've been informed that these documents were previously available in a non-searchable format over at the Project Blue Book Archive and Fold3. This is just the first time they've been online in a searchable PDF format.

Image via Twin Peaks Wikia.