PHILIP KLASS

Opening

Philip J. Klass spent thirty-four years as an editor at Aviation Week, writing about avionics, inertial guidance and spy satellites. In 1966 he read John Fuller's book on the Exeter sighting, noticed that many UFO reports came from near power lines, and began a second career as the best-known sceptic in ufology. His first idea was that UFOs might be a rare type of plasma or ball lightning. His second, stated for the rest of his life, was a standing offer of $10,000 to anyone who could prove a visitation.

Believers considered him an adversary, sometimes an unfair one. Sceptics considered him the voice of cool reason. Both pictures are in the record. He was a technical journalist with real credentials who went after claims he thought were hoaxes, and who was accused in turn of going after people with insufficient evidence. He died in 2005.

Timeline

8 November 1919Philip Klass is born in Des Moines, Iowa, and grows up in Cedar Rapids.

1941He earns a degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State College.

1952After about ten years at General Electric, he joins Aviation Week in Washington.

1956 and 1957He writes some of the first magazine articles on inertial guidance, infrared missile guidance and microelectronics. A 1957 report on countermeasures is referred to the FBI, and the inquiry is dropped.

1966He reads Fuller's Incident at Exeter. He makes the first version of his $10,000 offer.

1968His first UFO book, UFOs Identified, argues that plasma could explain most or all UFOs.

1971He publishes Secret Sentries in Space, one of the first books on spy satellites.

1974UFOs Explained keeps plasma for some cases but puts most reports down to misidentified ordinary objects and hoaxes.

1986He retires as senior avionics editor.

1987He doubts the Majestic-12 documents and reports them to the FBI.

1989 to 2003He publishes the Skeptics UFO Newsletter.

9 August 2005Klass dies of cancer in Cocoa, Florida.

Key figures

Klass was a Fellow of the IEEE from 1973, and an asteroid, 7277 Klass, is named for him. He gave roughly 97 to 98 percent of UFO witnesses credit for being intelligent, honest people who saw something unfamiliar, and put the rest down as frauds.

Stanton Friedman was his most frequent opponent. They argued over Roswell and over the Majestic-12 papers, where the consensus came to side with Klass. Klass also paid Friedman $1,000 after a challenge over a typeface in the Cutler-Twining memo.

James McDonald, an atmospheric physicist who took UFOs seriously, was the target of a dispute: Klass wrote to McDonald's Navy superiors about his UFO work while he held a research grant. It did not cost McDonald his funding but drew criticism of Klass.

Allan Hendry, Jerome Clark and others have criticised Klass for accusing witnesses of hoaxes without evidence. James Moseley called him sincere and said he benefited the field, though he objected to his style.

Physical and documentary trail

The record: his books, his newsletter, his articles in Aviation Week, and the paper trail of the disputes he was in. His plasma hypothesis was poorly received on both sides: critics said it explained one unverified phenomenon with another, and the Condon Committee's plasma experts rejected it. Some later researchers adopted similar ideas, and a 1999 UK Ministry of Defence report took up similar ideas.

His $10,000 offer is the most concrete record of his position. It promised payment if a crashed spacecraft were certified as extraterrestrial, if the National Academy of Sciences confirmed visits in the twentieth century, or if an extraterrestrial appeared live before the UN General Assembly or on national television. Prominent believers including Frank Edwards, John Fuller, J. Allen Hynek and James Harder declined it. A Seattle man entered an agreement in 1969, paid two $100 payments and claimed the prize in 1971. The claim was rejected.

Things you might not know

• An asteroid carries his name. It is 7277 Klass.
• The FBI looked at his reporting. A 1957 Aviation Week article on countermeasures was referred to the bureau, and the inquiry was dropped after the Air Force said the information could not be declassified to prosecute.
• He wrote about spy satellites early. Secret Sentries in Space was one of the first books on the subject.
• He started with a believer's book. It was Fuller's Incident at Exeter that set him off.
• His name is on awards. Aviation Week has given a Philip J. Klass Lifetime Achievement Award since 1995, and the National Capital Area Skeptics present a Klass Award.
• He challenged the MJ-12 papers. He doubted them in 1987 and told the FBI.

Competing explanations

A necessary sceptic. Supporters say Klass was a careful technical thinker who caught hoaxes and weak claims, was right about Majestic-12, and pushed the field towards better evidence.

An unfair adversary. Critics say he accused witnesses of dishonesty without proof, wrote to opponents' employers about their work. In a 1992 debate he was accused of making unsubstantiated drug-smuggling charges against the pilot Frederick Valentich.

Both. His technical record was solid, and his methods were sometimes aggressive. Both pictures can be true at once.

Later life of the case

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry gave Klass its Distinguished Skeptic Award in 1994 and placed him in its Pantheon of Skeptics in 2011. The National Capital Area Skeptics have presented a Klass Award since 2006. His plasma idea is sometimes called a pioneering one, though his original concept was discredited. On the Exeter case he helped to make famous, see Exeter.

Finding

Klass was a serious technical journalist who thought most UFO reports had mundane explanations and said so for forty years. He was right about some things, such as the Majestic-12 papers, and wrong about others, such as the plasma theory. Whether his tactics helped or hurt the study of the subject is a matter on which his supporters and critics have never agreed.

What still will not resolve: whether his $10,000 offer was ever a fair test, since the three conditions he set were ones no ordinary case could meet.