Burlison says MIT Lincoln is cooperating on the 1952 UAP video

Rep. Eric Burlison says MIT Lincoln Laboratory is now cooperating with his request for a 1952 UAP-related recording.

The claim came in a May 21, 2026 video posted by Burlison's official YouTube channel. It follows his earlier public letter asking MIT Lincoln Laboratory to account for a 1952 reel-to-reel recording labeled "flying saucer talk."

Burlison said MIT Lincoln Laboratory's legal team responded immediately and said it would comply with the letter. He also said he had received word from Michael Thomas, whom he described in connection with national records and archives, that the archives side is cooperating with MIT Lincoln Laboratory and working with the Department of War to coordinate release of a 1952 video.

According to Burlison, the video involves Edward J. Ruppelt, the former head of Project Blue Book, briefing scientists about UFO incursions in the United States.

That is the new part. The earlier story was a congressional request. This version says the lab and records process are actively cooperating on a release.

What Burlison said about the 52 videos

Burlison also discussed a separate group of video files. He said lawmakers had received information from insiders about a list of video files and requested access from the Department of War.

He said he, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Rep. Tim Burchett, and others were briefed in a room and watched 52 videos.

Burlison did not describe the videos in detail. He said some have not yet been made public, some are "clearly balloons or birds," and some are "very interesting." He also said he remains a skeptic and is following the investigation as part of oversight.

That matters because it narrows the claim. The public does not yet have 52 files. The public has a lawmaker saying a group of lawmakers saw 52 videos in a controlled briefing.

The USPER statement he highlighted

Burlison also pointed back to one document in the first public release: the USPER statement about UAP sightings.

He described it as a report involving high-level intelligence and government officials who reported an incursion at a military base, including an orange orb producing or releasing red orb-like objects.

That document is already public. The new claim is not the sighting itself, but Burlison's view that it is one of the more overlooked items in the first release.

What is still not public

The 1952 video itself is not public at the time of writing. Burlison did not give a release date. The 52 videos he described are also not public as a set.

The useful next test is simple: whether the release produces an actual file, a date, a custody trail, a description of the original medium, and enough surrounding documentation to understand what Ruppelt was briefing and why MIT Lincoln Laboratory held or tracked the record.

Until then, this is a meaningful process update, not a disclosure endpoint.