Capt. Ruppelt

Edward James Ruppelt (July 17, 1923 – September 15, 1960) was a United States Air Force officer best known for directing Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force's formal study of unidentified flying objects. He coined the term 'unidentified flying object' (UFO) to replace 'flying saucer' and 'flying disk.' Ruppelt served as director of Project Grudge in 1949 and Project Blue Book from March 1952 to late 1953, overseeing investigations of thousands of UAP reports with scientific rigor. Under his leadership, Project Blue Book consulted Battelle Memorial Institute to analyze 3,201 UAP reports, finding 69% identifiable as conventional phenomena and 22% remaining unidentified. He authored 'The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects' (1956) while working as a research engineer at Northrop Aircraft. Ruppelt died of a heart attack at age 37.