The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence’s first "official study into UFOs" was called Flying Saucer Working Party or the FSWP which has its roots in a study commissioned in 1950 by the MOD’s then Chief Scientific Adviser, the great radar scientist Sir Henry Tizard. As a result of his insistence that UFO sightings should not be dismissed without some form of proper scientific study, the Department set up what writer Nick Pope has described as "arguably the most marvellously-named committee in the history of the civil service" [1] [2].

The Flying Saucer Working Party was set up in October 1950 by Ministry of Defence Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Henry Tizard, who felt that UFO reports should not be dismissed out of hand without some serious study. He duly authorised the setting up of a small study team to look into the phenomenon. This is the group's final report [3], which was released to UFO researchers Dr David Clarke and Andy Roberts in 2001 by the MOD, following requests made under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. A detailed commentary and analysis of this material can be found at the Real UFO Project website, http://www.uk-ufo.org/condign/fswpcmnt.htm, including scans of the report and associated documents.

Tizard was intrigued by the increasing media coverage of UFO sightings in the UK, America and other parts of the world. Using his authority as Chief Scientific Adviser at the MOD he decided that the subject should not be dismissed without some proper, official investigation. Accordingly, he agreed that a small Directorate of Scientific Intelligence/Joint Technical Intelligence Committee (DSI/JTIC) working party should be set up to investigate the phenomenon. This was dubbed the Flying Saucer Working Party. The DSI/JTIC minutes recording this historic development read as follows:

“The Chairman said that Sir Henry Tizard felt that reports of flying saucers ought not to be dismissed without some investigation and he had, therefore, agreed that a small DSI/JTIC Working Party should be set up under the chairmanship of Mr Turney to investigate future reports.

After discussion it was agreed that the membership of the Working Party should comprise representatives of DSI1, ADNI(Tech), MI10 and ADI(Tech). It was also agreed that it would probably be necessary at some time to consult the Meteorological Department and ORS Fighter Command but that these two bodies should not at present be asked to nominate representatives”.

It operated under such secrecy that its existence was known to very few. Nevertheless, there were two clues that such a study had been carried out. One of these clues was obvious, but the other was more obscure.

The first clue was in the Secretary of State for Air’s response to Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s famous 28 July 1952 memo in which he enquired “What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience”. The response, dated 9 August 1952, began “The various reports about unidentified flying objects, described by the Press as “flying saucers”, were the subject of a full Intelligence study in 1951”.

There was some considerable discussion and debate about the terms of reference of the Flying Saucer Working Party. The final version read as follows:

1. To review the available evidence in reports of “Flying Saucers”.

2. To examine from now on the evidence on which reports of British origin of phenomena attributed to “Flying Saucers” are based.

3. To report to DSI/JTIC as necessary.

4. To keep in touch with American occurrences and evaluation of such.

The five man working party was chaired by a naval intelligence officer, Mr G. L. Turney, from one of the MOD’s scientific intelligence branches. All the members were specialists in the field of scientific and technical intelligence. One member, Wing Commander Myles Formby, Assistant Director of Intelligence (Technical) at the Air Ministry, also chaired the Guided Missiles Working Party.

The working party’s conclusions were set out in a document dated June 1951 and bearing the designation DSI/JTIC Report No. 7. It was entitled “Unidentified Flying Objects” and classified “Secret Discreet”. The report comprises six pages (including the cover sheet) and is reproduced here http://www.uk-ufo.org/condign/fswpcmnt.htm in full.

Dr David Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University was the first person to obtain a copy of the report in 2001 under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. The discovery was made public in The Observer newspaper, see: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,577850,00.html

The document was subsequently made available at The National Archives on 1 January 2002. A full discussion of the Working Party's findings and interviews with some of the key players, can be found in Chapter 5 of Clarke and Robert's book 'Out of the Shadows: UFOs, the Establishment and the Official Cover-up' (London: Piatkus, 2002). Some of the key PRO file references containing the Report and related DSI/JTIC discussions are DEFE 44/119, DEFE 41/74 and DEFE 41/75.

This group and the UK Government have become synonymous with the UFO conspiracy theory.

Categories: Government responses to UFOs | Organizations established in 1950