Hidden Patterns in UFO Sightings?

That is a question raised many times over the course of modern UFO research.  Since the numbers most often used are also the most questionable (the Air Force Project Blue Book data) the issue is truly confused.

Yet, those records do reveal some odd possibilities.

Project Blue Book only lists 75 cases for 1947 (despite newspapers revealing dozens and more that did not make it into the official record). Ten years later, however, there is a peak in data, showing 953 cases for 1957. The apparent cycle breaks down because by 1967 (which should have revealed another spike) the number is only 658; the spike was 1966 with 888. The coincidence of the apparent decade cycle suddenly vanishing makes one wonder - is the 658 an accurate number?  Faced with the coming closure of the project there may have been a concentrated effort to minimize the reported sightings, and especially the number of unidentifiable.

Proving this pattern valid would require data for 1977, 1987, 1997, 2007, etc.

There is also evidence for a possible seven year cycle and all such cycles are flexible due to the over two hundred "undated" digital records, the missing records, and the cases that are recorded (but missing from PBB) in newspapers, NICAP, and APRO files.