UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 04 · JULY 10, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · DOW-UAP-D095Joint U.S.-Canadian Aviation Projects and UFO Sighting Reports, 1954-1955
This file gathers several mid-1950s threads that share a U.S.–Canadian angle. Its central idea, set out in a 1954 memorandum, is practical: if engineers were building near-circular aircraft that took off vertically, some saucer reports might be exactly that — and reports near Soviet forces might point to a foreign version nobody yet knew about.
Avro’s round aircraft
The “Avro Project Y2” was a near-circular vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) design from Avro Canada, developed with U.S. involvement, and the file weighs its experimental promise. The project is the forerunner of the better-known Avrocar. The memo’s argument is that people unfamiliar with such technology could easily take one for a flying saucer.
The KC-97 case and other papers
The most striking material concerns a U.S. Air Force KC-97, a four-engine tanker, flying near Newfoundland in July 1955. According to the file, a USAF committee found the reported characteristics did not match any known Soviet, American or Canadian military system, and could not explain why ground radar returns and the crew’s visual sightings coincided. The file leaves it unresolved.
Two technical items round it out. The Air Force’s research and development command urged using radar echoes from meteors, collected incidentally, to improve the AN/FPS-17 radar. And the file supports CIRVIS (“Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings”), the joint U.S.–Canadian procedure that told pilots and ships’ crews how to radio in unusual or unidentified craft quickly.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released July 10, 2026, quoted in full
This file contains reports, memoranda, and correspondence concerning various then-developmental vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The file includes assessments of the experimental potential of the “Avro Project Y2,” a joint U.S.-Canadian near-circular VTOL aircraft that is similar in appearance to contemporary popular descriptions of unidentified flying objects (UFO). A 1954 memorandum opines that VTOL aircraft with a circular planform may be mistaken for UFOs to observers unfamiliar with such technologies. It also recommends that UFO reports in the vicinity of Soviet military operations or assets be re-examined to assess whether they may be attributable to previously unknown advanced VTOL aircraft of foreign design.
The file also contains correspondence relating to a UFO incident involving a U.S. Air Force (USAF) KC-97 flying near Newfoundland, Canada in July 1955. A USAF committee found that the characteristics described in the report were inconsistent with those of known Soviet, American, or Canadian military systems. The committee was also “unable to explain the simultaneous ground radar returns and aircrew visual sightings.”
It also contains correspondence relating to the potential value of data from incidental radar collection of meteors entering the atmosphere. USAF Air Research and Development Command recommended using that data to improve the performance of the AN/FPS-17 radar system. Finally, the file contains correspondence indicating support for the Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings (CIRVIS) program, a joint U.S.-Canadian civil-military program to standardize reporting methods for unusual or unidentified airborne and maritime hazards and threats.