The Fournet Motion Study Directory

October 2006; Updated: March 15, 2011

Fran Ridge:

In October of 2006 Jan Aldrich brought up the "Ten Lost Documents". Item #1 was the Fournet Motion Study. Brad Sparks had already found the CIA documents that were the key to the puzzle and had identified two of the motion study cases right off. This, then, is the directory for the famous "motion study" by Maj. Dewey Fournet. This study is significant and it is similar to the earlier 1948 "Estimate of the Situation" and illustrates once again the reason why the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis was seriously considered. And as always, the study was not stopped as it went up, but was rejected at the top. As we identify the cases used in the MS we will provide links to them at the bottom of this directory. But first, the history of the Motion Study begins with Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, at that time the head of the Air Force Project Blue Book. (See link below) By March 23, 2009 I had begun work on the UFO Intelligence Summary for the Motion Study cases, the current copy is the end result of that search. This is an on-going project to identify and document all 17 cases listed:

Mike Swords:

22 Oct 2006 - Looking at one of them (CIA docs), [the January 27,1953 letter to Julius Stratton from Marshall Chadwell I can tell you what the background of that is, if you don't already know and want to] I came across page 8 and there was part of Dewey Fournet's famous but not seen "motions study" of UFOs as presented to the Robertson Panel. According to what one can reasonably assume by looking at the page, Dewey presented 17 cases [from which he deduced that UFOs were guided by intelligence and the flight characteristics indicated that the intelligence was beyond "us".] This number rings true as Ed Ruppelt says that Dewey sifted his cases down to between ten and twenty. The page shows arrangements of UFOs in the chosen cases, and given the strong likelihood that most if not all of them were 1952 cases on Dewey's watch, they might be specifically identifiable. #6 is, for instance, almost certainly, Nash-Fortenberry. Ruppelt gives two of the cases in his book, and a third in the draft copy pre-cutting. These probably could be matched up, too. Has this document already been seen for what it is?, and has someone already identified the 17 cases? .

Jan Aldrich:

Fournet's motion study was hidden in plain sight within the CIA release, at least the illustrations of the cases and the conclusions were there. Someone should try to identify the cases from the illustrations.  I would expect that one should try to fit modern ones first. Fournet had something is his briefcast call Operation Interloper. Whatever it was it represented cases that he encountered on his own and were not AF cases or were published in other sources like the African Airlines case at Mt Kilaminjaro (sp?). The case count for Operation Interloper was over 20, but Fournet's briefcase only contain a few of them. Some of the Interloper cases were pre 1947.  Fournet told Keyhoe that he should request a complete list of 1952 unknown cases from the AF, he would find best evidence there.