Flying Saucer Digest (ICARF)

History

The Inter-Continental Aerial Research Foundation launched its Flying Saucer Digest in August 1958, priced at thirty-five cents a copy or six issues for two dollars. Phillip Pluta edited from 7230 Earl Avenue, Greendale, Wisconsin. Gene Duplantier published. The first issue went free to all active ICARF members and sample copies were distributed to affiliated groups.

ICARF was not a discussion club. It was structured as an observation network, modelled loosely on civil defence infrastructure. The foundation recruited "observer posts" across the United States, Canada, and internationally. Each post committed to a minimum of ten hours per week on skywatch, with a camera on hand at all times. Posts reported to state-level "Filter Centers" which served as distribution points for directives from national headquarters and collection points for sighting reports and tracking data.

Alongside the observer network, ICARF maintained a ham radio network, tracking stations, and what it called the "UFO Fan Federation," a service department that attempted to unify all individuals interested in UFOs under a common directory. The Federation planned to publish an annual directory listing individual members, science fiction fan clubs, fanzines, and other groups. This crossover between science fiction fandom and UFO research was explicit and unselfconscious in 1958; the two communities had not yet separated into distinct cultures.

ICARF's editorial stance was deliberately neutral. The Digest stated it was "dedicated solely to solving the Flying Saucer Enigma" and "must remain neutral on all point of theory and conjecture and refuse to support or sanction any person or group whose concepts and objectives clash with this neutrality." Individual members could believe what they liked. The organisation itself would collect data.

The recruitment letters (preserved alongside the Digest issues) targeted science fiction fans directly: "Being an SF fan, you are probably also a U.F.O. fan." The letters pitched observer post membership as a way to contribute actively rather than merely reading about sightings in magazines.