CIA-UAP-D020, Memorandum on Unconventional Aircraft Sightings, 1955
This memorandum summarizes a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) debriefing of a group of four individuals who reported observing a “flying saucer” or “unconventional aircraft” in 1955. The group, which included U.S. Senator Richard Russell, a U.S. military service member, and two U.S. Government officials, reported observing a luminescent “greenish-yellow” phenomenon, as seen from aboard a train while traveling within the Soviet Union, in present-day Azerbaijan, between Baku and Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia). The document concludes by stating that the observation can “probably be explained as steep climbing aircraft or missiles,” and that “the evidence does not appear sufficiently firm to warrant the conclusion that the Soviets have developed […] a radically new type of aircraft.” The document “CIA-UAP-D021” contains a contemporary analysis of the incident.
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Document Intel
Source status, provenance, and extraction context.
- Source
- War.gov PURSUE
- Type
- Report
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Agency
- CIA
- Reference #
- RELEASE-04-FILE-011-CIA-UAP-D020-MEMORANDUM-ON-UNCONVENTIONAL-AIRCRAFT-SIGHTINGS-1955
- Published
- 2026-07-10
- Content Type
- application/pdf
- Pages
- 3
Structured Analysis
Claims and source material extracted from the document text. Timeline context is surfaced in document intel.
The memorandum describes multiple observers seeing luminous objects from a train and records an apparent climb, changing light, and lack of a reported sound; the badly degraded scan limits precise reconstruction.
All observers agreed on the broad sequence of the reported lights.
Herbert Scoville Jr. judged steep-climbing aircraft or missiles the probable explanation and recommended further debriefing of witnesses.
The probable explanation offered was steep-climbing aircraft or missiles.
The memorandum said the evidence did not support concluding that the Soviets possessed a radically new type of aircraft.
The evidence was judged insufficient to support a radically new aircraft conclusion.
Chronology extracted from the document text.
CIA record cover dated
The document cover sheet records November 1, 1955.
Scientific-intelligence assessment prepared
Herbert Scoville Jr. signed the assessment after reviewing the delegation sighting report.
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document · Department of Energy · 3/22/49DOE-UAP-D004, Los Alamos Conference on Aerial Phenomena, 1949
document · CIA · 1955CIA-UAP-D021, Analysis of Unconventional Aircraft Sightings, 1955
document · Department of Energy · 9/1/15DOE-UAP-D005, Pantex Unidentified Object Incident Report, 2015
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document · Department of War · 2019DOW-UAP-D090, Range Fouler Debrief, Eastern United States, 2019
document · Department of War · 2020DOW-UAP-D091, Range Fouler Debrief, Atlantic Ocean, 2020