In this paper we have described several instrumented field studies that have been deployed by scientists and organizations during the period 1950–1990 in USA, Canada and Europe. Certainly this brief historical review does not represent a complete picture of the investigations undertaken. As more countries follow the example of France and the United Kingdom by declassifying their UAP archives, we can expect new information concerning similar research activities will surface in the future (e.g. Brazil s1As a result of the campaign ‘‘UFOs: freedom of information now!, the Brazilian government have started releasing in 2009 documentation on Operation Saucer, a secret UAP investigation carried out by the Army in the Amazonian region in 1977.).
What does become clear is that most of the field investigations were the result of individual’s or civilian associations’ initiatives (Project Magnet, Magnetic detectors, project identification, Starlight International, Hessdalen). These participants acted proactively, realizing that the governments would not initiate nor support such research due to fear of ridicule, waste of tax money, the belief that nothing of scientific significance would be discovered, or because of national security considerations. Only the American government, which had been confronted in the 1950s and 1960s (Fig. 7) with an important number of UAP sightings, was forced to respond to public demand and be therefore officially involved.
It appears obvious that the resources engaged in these field experiments (staff, equipment, duration) were insufficient to reach any firm conclusion or bring forward any acceptable scientific measurement. However, it can be argued that some projects have managed to acquire some preliminary data (Projects Twinkle, Identification, Hessdalen), albeit inconclusive. This in itself supports running optical and instrumental observations campaigns on the field while the phenomenon is active, rather than retroactive filling in questionnaires and maintaining a log of past observations. Moreover, these field experiments demonstrated that it was possible to study the controversial AP topic on a rigourous and empirical basis. This in itself was likely the most valuable outcome of these research projects.
This paper also highlights the fact that the vast majority of the field studies were initiated in answer to a sudden burst of UAP activity around a well-defined geographic area. Certainly it was only under this condition that any civilian activity could be undertaken, as any field experiment required sufficient resources and a well-defined logistic. This could be deployed by individuals and associations at a specific location, but would have been impossible to be set up on a larger scale. This explains why the last field project described in this paper is almost twenty years old. Since the 1990s spectacular wave of anomalous sightings in Belgium, no significant UAP flap over another particular geographical zone has occurred and therefore there has been no opportunity to set up field experiments. In addition, due to the random nature of these UAP phenomena both in time and location, and of their short duration, the chances of obtaining scientific data outside a UFO flap are nearly null.
For this reason it could be said to be essential not only to keep Norway’s Project Hessdalen (ref. 5.8) active, but also to devote supplementary resources to it, thereby launching a specific extended research and observational watch of a sufficient duration. In 2009, this project constitutes a unique worldwide UAP research opportunity. Its existence is justified by the continuous presence of anomalous luminous phenomena in the Norwegian valley and its perceived scientific value. Here remains the possibility for Science to discover new phenomena, extra-terrestrial or otherwise.