author
Edward J. Ruppelt
1922–1960
Best known for leading the U.S. Air Force’s early UFO investigations, he helped replace the phrase “flying saucer” with the more neutral term “unidentified flying object.” His insider account of Project Blue Book helped shape how generations of readers thought about the mystery.
1 Audiobook
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
by Edward J. Ruppelt
About the author
A U.S. Air Force officer, Edward J. Ruppelt is remembered chiefly for his work on Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s official study of unidentified flying objects. He is widely credited with popularizing the term “unidentified flying object,” or UFO, as a more careful alternative to the sensational language common at the time.
Ruppelt directed Project Blue Book in the early 1950s and later drew on that experience in his book The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. Readers have continued to return to his work because it combines military procedure, firsthand observation, and an effort to treat strange reports seriously without abandoning skepticism.
He died young in 1960. Even so, his name remains closely tied to the history of UFO research in the United States, especially for readers interested in how the subject first entered official government investigation.