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flying saucer

On June 24,1947, Kenneth Arnold claimed that he'd seen nine "crescent shaped" aircraft flying erratically at incredible speeds near Mount Rainier. He said they reminded him of saucers skimming over water. An editor of the Eastern Oregonian reported that Arnold saw "round" objects. Other reports noted "disc-shaped" objects. Within a few weeks, there were hundreds of  reports nationwide of sightings of flying "saucers."

The fact that so many UFO and alien sightings conform to rather standard depictions is taken by some as evidence that the observers are not mistaken. They must be seeing the same things. It is more likely that they see what they see because of their expectations, which are based on stereotypes created largely by the mass media. In this respect, and maybe some others as well, UFO an alien sightings might be compared to Santa Claus sightings.
 
See also alien abduction, area 51, autokinetic effect, cattle mutilation, crop circle, men in black, Roswell, sleep paralysis, and UFO. 

further reading

reader comments

• The Klass Files (Archive of Skeptics UFO Newsletter)

Bartholomew, Robert E. and Benjamin Radford. "The Birthplace of the Flying Saucer," in Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias - Why We Need Critical Thinking (Prometheus  Books 2003).

Frazier, Kendrick. (ed.) The Ufo Invasion : The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups (Prometheus, 1997).

Gardner, Martin. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1957),

firewalking