UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 06 · SEPTEMBER 18, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · DOW-UAP-D103Project Blue Book Photo File Relating to Tremonton Film, Utah, 1952
This five-page file comes from Project Blue Book’s photographic records on one of the most studied early UFO films, shot near Tremonton, Utah, in July 1952. Where the main case file covers the full investigation, this one holds the summary card and the comparison pictures the Air Force gathered while testing one explanation.
What is in it
The summary page, dated 7 July 1952 and cross-referenced to two Blue Book file numbers, records the basics: Navy Chief Petty Officer Delbert C. Newhouse, seven miles north of Tremonton, late morning on 2 July 1952, driving on the highway when his wife noticed the objects. It describes a group of objects “milling about in rough formation,” notes that there were no reference points to judge speed, distance or size, and that the images were too small to show detail. Its probable explanation reads “pillow balloons” or birds.
The remaining pages are photo-laboratory sheets from General Mills in Minneapolis, the company that made pillow balloons, a flat research balloon type. Investigators used these to compare the shapes on Newhouse’s film with real balloons in flight. A balloon release in the area was never confirmed, and later Air Force reviews settled on seabirds instead.
Where to go next
The full story of the sighting and the debate over the film is in our case file on the Tremonton Film, and the Air Force’s case file is DOW-UAP-D102.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released September 18, 2026, quoted in full
During its investigation of a July 1952 film of an incident reported near Tremonton, Utah, Project Blue Book examined whether the objects recorded on film might have been “pillow balloons.” Project Blue Book was a U.S. Air Force program active from 1952 to 1969 that investigated the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). In December 1952, investigators contacted General Mills, Inc., the only known manufacturer of pillow balloons at the time, to determine whether a balloon release could account for the incident.
The file includes example imagery of pillow balloons supplied by General Mills Research Laboratories. In late December 1952, Project Blue Book personnel, balloon specialists, and representatives from General Mills reviewed the Tremonton footage. The group’s consensus was that the objects closely resembled pillow balloons in flight and behaved consistently with that explanation. One General Mills representative was less convinced, noting that the objects appeared somewhat too bright and seemed to maneuver too rapidly.
The reviewers also questioned previous angular-velocity calculations suggesting that the objects moved at a high rate of speed because those calculations depended on the unverified assumption that the camera operator had held the camera still during filming. Subsequent efforts to identify a pillow-balloon release in the Tremonton area were unsuccessful. The file also considered seabirds as a possible explanation, citing similar films showing seabirds as bright points of light under comparable conditions. Later Air Force assessments favored the seabird attribution.