Dr. J. Allen Hynek, PhD, Chair and Professor of Astronomy, Northwestern University was hired as the primary scientific consultant to the Air Force in 1948 for Project Sign (which later became Project Bluebook). He became the Air Force’s chief debunker and face of Project Bluebook. He served on Project Bluebook for approximately eighteen years before publicly breaking ties with the Air Force. 

During his tenure as science advisor Hynek had been a fierce opponent of UFO supporters, and was famously responsible for the “Michigan swamp gas” explanation of UFO sightings in 1966. He spent many years dismissing UFOs as nothing more than meteor sightings, flights of fancy, and misinterpretations.  

However, Hynek was troubled by the enormous amount of evidence that was building, and his personal view may have shifted to pro-UFO as early as 1960. In 1966 (after the Michigan debacle) Hynek publicly changed his UFO stance by testifying before the Armed Services Committee. He stated that the UFO phenomena was “worthy of scientific attention.” 

Till his death in 1986, Hynek became a strong critic of the Air Force’s anti-UFO program. He even made a cameo in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”