Did a Single Sighting in 1947 Spark the UFO Craze?

  • Thread starter Julian Solos
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In summary: The objects Kenneth Arnold saw on June 24, 1947 were not disks as reported in the headline, but rather unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The article does a good job of explaining the various misunderstandings and misrepresentations of Arnold's sighting that led to the popular belief in flying saucers.
  • #1
Julian Solos
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Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?


Perhaps, the report of Mr. Keneth Arnold's June 24, 1947 sighting was the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings which set off the flying saucer phenomenon.

Or more precisely, misquotation/misinterpretation of the sighting was the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings

The initial report was likely to have been misquoted/misinterpreted.

Marty Kottmeyer's article The Saucer Error explains how the very idea of a "flying saucer" is based upon a misunderstanding of what Arnold said he saw. But since people thought that Arnold had said he'd seen a saucer, then by golly, saucers were what they reported seeing! (Article excerpted from The REALL News, Volume 1 No. 4.)

ArnoldUFO.jpg


From: The First "Flying Saucer" Sighting - Kenneth Arnold Mt. Rainier, Washington - June 24, 1947

Is this scary or silly or what
 
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  • #2
Your thread title should be: Flying Saucers Don't Exist.
Arnold did see U.F.O.s.
 
  • #3
I find the artical itself slightly suspect. In the picture provided, the caption reads "This is a photo of a model of the strange disks Arnold said he saw over the Cascades June 1947".

So they're saying that Arnold said he saw "disks". But the rest of the artical reads that Arnold never said he saw disks. Pretty vague reporting.
 
  • #4
Originally posted by LURCH
Pretty vague reporting.
This is the point, apparently. The notions of saucers came from Arnold's description of the way they moved, like saucers skipping over water, not from the shape he saw.
 
  • #5
This is all well known to the UFO crowd.

http://www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/arnolddir.htm

My take has always been that at twenty to twenty five miles, Arnold was guessing at the shape...the key feature really being that he saw no tail. From the official report:

The sky and air was clear as crystal. I hadn't flown more than two or three minutes on my course when a bright flash reflected on my airplane. It startled me as I thought I was too close to some other aircraft. I looked every place in the sky and couldn't find where the reflection had come from until I looked to the left and the north of Mt. Rainier where I observed a chain of nine peculiar looking aircraft flying from north to south at approximately 9,500 foot elevation and going, seemingly, in a definite direction of about 170 degrees.

They were approaching Mt. Rainier very rapidly, and I merely assumed they were jet planes. Anyhow, I discovered that this was where the reflection had come from, as two or three of them every few seconds would dip or change their course slightly, just enough for the sun to strike them at an angle that reflected brightly on my plane.

These objects being quite far away, I was unable for a few seconds to make out their shape or their formation. Very shortly they approached Mt. Rainier, and I observed their outline against the snow quite plainly.

I thought it was very peculiar that I couldn't find their tails but assumed they were some type of jet plane. I was determined to clock their speed, as I had two definite points I could clock them by; the air was so clear that it was very easy to see objects and determine their approximate shape and size at almost fifty miles that day.

I remember distinctly that my sweep second hand on my eight day clock, which is located on my instrument panel, read one minute to 3 P.M. as the first object of this formation passed the southern edge of Mt. Rainier. I watched these objects with great interest as I had never before observed...

...What kept bothering me as I watched them flip and flash in the sun right along their path was the fact that I couldn't make out any tail on them, and I am sure that any pilot would justify more than a second look at such a plane.

I observed them quite plainly, and I estimate my distance from them, which was almost at right angles, to be between twenty to twenty-five miles. I knew they must be very large to observe their shape at that distance, even on as clear a day as it was that Tuesday, In fact I compared a zeus fastener or cowling tool I had in my pocket with them - holding it up on them and holding it up on the DC-4 - that I could observe at quite a distance to my left, and they seemed smaller than the DC-4; but, I should judge their span would have been as wide as the furtherest engines on each side of the fuselage of the DC-4.

The more I observed these objects the more upset I became, as I am accustomed and familiar with most all objects flying whether I am close to the ground or at higher altitudes

http://www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/arnoldka.htm

Note also that his drawings in the official report are a far cry from the photo shown.
 
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  • #6
Thanks for the link, Ivan.

You wrote: "Note also that his drawings in the official report are a far cry from the photo shown."

The caption says the photo is from Kenneth's 1952 book. Is it possible that he was corrupted by the interest following his first report and got carried away in fabricating the story about his sighting?

Anyway, debunkers.com may need to be debunked. I don't know.
 
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  • #7
Bit off topic

I do know, however, that when the Butterfly flapped it's wings in China (1949) it created a hurricane in Cuba (1959).

I should shut up now!

bye
 
  • #8
Originally posted by zoobyshoe
This is the point, apparently. The notions of saucers came from Arnold's description of the way they moved, like saucers skipping over water, not from the shape he saw.

Yet according to the artical, he said he saw "disks", disks that moved like saucers.
 
  • #9
Originally posted by Julian Solos
Is it possible that he was corrupted by the interest following his first report and got carried away in fabricating the story about his sighting?

I suspect this happens a lot even with initially credible witnesses. Also, maybe fabricating is not the right word...embellishing? I think this adds tremendously to the confusion around this subject. We find truths surrounded by exaggerations and/or unintentional misinformation. Also, when pressed for details, people will unintentionally create them based on personal biases, where none may have actually been observed. For example, Arnold was a pilot so in his mind he made flying wings out of the UFOs.
 
  • #10
Originally posted by LURCH
Yet according to the artical, he said he saw "disks", disks that moved like saucers.
I see what you mean. In his own account he calls them "saucer-like discs" The drawings he himself made are more "saucerlike", but not actually round discs. So the "debunking" article is flawed in saying Arnold never actually reported "saucers".
 
  • #11
Chalk up one for the UFO nuts.
 
  • #12
Originally posted by Ivan Seeking
Chalk up one for the UFO nuts.
So, what's the score? Skeptics: 10,000 :: UFO nuts: 1? Clearly the start of an impressive turnaround for the nuts!
 
  • #13
Originally posted by zoobyshoe
So, what's the score? Skeptics: 10,000 :: UFO nuts: 1? Clearly the start of an impressive turnaround for the nuts!

Only if one picks the easy targets...a favorite trick of the debunkers!

Of course in this case it would seem that they chose to lie.
 
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  • #15
"Give it up!"

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
So, what's the score? Skeptics: 10,000 :: UFO nuts: 1? Clearly the start of an impressive turnaround for the nuts!

"Resistance is futile."

http://winlooks.virtualave.net/pict/7of9.jpg
 
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  • #16
quote
James Easton has written some extremely interesting material suggesting that what Arnold actually saw was a flock of American White Pelicans, the largest birds in North America.
====
afriad i couldn't find any of the "extremely interesting material"--saw photo's of
"Pelicans"--and they don't look anything like UFOs!

have read 'explanation' countering Arnold's 'miscalculations' as to 'speed' and distance of the 'objects' ---actually a fair argument IMO--(not sure where to find it)

But--re "flying saucers"--a rose is a rose---call it what you want--'flying discs' were being reported before Arnold's sighting--and these were 'military sightings', not bird-watchers...
on 2/28/47 at Lake Meade,NV (and again 6/28 an F-51 pilot saw formation of circular objects-edit at Lake Meade); a number of these discs 'formations' were reported in Canada...it's interesting to think about,'why did Arnold's sighting get such widespread attention?'--because the military sightings weren't being reported, and Arnold is first public 'credible witness'?

anyway, Capt. Ruppelt coined the "unidentified flying object=UFO" to escape all the 'baggage'

Major Keyhoe out right screams 'Flying saucers are here'-'let's call a spade a spade' and end the coverup...
 
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  • #17


Originally posted by Julian Solos
"Resistance is futile."

http://winlooks.virtualave.net/pict/7of9.jpg

If all aliens were reported to look like 7 of 9 I think every skeptic would hang up an "I Want To Believe" poster.
 
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  • #18
few thoughts on Arnold case:
when you get down to it-it's just a 'boy and his dog' tale...
(it's his story against Shaeffers)

what are you going to do-give him a lie-detector test?

And then he goes on to investigate the "Maury Island Incident"
for Ray Palmer (seriously...) , yet with his buddy the commercial
air-line pilot.

Things get really wierd-they outta make a movie-
two Air Force guys show up and collect "samples"...
the plane blows up...who's makin the phone calls??

(years later, one of the 'chief' 'witnesses' interviewed by Arnold
turns out to be an OSS operative-(Arno never knew this)
a specialist in 'dis-information'---and later identified as one of
the hoboes-in-the-train-yard at Dallas (see "Ocotopus" bk)...

anyway,Arnold seems likeable enough, but goes on to be a 'reporter' for Palmer----fun stuff-imaginative--but WWNews for me

curiously, there was a report from a 'rock-hound' in Colorodo mts. previous to all this with very similar 'spew-ing out' metal 'slag' etc.

(could have been Vallee-who's in-depth and always interesting...)

also, i don't remember the 'boom-a-rang' description...never read Arnold's book or articles---bottom line,this isn't truthfully as interesting as other 'events' happening then from military guys with some 'hard' evidence=
ie. radar returns and multiple witnesses

(or like that 7 of 9 'evidence'- I'm believing I'm coming around...
 
  • #19
Originally posted by mouseonmoon
But--re "flying saucers"--a rose is a rose---call it what you want--'flying discs' were being reported before Arnold's sighting--and these were 'military sightings', not bird-watchers...
on 2/28/47 at Lake Meade,NV (and again 6/28 an F-51 pilot saw formation of circular objects-edit at Lake Meade); a number of these discs 'formations' were reported in Canada...it's interesting to think about,'why did Arnold's sighting get such widespread attention?'--because the military sightings weren't being reported, and Arnold is first public 'credible witness'?

I've been wondering about this too. His report was not the first report of UFO sighting in modern times, it was the first to get the kind of world-wide attention it received.


Unknown to most of human society, during the spring of 1947 strange things were happening.
Oddly shaped objects flying through the skies were seen by a few people. These appeared to be
machines...but they weren’t any type of flying craft made by mankind. They did not have
aerodynamic shape, yet they traveled at high speed. The sightings were miracles of a
sort...anomalous events with no explanation... a preview of coming events. The sightings were
portentous occurrences, heralding the dawn of a new era, but the witnesses did not know this.
They were the hadnwriting on the wall, but all the witnesses knew was that they had seen
something strange. Probably some new development of the Air Force, they thought. After
marveling at the sights, they forgot about them. These sightings would have been lost in the
their distant memories, absent from history, if it hadn’t been for one man and the events which
followed his June sighting.

From: http://brumac.8k.com/KARNOLD/KARNOLD.html
 
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  • #20


Originally posted by zoobyshoe
If all aliens were reported to look like 7 of 9 I think every skeptic would hang up an "I Want To Believe" poster.

And they wish to be abducted and subjected to all sorts of nasty physical examinations.
 
  • #21
great quote

i]Originally posted by Julian Solos [/i]
Anyway, debunkers.com may need to be debunked. I don't know. [/B]

" Great Quote "
 
  • #22
The Roswell incident occurred in the early July, 1947.
 

FAQ: Did a Single Sighting in 1947 Spark the UFO Craze?

What was the first reported UFO sighting in 1947?

The first reported UFO sighting in 1947 was by pilot Kenneth Arnold, who claimed to have seen a group of nine strange objects flying in a V formation over Mount Rainier in Washington state. This sighting sparked the beginning of the UFO craze.

Why did the sighting in 1947 gain so much attention?

The sighting gained attention due to the credibility of the witness, Kenneth Arnold, who was an experienced pilot. Additionally, this was the first reported sighting to receive widespread media coverage, leading to the public becoming more interested in the idea of UFOs.

Did the sighting in 1947 lead to an increase in UFO sightings?

Yes, the sighting in 1947 sparked a wave of UFO sightings across the United States and around the world. This led to a rise in public interest in UFOs and government investigations into the phenomena.

Was there any evidence or proof of extraterrestrial beings from the 1947 sighting?

No, there was no concrete evidence or proof of extraterrestrial beings from the 1947 sighting. Kenneth Arnold's description of the objects as "saucer-like" and their ability to fly at high speeds led to the term "flying saucers" being coined, but there was no physical evidence to support this claim.

How did the 1947 sighting impact the study of UFOs?

The 1947 sighting and subsequent UFO craze sparked a renewed interest in the study of UFOs. This led to the establishment of government agencies, such as Project Blue Book, to investigate UFO sightings. It also led to the development of theories and research into the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the search for other habitable planets.

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