

The Man Who Introduced the World to Flying Saucers - wallflower
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/the-man-who-introduced-the-world-to-flying-saucers/372732/

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shutupalready
tl;dr: Pilot in 1947 sees unidentified objects that fly in a saucer-like
fashion, i.e., flew "like a saucer if you skip it across the water", and
reporters are chastised for inventing the term "flying saucer".

But if look at the pilot's actual drawing from the article, here:

[http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/2014/06/Arnold...](http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/2014/06/Arnold_AAF_drawing/32229c832.jpg)

What common household object would be a good metaphor for what he saw?

    
    
      a donut
      a pencil
      a loaf of bread
      a teapot
      a balloon
      a cigar
      or, a saucer
    

Looking around my own kitchen and garage, I can't find a better one-word
description than saucer. (Maybe Frisbee but did that even exist in 1947?)

The reporter(s) saw the saucer-shaped drawing, and the pilot did talk about
saucer-like flight, hence "flying saucer".

It's crazy to call this "one of the most significant reporter misquotes in
history".

~~~
Torgo
If you read the paragraph below on the paper, he said "they did not appear to
whirl or spin." That in combination with the saucer term strongly implied to
me that he meant they were disc shaped.

Incidentally, if you go through UFO casebooks, you can find reports of UFOs
that look like every item on your list :-)

------
joveian
See also:
[http://www.softcom.net/users/falconkam/manwho.html](http://www.softcom.net/users/falconkam/manwho.html)

