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Philip J. Klass

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Philip J. Klass is a leading researcher of UFOs. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1921. Klass has been called the "Sherlock Holmes of UFOlogy". He is a well-known UFO debunker, arguing especially against the extraterrestrial hypothesis. As of 2005, no UFO has been proven to be an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Klass graduated from Iowa State University in 1941, with a BS in electrical engineering. He worked for General Electric for ten years as an engineer in aviation electronics. In 1952 he joined Aviation Week, which became Aviation Week & Space Technology. He was a senior editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology for thirty-four years.

In 1973 Klass was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, recognized for his technical writing. He is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Aviation/Space Writers Association, the National Press Club, and the National Aviation Club. Asteroid 7277 (1983 RM2) was named "Klass" after him.

Klass is a founding fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). He is best known for his skeptical investigations of reports of UFOs. He published the bimonthly Skeptics UFO Newsletter for several years and has written several books on the subject (see below).

A different person named Philip Klass, born about the same time, is a writer of science fiction under the pseudonym "William Tenn".

Criticism of Klass

In his first book--UFO's: Identified, Klass argued that UFO reports were best explained as a previously unknown type of ball lightning. This conclusion met with considerable incredulity, even from some pronounced UFO skeptics; Klass was invoking one mystery to explain another. Atmostpheric physicist James E. McDonald offered a detailed rebuttal of Klass' plasma hypothesis.

Klass and McDonald engaged in an often savagely adversarial relationship. Tom McIver writes that "Klass accused McDonald of misusing public funds, resulting in a traumatic government investigation and audit (in which he was cleared, though he committed suicide not long afterwards)."

Klass has been acused of using unfair, baseless "dirty tricks" in efforts to discredit UFO researchers whith whom he disagrees. Jerpme Clark (a UFO researcher and vice president of the Center for UFO Studies) writes, "To destroy the UFO 'problem' Klass concluded that ufologists should be the target as much as the UFOs themselves. If the ufologists could be publicly shamed or embarrassed on anygrounds (not just professional but personal as well), who would take their pronouncements about UFOs seriously?"

In 1983, Klass suggested that, as Clark writes, "that UFO cover-up proponents were serving the ends of Soviet foreign policy." Clark notes that this was a "new wrinkle" "in an unending stream of vitriol from the mouths and keyboards of CSICOP's bombast artists. After all, Klass and his CSICOP colleagues had already characterized us ufologists as antiscience cultists, cryptofascists, mental cases, money-grubbing exploiters, and raving irrationalists, and CSICOP chairman Paul Kurtz had repeatedly assured the press that societal acceptance of anomalies and the paranormal threatens the fabric of civilization."[1]

Books and articles

Books:

  • UFOs — Identified, 1968, Random House, ISBN 0-39445-003-5
  • Secret Sentries in Space, 1971, Random House, ASIN: B0006CUHVO (about spy satelites)
  • UFOs Explained, 1974, Vintige Books (Random House, ISBN 0-39449-215-3
  • UFOs: The Public Deceived, 1983, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-322-6
  • UFO Abductions: A Dangerous Game, 1989, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-509-1
  • The Real Roswell Crashed-saucer Coverup, 1997, Prometheus Books, ISBN 1-57392-164-5
  • Bringing UFOs Down to Earth, 1997, Prometheus Books, ISBN 1-57392-148-3 (for ages 9-12)

Articles:

  • Plasma Theory May Explain Many UFOs, Aviation Week & Space Technology. August 22, 1966.
  • A Field Guide to UFOs, Astronomy, September 1997.
  • N-Rays and UFOs: Are They Related;, Skeptical Inquirer, 2(1)57-61
  • NASA, the White House, and UFOs, Skeptical Inquirer, 2(2)72-81
  • UFOs, the CIA, and the New York Times, Skeptical Inquirer, 4(3)2-5
  • UFO Federation Falls on Hard Times, Skeptical Inquirer, 9(4)314-316
  • The "Top-Secret UFO Papers" NSA Won't Release, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 10, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • Crash of the Crashed Saucer Claim, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 10, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • A Hoax UFO Document, Skeptical Inquirer, l0(3) 238-239.
  • The Condon UFO Study, Skeptical Inquirer, l0(4) 328-341, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • FAA Data Sheds New Light on JAL Pilot's Report, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 11, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • The MJ-12 Crashed Saucer Documents, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 12, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • The MJ-12 Papers "Authenticated"?, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 13, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • New Evidence of MJ-12 Hoax, Skeptical Inquirer, 14(2)135-140, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • 'Additoinal Comments about the "Unusual Personal Experiences Survey", Skeptical Inquirer, vol 17, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • Time Challenges John Mack's UFO Abduction Efforts, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 12, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • The GAO Roswell Report and Congressman Schiff, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 18, reprinted in The UFO Invasion
  • That's Entertainment! TV's UFO Coverup, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 20, reprinted in The UFO Invasion

Note - reprinted in The UFO Invasion, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, ISBN 1-57392-131-9.

(There are several other articles.)

Tantamount to Communism? by Jerome Clark (1992)}

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