An alleged flying saucer seen over Passoria, New Jersey in 1952. New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. Year 1952 ( MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Flying saucer is the name given to a type of unidentified flying object (UFO) with a disc- or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either alone or in tight formations with other similar craft, and exhibiting high maneuverability. A saucer is a small type of Dishware specifically for use with and for supporting a cup - a cylindrical cup intended for coffee or a half-sphere Teacup

Although disc-shaped flying objects have been interpreted as recorded occasionally since the Middle Ages, the first highly publicized sighting by Kenneth Arnold in June 1947 resulted in the creation of the term. Kenneth A Arnold (born March 29, 1915 in Sebeka, Minnesota; died January 16 1984 in Bellevue, Washington Arnold's sighting was followed by thousands of similar sightings across the world. Such sightings were once very common, to such an extent that "flying saucer" was a synonym for UFO through the 1960s before it began to fall out of favor. However, the term is still often used generically for any UFO.

More recently, the flying saucer has been largely supplanted by other alleged vehicles such as the black triangle. This article is about UFO's for other uses see the disambiguation page Black triangle. ^[1] The term UFO was, in fact, invented in 1952, to try to reflect the wider diversity of shapes being seen. However, unknown saucer-like objects are still reported, such as in the widely-publicized 2006 sighting over Chicago-O'Hare airport. The Chicago O'Hare UFO sighting concerns a multi-witness sighting of a saucer or disc-shaped UFO over Chicago O'Hare International Airport on November 7

Many of the alleged flying saucer photographs of the era are now believed to be hoaxes. A hoax is a deliberate attempt to Dupe, Deceive or trick an audience into believing or accepting that something is real when in fact it is not or that The flying saucer is now considered largely an icon of the 1950s and of B-movies in particular, and is a popular subject in comic science fiction. The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive A B movie is a motion picture made on a low or modest budget Originally the term was used for films intended for distribution as the less-publicized second half of a Double See also Science fiction, Comedy Comic science fiction is a sub- Genre of Science fiction that exploits the genre's conventions for ^[2]

Sightings

1566 woodcut by Hans Glaser of 1561 Nuremberg mass sighting. Discs and spheres were said to emerge from large cylinders.

"The Baptism of Christ", 1710, by Aert de Gelder; flying saucer shooting down beams or religious symbolism?

Perhaps the oldest recording of a saucer-shaped object is from 1290, when a silver disc was reported flying over a village in Yorkshire. Year 1710 ( MDCCX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar or a Common year Aert de Gelder ( Oct 26, 1645, Dordrecht – Aug 27, 1727, Dordrecht was one of Rembrandt ’s last pupils while in Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. ^[3] Disc-like flying objects were occasionally reported throughout the millennium. For example, in a mass sighting over Nuremberg in 1561, discs and spheres were reported emerging from large cylinders. (woodcut at left) They also frequently show up in religious artwork,^[4] though it is usually ambiguous as to whether the artists were trying to depict something that had been seen or whether there was obscure religious symbolism involved. (example at right) In particular, artwork of the Annunciation of Mary frequently shows a narrow beam of light descending from a saucer-like object. In Christianity the Annunciation ( grc Ευαγγελισμός της Θεοτόκου, Evangelismós tēs Theotókou in Greek) is the revelation (example lower left)

However, perhaps the first well-documented instance to specifically compare the objects to saucers, and the first to be widely reported, was the Kenneth Arnold sighting on June 24. Kenneth A Arnold (born March 29, 1915 in Sebeka, Minnesota; died January 16 1984 in Bellevue, Washington Events 972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces takes place 1947 while Arnold was flying near Mount Rainier. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Mount Rainier is an active Stratovolcano (also known as a composite volcano in Pierce County Washington, located southeast of Seattle, Washington ^[3] He reported seeing 9 brightly-reflecting vehicles, one shaped like a crescent but the others more disc- or saucer-shaped, flying in an echelon formation, weaving like the tail of a kite, flipping and flashing in the sun, and traveling with a speed of at least 1,200 miles per hour (1,900 km/h). For things named Crescent see Crescent (disambiguation. In art and symbolism a crescent is generally the shape produced when a echelon formation is a military formation in which members are arranged diagonally (For the South African airport with IATA code "KMH" see Johan Pienaar Airport. ^[5] In addition to the saucer or disc shape (Arnold also used the terms "pie plate" and half-moon shaped), he also later said he described the motion of the craft as "like a saucer if you skip it across water", leading to the term "flying saucer" and also "flying disc" (which were synonymous for a number of years). Stone skipping is a pastime which involves throwing a stone with a flattened surface across a Lake or other body of water in such a way that it bounces off the surface

14th Century woodcut of the Annunciation of Mary. In Christianity the Annunciation ( grc Ευαγγελισμός της Θεοτόκου, Evangelismós tēs Theotókou in Greek) is the revelation Annunciation artwork often depicts a narrow beam descending from saucer-like objects.

Immediately following the report, hundreds of sightings of usually saucer-like objects were reported across the United States and also in some other countries. The most widely publicized of these was the sighting by a United Airlines crew on July 4 of nine more disc-like objects pacing their plane over Idaho, not far from Arnold's initial sighting. United Air Lines Inc, trading as United Airlines ( is a major airline of the United States. The State of Idaho ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. On July 8, the Army Air Force base at Roswell, New Mexico issued a press release saying that they had recovered a "flying disc" from a nearby ranch (the so-called Roswell UFO incident, which was front-page news until the military issued a retraction saying that it was a weather balloon. Roswell is a city in and the County seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The Roswell Incident involved the recovery of materials near Roswell New Mexico, USA, on July 7, 1947, which has become the subject of intense

On July 9, the Army Air Force Directorate of Intelligence, assisted by the FBI, began a secret study of the best of the flying saucer reports, including Arnold's and the United Airlines' crew. Three weeks later they issued an intelligence estimate describing the typical characteristics reported (including that they were often reported as disc-like and metallic) and concluded that something was really flying around. A follow-up investigation by the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field, Ohio arrived at the same conclusion. Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC was a former United States Air Force command Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Greene and Montgomery counties eight miles (13 km) northeast of A widespread official government study of the saucers was urged by General Nathan Twining. Nathan Farragut Twining (TWI-ning ( October 11, 1897 - March 29, 1982) was a United States Air Force General, born This led to the formation of Project Sign (also known as Project Saucer) at the end of 1947, the first public Air Force UFO study. Project Sign was an official US government study of Unidentified flying objects (UFOs undertaken by the United States Air Force in late 1947 and dissolved in late This evolved into Project Grudge (1949-1951) and then Project Blue Book (1952-1970). Project Grudge was a short-lived project by the US Air Force to investigate Unidentified flying objects (UFOs Project Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of Unidentified flying objects (UFOs conducted by the United States Air Force (U

The term "flying saucer" quickly became deeply ingrained in the English vernacular. Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality A Gallup poll from August 1947 found that 90% had heard about the mysterious flying saucers or flying discs, and a 1950 Gallup poll found that 94% of those polled had heard the term, easily beating out all other mentioned commonly used terms in the news such as "Cold War", "universal military training," and "bookie. The Gallup Poll is the division of Gallup that regularly conducts public Opinion polls in the United States and more than 140 countries around the world Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the A bookmaker, bookie or turf accountant, is an organization or a person that takes bets and pays winnings depending upon results and depending on the nature "

Air Force statistics indicated that the basic saucer-shape continued to be the most commonly reported one through the 1950s and 1960s until Project Blue Book ended in 1970. There have been some claims, still undocumented by scientific study, that reports of saucers began to decline in the 1970s, being supplanted by other craft such as black triangles, cylinders, and amorphous shapes. It has also been asserted that despite the increase in portable cameras, photographs dwindled as Cold War and Space Race interest decreased and a number of notable images were exposed as fakes. A camera is a device used to capture images either as still Photographs or as sequences of moving images ( Movies or Videos. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the The Space Race was a competition of space exploration between the Soviet Union and the United States, which lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975 ^[1]

Explanations

A lenticular cloud. Studies show such clouds account for less than 1% of flying saucer reports.

In addition to the extraterrestrial hypothesis, a variety of possible explanations for flying saucers have been put forward. The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH is the Hypothesis that some UFOs are best explained as being creatures or space aliens from other planets One of the most common states that most photos of saucers were hoaxes; cylindrical metal objects such as pie tins, hubcaps and dustbin lids were easy to obtain, and the poor focus seen in UFO images makes the true scale of the object difficult to ascertain. A hubcap, wheel cover or wheel trim is a decorative disk on an Automobile Wheel that covers at least a central portion of the wheel 'Wastebin' redirects here For the temporary deletion of a computer file see Recycle bin (computing. ^[1] However, some photos and movies were deemed authentic after intensive study. An example was the saucer-like object photographed by farmer Paul Trent near Portland, Oregon in 1950, which passed all tests when studied by the Condon Committee in the 1960s. McMinnville is the County seat and largest city of Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the Confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers The Condon Committee was the informal name of the University of Colorado UFO Project, a study of Unidentified flying objects undertaken at the University ^[6]

Another theory states that most are natural phenomena such as lenticular clouds and balloons, which appear disc-like in some lighting conditions. Lenticular clouds are stationary lens-shaped Clouds that form at high altitudes normally aligned at right-angles to the wind direction A balloon is a flexible bag filled with a type of Gas, such as Helium, Hydrogen, Nitrous oxide or air. ^[7]

A third theory puts all saucer sightings down to a form of mass hysteria. Mass hysteria, also called collective hysteria, mass psychogenic illness, or collective obsessional behavior, is the sociopsychological Arnold described the craft he saw as saucer-like but not perfectly round (he described them as thin, flat, rounded in front but chopped in back and coming to a point), but the image of the circular saucer was fixed in the public consciousness. The theory posits that as the use of the term flying saucer in popular culture decreased, so too did sightings. ^[8]

However, one Air Force commissioned study contradicted some of these contentions. A scientific and statistical analysis of 3200 Air Force cases by the Battelle Memorial Institute from 1952-1954 found that most were indeed due to natural phenomena. The Battelle Memorial Institute is a private not-for-profit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus Ohio. But only about 2% were due to hoaxes or psychological effects and only . 4% were thought due to clouds. Other very minor contributors to the identifieds were birds, light phenomena such as mirages or searchlights, and various miscellaneous such as flares or kites. A mirage is a naturally-occurring Optical phenomenon, in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky The vast majority of identified objects (about 84%) were explained as balloons, aircraft, or astronomical objects. However, about 22% of all sightings still defied any plausible explanation by the team of scientists. The percent of unidentifieds rose to 33% for the best witnesses and cases. Thus when carefully studied, a very substantial fraction of reports cannot be easily explained away as being caused by mundane phenomena. Other scientific studies have come to similar conclusions. (see Identified flying object for details)

Earth-based examples

See also: military flying saucers

The Avrocar, a one-man flying saucer-based vehicle. see Identified flying object for IFOs in ufology Identified Flying Object is an album by the Goa trance project The development of disc shaped Aircraft — or military "flying saucers" — apparently dates back to World War II. The VZ-9-AV Avrocar (official designation but often listed as VZ-9) was a Canadian VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd

Attempts have been made, with limited success, to produce manned vehicles based on the flying saucer design. While some, such as the Avrocar and M200G Volantor have been produced in limited numbers, most fail to leave the drawing board. The VZ-9-AV Avrocar (official designation but often listed as VZ-9) was a Canadian VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd The M200G Volantor is a prototype of a Flying saucer -style Hovercraft, designed by aeronautics engineer Paul Moller. The Avrocar, with vertical takeoff and landing, was originally intended to replace both the Jeep and the helicopter in combat situations, but proved to be inadequate for both. VTOL is an abbreviation for Vertical Take-Off and Landing. VTOL describes Fixed-wing aircraft that can lift off vertically Jeep is an Automobile Marque (and registered trademark of Chrysler. History Since 400 AD Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys. In spite of a powerful turbojet, it could not rise more than 4 or 5 feet off the ground, i. e. , out of ground effect. ^[9] Unmanned saucers have had more success; the Sikorsky Cypher is a saucer-like UAV which uses the disc-shaped shroud to protect rotor blades. The Cypher and Cypher II are types of Unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV is an unpiloted Aircraft. UAVs can be remote controlled or fly autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans or more complex dynamic

The British Rail flying saucer, a proposed saucer-like spacecraft. The British Rail flying saucer, officially known simply as space vehicle, was a proposed space vehicle, designed by Charles Osmond Frederick and a

Some more advanced flying saucers capable of spaceflight have been proposed, often as black projects by aeronautics companies. In the United States, a black project is a classified military/defense project unacknowledged publicly by the government military personnel and defense contractors The Lenticular Reentry Vehicle was a secret project run by Convair for a saucer device which could carry both astronauts and nuclear weapons into orbit; the nuclear powered system was planned in depth, but is not believed to have ever flown. The Lenticular Reentry Vehicle (LRV, according to a November 2000 Popular Mechanics cover story was an experimental Nuclear warhead delivery system under development The Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, commonly known as Convair, was a US aerospace development and manufacturing complex of the 1940s and later An astronaut or cosmonaut (космона́вт) is a person trained A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. More exotically, British Rail worked on plans for the British Rail "Space Vehicle" a proposed, saucer-shaped craft based on so far undiscovered technologies such as nuclear fusion and superconductivity, which was supposed to have been able to transport multiple passenger between planets, but never went beyond the patent stage. See also Rail transport in Great Britain, National Rail, Network Rail This article is about the defunct entity "British Railways" The British Rail flying saucer, officially known simply as space vehicle, was a proposed space vehicle, designed by Charles Osmond Frederick and a In Physics and Nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple- like charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain Materials generally at very low Temperatures characterized by exactly zero electrical resistance A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an ^[2]

Flying saucers in culture

A small flying saucer leaves its larger mothership in Plan 9 from Outer Space. Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1959 Science fiction / Horror film written produced and directed by Edward D

The flying saucer quickly became a symbol of both extraterrestrials and science fiction, and features in many films of mid-20th century science fiction, including The Atomic Submarine, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Plan 9 from Outer Space and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. The Atomic Submarine is a 1959 Science fiction film starring Arthur Franz, Dick Foran and Brett Halsey with John Hillard as the voice The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 Black-and-white Science fiction film that tells the story of a humanoid alien visitor who comes Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1959 Science fiction / Horror film written produced and directed by Edward D Earth vs the Flying Saucers is an American Black and white Science fiction film directed by Fred F As the flying saucer was surpassed by other designs and concepts, it fell out of favour with straight science-fiction movie makers, but continued to be used ironically in comedy movies, especially in reference to the low budget B movies which often featured saucer-shaped alien craft. A B movie is a motion picture made on a low or modest budget Originally the term was used for films intended for distribution as the less-publicized second half of a Double The saucer design did, however, make a temporary comeback on the television series Babylon 5 as the standard ship design used by a race called the Vree, described on the series as one of Earth's long-standing allies, and bearing a strong resemblance to the "Greys". Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created produced and largely written by J This article discusses fictional civilizations on the science-fiction television show Babylon 5. Greys is a term used to describe alleged Intelligent, Humanoid extraterrestrials that appear in claims of encounters with UFO -related phenomena

The sleek, silver flying saucer in particular is seen as a symbol of 1950s culture; the motif is common is Googie architecture and in Atomic Age décor. Googie, also known as populuxe or doo-wop, is a subdivision of Futurist architecture, influenced by car culture and the Space Age The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is a phrase typically used to delineate the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear bomb ^[10] The image is often invoked retrofuturistically to produce a nostalgic feel in period works, especially in comic science fiction; both Mars Attacks!^[11] and Destroy All Humans!^[12] draw on the flying saucer as part of the larger satire of 1950s B movie tropes. Retro-futurism, retrofuturism, retro-future or retrofuture,terms combining " Retro " and " futurism " or " The term nostalgia describes a longing for the past often in idealized form See also Science fiction, Comedy Comic science fiction is a sub- Genre of Science fiction that exploits the genre's conventions for Mars Attacks! is a 1996 Black comedy and Science fiction Movie by Tim Burton based on the popular card series Mars Destroy All Humans! is a video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by THQ.

Raëlism is a UFO religion founded by a purported contactee named Claude Vorilhon. Raëlism or Raëlian Church consists of the practitioners of a UFO religion founded by a former French sports-car journalist and test driver named Claude A UFO religion or UFO cult is an informal term used to describe a faith community whose belief in the existence of Extraterrestrials and/or UFOs is a central Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon (born September 30, 1946 in Vichy, Allier, France) is the founder and current leader of the recent They believe that Elohim (plural) are advanced extraterrestrials who created humanity and life on Earth whose previous and ancient contacts have provided the founding for many major religions in existence today. Elohim ( אֱלוֹהִים, אלהים) is a Hebrew word which expresses concepts of Divinity.

References