Kenneth A. Arnold
Showing a drawing of the crescent-shaped object
Born	March 29, 1915(1915-03-29) Sebeka, Minnesota
Died	January 16, 1984 (aged 68) Bellevue, Washington
Occupation	businessman, aviator

Kenneth A. Arnold (born March 29, 1915 in Sebeka, Minnesota; died January 16, 1984 in Bellevue, Washington) was an American businessman and pilot. Crescent-shaped UFO, one of objects pilot Kenneth Arnold said he saw on June 24, 1947. ... is the 88th day of the year (89th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday[1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Sebeka is a city located in Wadena County, Minnesota. ... is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Location of Bellevue within King County, Washington, and King County within Washington. ... A businessman (sometimes businesswoman, female; or businessperson, gender neutral) is a generic term for a wide range of people engaged in profit-oriented enterprises, generally the management of a company. ... For other uses, see Aviator (disambiguation). ... is the 88th day of the year (89th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday[1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Sebeka is a city located in Wadena County, Minnesota. ... Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Area  Ranked 12th  - Total 87,014 sq mi (225,365 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 400 miles (645 km)  - % water 8. ... is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Location of Bellevue within King County, Washington, and King County within Washington. ... For the capital city of the United States, see Washington, D.C.. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation). ...

He is best-known for making what is generally considered the first widely reported unidentified flying object sighting in the United States, after claiming to see nine unusual objects flying in a chain near Mount Rainier, Washington on June 24, 1947. Arnold described the objects' shape as reminiscent of crescents or flying wings, or as resembling a flat saucer, and described their erratic motion as resembling a saucer skipped across water; from this, the press quickly coining the new terms "flying saucer" and "flying disk" to describe such objects, many of which were reported within days after Arnold's sighting. UFO redirects here. ... For other uses, see Mount Rainier (disambiguation). ... For the capital city of the United States, see Washington, D.C.. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation). ... is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A Northrop YB-49 flying wing. ... A cup and saucer For information on flying saucers see unidentified flying objects. ...

The U.S. Air Force formally listed the Arnold case as a mirage; this is one of many explanations that have been rebutted by critics, and researchers Jerome Clark^[1] and Ronald Story^[2] both argue that there has never been an entirely persuasive conventional explanation of the Arnold sighting. Seal of the Air Force. ... This article is about the optical phenomenon. ... Jerome Clark (1946 - ) is an American researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena; he is also a songwriter of some note. ...

Biography

Arnold was born in Sebeka, Minnesota, but grew up in Scobey, Montana. He attended the University of Minnesota. Arnold began Great Western Fire Control Supply in Boise, Idaho in 1940, a company that sold and installed fire suppression system, a job that took him around the Pacific Northwest. Sebeka is a city located in Wadena County, Minnesota. ... Scobey is a city located in Daniels County, Montana. ... This article is about the oldest and largest campus of the University of Minnesota. ... Boise redirects here. ... Fire suppression systems are used in conjunction with smoke detectors and fire alarm systems to improve and increase public safety Fire sprinkler systems (wet, dry, pre-action, and deluge) Gaseous agents Wet and dry chemical agents Detailled DESCRIPTION of fire extinguishing systems National Fire Protection Association Fire Suppression Systems Association... The Pacific Northwest from space The Pacific Northwest, abbreviated PNW, or PacNW is a region in the northwest of North America. ...

He was a part time Search and Rescue Mercy Flyer, and an avid swimmer and diver (he was good enough at the latter that he was a contender for the Olympics). Arnold and his wife Doris had four daughters. Search and Rescue (acronym SAR) is an operation mounted by emergency services, often well-trained volunteers, to find someone believed to be in distress, lost, sick or injured either in a remote or difficult to access area, such as mountains, desert or forest (Wilderness search and rescue), or at sea... Swimming is the method by which humans (or other animals) move themselves through water. ... For other uses, see Dive. ... Olympic Games Summer Olympic Games Medal count Winter Olympic Games Medal count Olympic sports Medal counts Participating NOCs Olympic symbols Olympics WikiProject Olympics Portal Athens 2004 • Beijing 2008 Torino 2006 • Vancouver 2010 ...

On June 24, 1947, while flying near Mt. Rainer, Arnold claimed to have seen nine unusual objects flying in the skies; this event is discussed in more detail below. He claimed to have seen UFOs on several other occasions afterwards, as well. is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

After the 1947 UFO sighting, Arnold became a minor celebrity, and for about a decade thereafter, he was somewhat involved in interviewing other UFO witnesses or contactees (notably, he investigated the claims of Samuel Eaton Thompson, one of the first contactees). Arnold wrote a book and several magazine articles about his UFO sighting and his subsequent research. Samuel Eaton Thompson (1875? - 1960?) is certainly the most unfamiliar of the 1950s contactees, individuals who claimed to have met and talked to human-appearing crewmembers of landed flying saucers. ...

By the 1960s, Arnold had little to do with UFOs. He appearead at a 1977 convention currated by Fate to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the "birth" of the modern UFO age. He ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor of Idaho in 1962. This section does not cite its references or sources. ... Lieutenant Governor of Idaho is a constitutional statewide elected office in the State of Idaho. ...

Arnold died in 1984.

June 24, 1947 UFO sighting

On June 24, 1947, Arnold was flying from Chehalis, Washington to Yakima, Washington in a CallAir A-2 on a business trip. He made a brief detour after learning of a $5000 reward for the discovery of a U.S. Marine Corps C-46 transport airplane that had crashed near Mt. Rainer. The skies were completely clear and there was a mild wind. is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Chehalis (pronounced ) is a city in Lewis County, Washington, United States. ... Location of Yakima in Washington Coordinates: , Country State County Yakima Incorporated December 1, 1883 Government  - Mayor Dave Edler Area  - City 20. ...

A few minutes before 3:00 p.m. at about 9,200 feet in altitude and near Mineral, Washington, he gave up his search and started heading eastward towards Yakima. He saw a bright flashing light, similar to sunlight reflecting from a mirror. Afraid he might be dangerously close to another aircraft, Arnold scanned the skies around him, but all he could see was a DC-4 to his left and back of him, about 15 miles away. Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... A mirror, reflecting a vase. ... The designation DC-4 was used by Douglas Aircraft Company when developing the DC-4E as a large, four-engined type to complement its forthcoming DC-3 design. ...

About 30 seconds after seeing the first flash of light, Arnold saw a series of bright flashes in the distance off to his left, or north of Mt. Rainier, which was then 20 to 25 miles away. He thought they might be reflections on his airplane's windows, but a few quick tests (rocking his airplane from side to side, removing his eyeglasses, later rolling down his side window) ruled this out.

They flew in a long chain, and Arnold for a moment considered they might be a flock of geese, but quickly ruled this out for a number of reasons, including the altitude, bright glint, and obviously very fast speed. He then thought they might be a new type of jet and started looking intently for a tail and was surprised that he couldn't find any.

They quickly approached Rainier and then passed in front, usually appearing dark in profile against the bright white snowfield covering Rainier, but occasionally still giving off bright light flashes as they flipped around erratically. Sometimes he said he could see them on edge, when they seemed so thin and flat they were practically invisible. According to Clark^[3] Arnold said that one of the objects was rather crescent shaped, while the other eight objects were more circular, but initially Arnold's descriptions were only of the latter disk-like shape. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

At one point Arnold said they flew behind a subpeak of Rainier and briefly disappeared. Knowing his position and the position of the (unspecified) subpeak, Arnold placed their distance as they flew past Rainier at about 23 miles.

Using a Zeus cowling fastener as a gauge to compare the nine objects to the distant DC-4, Arnold estimated their angular size as slightly smaller than the DC-4, about the width between the outer engines (about 60 feet). Arnold also said he realized that the objects would have to be quite large to see any details at that distance and later, after comparing notes with a United Airlines crew that had a similar sighting 10 days later (see below), placed the absolute size as larger than a DC-4 airliner (or greater than 100 feet in length). Army Air Force analysts would later estimate 140 to 280 feet, based on analysis of human visual acuity and other sighting details (such as estimated distance). Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A cowling is a covering of an engine in a motorcycle or other automobile, or in aircraft. ... The designation DC-4 was used by Douglas Aircraft Company when developing the DC-4E as a large, four-engined type to complement its forthcoming DC-3 design. ... Traditional Snellen chart used for visual acuity testing. ...

Arnold said the objects were grouped together, as Ted Bloecher^[4] writes, "in a diagonally stepped-down, echelon formation, stretched out over a distance that he later calculated to be five miles". Though moving on a more or less level horizontal plane, Arnold said the objects weaved from side to side ("like the tail of a Chinese kite" as he later stated), darting through the valleys and around the smaller mountain peaks. They would occasionally flip or bank on their edges in unison as they turned or maneuvered causing almost blindingly bright or mirror-like flashes of light. The encounter gave him an "eerie feeling", but Arnold suspected he had seen test flights of a new U.S. military aircraft. Ted Bloecher (born 1929) is an American ufologist. ... Four OS2U Kingfisher airplanes flying in right echelon formation. ...

As the objects passed Mt Rainer, Arnold turned his plane southward on a more or less parallel course. It was at this point that he opened his side window and began observing the objects unobstructed by any glass that might have produced reflections. The objects did not disappear and continued to move very rapidly southward, continuously moving forward of his position. Curious about their speed, he began to time their rate of passage: he said they moved from Mt. Rainer to Mt. Adams where they faded from view, a distance of about 50 miles, in one minute and forty-two seconds, according to the clock on his instrument panel. When he later had time to do the calculation, the speed was over 1,700 miles per hour. This was about three times faster than any manned aircraft in 1947. Not knowing exactly the distance where the objects faded from view, Arnold conservatively and arbitrarily rounded this down to 1200 miles an hour, still faster than any known aircraft, which had yet to break the sound barrier. It was this supersonic speed in addition to the unusual saucer or disk description that seemed to capture people's attention. This article is about Mount Adams in Washington. ... U.S. Navy F/A-18 at transonic speed. ... A United States Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in transonic flight. ...

Arnold shares the story

Arnold landed in Yakima at about 4.00 p.m., and quickly told friend and airport general manager Al Baxter the amazing story, and before long, the entire airport staff knew of Arnold's claims. He discussed the story with the staff, and later wrote that Baxter didn't believe him.

Arnold flew on to an air show Pendleton, Oregon, not knowing that somebody in Yakima had phoned in ahead to say that Arnold had seen some strange new aircraft. It was at this time that Arnold studied his maps, determined the distance between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams, and calculated the rather astonishing speed. He told a number of pilot friends, and wrote in his account to AAF intelligence that they did not scoff or laugh. Instead they suggested that maybe he had seen guided missiles or something new, though Arnold felt this explanation to be inadequate. He also wrote that some former Army pilots told him that they had been briefed before going into combat "that they might see objects of similar shape and design as I described and assured me that I wasn't dreaming or going crazy." (see Foo fighter) Pendleton is a city located in Umatilla County, Oregon. ... This article is about the aerial phenomenon. ...

Arnold wasn't interviewed by reporters until the next day (June 25) when he went to the office of the East Oregonian in Pendleton. Any skepticism the reporters might have harbored evaporated when they interviewed Arnold at length; as historian Mike Dash^[5] Mike Dash (b. ...

Arnold had the makings of a reliable witness. He was a respected businessman and experienced pilot ... and seemed to be neither exaggerating what he had seen, nor adding sensational details to his report. He also gave the impression of being a careful observer ... These details impressed the newspapermen who interviewed him and lent credibility to his report.

Corroboration

Arnold's sighting was partly corroborated by a prospector on Mt. Adams, who wrote AAF intelligence that he saw six of the objects on June 24 at about the same time as Arnold, which he viewed through a small telescope. He said they were "round" and tapered "sharply to a point in the head and in an oval shape." He also noted that the objects seemed to disturb his compass. An evaluation of the witness by AAF intelligence found him to be credible. is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

A Seattle newspaper also mentioned a woman near Tacoma who said she saw a chain of nine, bright objects flying at high speed near Mt. Rainier. Unfortunately this short news item wasn't precise as to time or date, but indicated it was around the same date as Arnold's sighting. However, a pilot of a DC-4 some 10 to 15 miles north of Arnold en route to Seattle reported seeing nothing unusual. (This was the same DC-4 seen by Arnold and which he used for size comparison.) Tacoma, with Mount Rainier in background You may be looking for Takoma or Tacoma class frigate. ... The designation DC-4 was used by Douglas Aircraft Company when developing the DC-4E as a large, four-engined type to complement its forthcoming DC-3 design. ...

Other Seattle area newspapers also reported other sightings of flashing, rapidly moving unknown objects on the same day, but not the same time, as Arnold's sighting. Most of these sightings were west of Seattle in the town of Bremerton, either that morning or at night. Sinclair Inlet and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (left), Dyes Inlet (middle distance) and Manette and Warren Avenue Bridges (left to right) across Port Washington Narrows Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington, USA. The population was 37,259 at the 2000 census. ...

Eight Arnold-like objects photographed over Tulsa, Oklahoma, July 12, 1947 (from Tulsa Daily World

The primary corroborative sighting, however, occurred ten days later (July 4) when a United Airlines crew over Idaho en route to Seattle also spotted five to nine disk-like objects that paced their plane for 10 to 15 minutes before suddenly disappearing. The next day in Seattle, Arnold met with the pilot, Cpt. E. J. Smith, and copilot and compared sighting details. The main difference in shape was that the United crew thought the objects appeared rough on top. This was one of the few sightings that Arnold felt was reliable, most of the rest he thought were the public seeing other things and letting their imaginations run wild. Arnold and Cpt. Smith became friends, met again with Army Air Force intelligence officers on July 12 and filed sighting reports, then teamed up again at the end of July in investigating the strange Maury Island incident. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Maury Island incident is said to be an early modern UFO encounter incident, which allegedly took place shortly after the sighting of the original flying saucers by Kenneth Arnold. ...

A similar sighting of eight objects also occurred over Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 12, 1947. In this instance, a photo was taken and published in the Tulsa Daily World the following day (photo at right). Interestingly, the photographer, Enlo Gilmore, said that in blowups of the photo, the objects resembled baseball catcher's mitts or flying wings. He was of the opinion that the military had a secret fleet of flying wing airplanes. He had been a gunnery officer in the Navy during the war, and using information from another witness, also a veteran, he performed a triangulation and arrived at an estimation of speed of 1700 miles per hour, or essentially the same estimate as Arnold's. One of the objects, he said, seemed to have a hole in the middle. [1] Nickname: Location in the state of Oklahoma Coordinates: , Country State Counties Tulsa, Osage, Wagoner, Rogers Government  - Mayor Kathy Taylor (D) Area  - City  186. ... A typical infielders or outfielders glove. ... A Northrop YB-49 flying wing. ... Triangulation can be used to find the distance from the shore to the ship. ...

Two or three photos of a similar, solitary object were taken by William Rhodes over Phoenix, Arizona on July 7, 1947, and appeared in a local Phoenix newspaper and some other newspapers. The object was rounded in front with a crescent back. These photos also seem to show something resembling a hole in the middle, though Rhodes thought it was a canopy. [2] Rhode's negatives and prints were later confiscated by the FBI and military. However, the photos show up in later Air Force intelligence reports. [3] UFO redirects here. ... Nickname: Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona Coordinates: , Country State County Maricopa Incorporated February 25, 1881 Government  - Type Council-Manager  - Mayor Phil Gordon (D) Area  - City  515. ...

Arnold was soon shown the Rhode's photos when he met with two AAF intelligence officers. He commented, "It was a disk almost identical to the one peculiar flying saucer that had been worrying me since my original observation—the one that looked different from the rest and that I had never mentioned to anyone." As a result, Arnold felt that the Rhode's photos were genuine.

Publicity and origins of term "flying saucer"

Arnold's account was first featured in a few late newspaper editions on June 25, appeared in numerous U.S. and Canadian papers (and some foreign newspapers) on June 26 and thereafter, often on the front page. Without exception, according to Bloecher, the Arnold story was initially related with a serious, even-handed tone. The first reporters to interview Arnold were Nolan Skiff and Bill Bequette of the East Oregonian in Pendleton, Ore. on June 25, and the first story on the Arnold sighting, written by Bequette, appeared in the newspaper the same day.

Starting June 27, newspapers first began using the terms "flying saucer" and "flying disk" (or "flying disc") to describe the sighted objects. Thus the Arnold sighting is credited with giving rise to these popular terms. The actual origin of the terms is somewhat controversial and complicated. Jerome Clark cites a 1970 study by Herbert Strentz, who reviewed U.S. newspaper accounts of the Arnold UFO sighting, and concluded that the term was probably due to an editor or headline writer: the body of the early Arnold news stories did not use the term "flying saucer" or "flying disc." However, earlier stories did in fact credit Arnold with using terms such as "saucer", "disk", and "pie-pan" in describing the shape. (see quotes further below)

Years later, Arnold claimed he told Bill Bequette that "they flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water." Arnold felt that he had been misquoted since the description referred to the objects' motion rather than their shape. Thus Bequette has often been credited with first using "flying saucer" and supposedly misquoting Arnold, but the term does not appear in Bequette's early articles. Instead, his first article of June 25 says only, "He said he sighted nine saucer-like aircraft flying in formation..."

The next day in a much more detailed article, Bequette wrote, "He clung to his story of shiny, flat objects racing over the Cascade mountains with a peculiar weaving motion ‘like the tail of a Chinese kite.' ...He also described the objects as 'saucer-like' and their motion 'like fish flipping in the sun.' ...[Arnold] described the objects as 'flat like a pie-pan and somewhat bat-shaped'." It wasn't until June 28 that Bequette first used the term "flying disc" (but not "flying saucer").

A review of early newspaper stories indicates that immediately after his sighting, Arnold generally described the objects’ shape as thin and flat, rounded in the front but chopped in the back and coming to a point, i.e., more or less saucer- or disk-like. He also specifically used terms like "saucer" or "saucer-like", "disk", and "pie pan" or "pie plate" in describing the shape. The motion he generally described as weaving like the tail of a kite and erratic flipping.

For example, in a surviving recorded radio interview from June 25, Arnold described them as looking "something like a pie plate that was cut in half with a sort of a convex triangle in the rear." His motion descriptions were: "I noticed to the left of me a chain which looked to me like the tail of a Chinese kite, kind of weaving... they seemed to flip and flash in the sun, just like a mirror... they seemed to kind of weave in and out right above the mountaintops…" [4]

The following day (June 26) were the following quotes attributed to Arnold: [5]

• United Press: "They were shaped like saucers and were so thin I could barely see them..."

• Associated Press: "He said they were bright, saucer-like objects--he called them 'aircraft'. …He also described the objects as ‘saucer-like’ and their motion 'like a fish flipping in the sun.’ …Arnold described the objects as 'flat like a pie pan'."

• Associated Press: "They flew with a peculiar dipping motion, 'like a fish flipping in the sun,' he said. ... He said they appeared to fly almost as if fastened together -- if one dipped, the others did, too."

• Chicago Tribune: "They were silvery and shiny and seemed to be shaped like a pie plate…. I am sure they were separate units because they weaved in flight like the tail of a kite."

On June 27 was the following quote: United Press International (UPI) is a global news agency headquartered in the United States filing news in English, Spanish and Arabic. ... The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ... // The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois and owned by the Tribune Company. ...

• Portland Oregon Journal: "'They were half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. ...There were no bulges or cowlings; they looked like a big flat disk.’ …Arnold said that the objects weaved 'like the tail of a Chinese kite'."

Kenneth Arnold's written report to Army Air Forces (AAF) intelligence, July 12, 1947, with drawing of objects

Two weeks later, Arnold was still referring to the shape of the objects as "saucers" or "saucer-like." In the Portland Oregonian on July 11, he was quoted saying, "I actually saw a type of aircraft slightly longer than it was wide, with a thickness about one twentieth as great as its width. ...I reckoned the saucers were 23 miles away." Drawing of flying saucers or flying disks submitted by pilot Kenneth Arnold to Army Air Force intelligence on July 12, 1947. ... Drawing of flying saucers or flying disks submitted by pilot Kenneth Arnold to Army Air Force intelligence on July 12, 1947. ... The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was the aviation component of the United States Army primarily during World War II. The title of Army Air Forces succeeded the prior name of Army Air Corps in June 1941 during preparation for expected combat in what came to be known as... is the 193rd day of the year (194th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In a written statement to Army Air Forces (AAF) intelligence the following day(July 12), Arnold several times referred to the objects as "saucer-like." At the end of the report he drew a picture of what the objects appeared to look like at their closest approach to Mt. Rainier. He wrote, "They seemed longer than wide, their thickness was about 1/20th their width." (document with Arnold's drawing at right) As to motion, Arnold wrote, "They flew like many times I have observed geese to fly in a rather diagonal chain-like line as if they were linked together. They seemed to hold a definite direction but rather swerved in and out of the high mountain peaks." He also spoke of how they would "flip and flash in the sun." text of written report

To complicate the shape descriptions further, a month after his sighting, Arnold was to become involved in the bizarre Maury Island incident. Arnold was dispatched by a magazine publisher to Tacoma to investigate it, although he eventually turned the investigation over to the AAF. In a meeting with two AAF intelligence officers (the same ones who interviewed him on July 12 and for whom he wrote his report), Arnold first revealed one of the nine objects was different, being larger and shaped more like a crescent coming to a point in the back (see picture at article top). It was at this time that Arnold was also shown the Rhode's photos of a crescent-shaped object over Phoenix, which Arnold deemed authentic because of the unusual shape. The Maury Island incident is said to be an early modern UFO encounter incident, which allegedly took place shortly after the sighting of the original flying saucers by Kenneth Arnold. ... Nickname: Location of Tacoma in Pierce County and Washington State Coordinates: , Country State County Pierce Government  - Mayor Bill Baarsma (D) Area  - City  62. ...

Some note the object in the drawing bears an uncanny similarity to the WW2 German design, the Horten Ho 229, sometimes further claiming it was captured German technology being tested. But there is no historical evidence of any kind supporting this. The Horten Ho-IX (often erroneously called Gotha Go 229 or Ho 229 due to the identity of the chosen manufacturer of the aircraft) was a late-World War II prototype flying wing fighter/bomber, designed by Reimar and Walter Horten and built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik. ...

Widespread UFO reports after Arnold sighting

In the weeks that followed Arnold's June, 1947 story, at least several hundred reports of similar sightings flooded in from the U.S. and around the world — most of which described saucer-shaped objects. A sighting by a United Airlines crew of another nine, disk-like objects over Idaho on July 4 probably garnered more newspaper coverage than Arnold's original sighting, and opened the floodgates of media coverage in the days to follow. is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bloecher collected reports of 853 flying disc sightings that year from 140 newspapers from Canada, Washington D.C, and every U.S. state save Montana. This was more UFO reports for 1947 than most researchers ever suspected. Some of these stories were poorly documented or fragmentary, but Bloecher argued that about 250 of the more detailed reports (such as those made by pilots or scientists, multiple eyewitnesses, or backed by photos) made a persuasive case for a genuine mystery.

Adding intrigue to Arnold's story, the U.S. military denied having any planes at all in the area of Mount Rainier at the time of his sighting. Likewise, on July 6, speculation arose in newspaper articles that the objects being sighted were due to either the "flying wing" or "flying flapjack," a disc-shaped aircraft, both experimental planes under development by the U.S. military at the time (see military flying saucers). The military repeated that neither aircraft could account for the sightings, which is also born out by historical records. is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A Northrop YB-49 flying wing. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

The most famous UFO event during this period was the Roswell UFO incident, the alleged military recovery of a crashed flying disk, the story of which broke on July 8, 1947. To calm rising public concern, this and other cases were debunked by the military in succeeding days as mistaken sightings of weather balloons.[6] Roswell Daily Record, July 8, 1947, announcing the capture of a flying saucer. ... is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Rawinsonde weather balloon just after launch. ...

Military investigation of Arnold story

The first investigation of Arnold's claims came from Lt. Frank Brown and Capt. William Davidson of Hamilton Field in California, who interviewed Arnold on July 12. Arnold also submitted a written report at that time. Regarding the reliability of Arnold's sighting, they concluded: ^[6] Hamilton Field may refer to: Hamilton Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force Base located on San Francisco Bay, California, United States. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... is the 193rd day of the year (194th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

"It is the present opinion of the interviewer that Mr. Arnold actually saw what he stated he saw. It is difficult to believe that a man of [his] character and apparent integrity would state that he saw objects and write up a report to the extent that he did if he did not see them."

Despite this, the Army Air Force's formal public conclusion was that Arnold had seen a mirage.

In addition, on July 9 AAF intelligence, with help from the FBI, secretly began an investigation of the best sightings, mostly from pilots and military personnel. Arnold's sighting, as well as that of the United Airline's crew, were included in the list of best sightings. Three weeks later they came to the conclusion that the saucer reports were not imaginary or adequately explained by natural phenomena; something real was flying around. This laid the groundwork for another intelligence estimate in September 1947 by Gen. Nathan Twining, commanding officer of the Air Materiel Command, which likewise concluded the saucers were real and urged a formal investigation by multiple government agencies. This in turn resulted in the formation of Project Sign at the end of 1947, the first publicly acknowledged USAF UFO investigation. Project Sign eventually evolved into Project Grudge, and then the better known Project Blue Book. is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Nathan Farragut Twining (1897 - 1982) was a U.S. air force general. ... Shield of the Air Force Materiel Command. ... Project Sign was an official U.S. government study of unidentified flying objects undertaken by the United States Air Force in late 1947 and dissolved in late 1948. ... UFO can mean: Unidentified flying object United Future Organization, a Japanese-Brazilian electronic jazz band UFO, the rock band that previously featured Michael Schenker UFO, the Gerry Anderson TV series United Farmers of Ontario, a political party that formed the government in Ontario from 1919 to 1923 U.F.O... Project Grudge was a short-lived project by the U.S. Air Force to investigate Unidentified flying objects. ... Project Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) conducted by the United States Air Force. ...

The personnel of the U.S. Air Force's Project Sign (1947 - 1949) also later studied Arnold's story. According to Major Edward J. Ruppelt^[7], Project Sign was an official U.S. government study of unidentified flying objects undertaken by the United States Air Force in late 1947 and dissolved in late 1948. ... Edward J. Ruppelt (1922 - 1960) was a United States Air Force officer probably best-known for his involvement in Project Blue Book, a formal governmental study of unidentified flying objects. ...

I found that there was a lot of speculation on this report [amongst Sign personnel]. Two factions ... joined up behind two lines of reasoning. One side said that Arnold had seen plain, everyday jet airplanes flying in formation ... The other side didn't buy this idea at all. They based their argument on the fact that Arnold knew where the objects were when he timed them ...

There was an old theory that maybe Arnold had seen wind whipping snow along the mountain ridges, so I asked [Air Force investigators] about this. I got a flat "Impossible."

Skeptical explanations

On the other hand, the terms with which Arnold described the objects location ("approaching Mt. Rainier at about 107 degrees" and "passed almost directly in front of me, but at a distance of about 23 miles") have been suggested by some skeptics as suspiciously precise ^[8], perhaps calling into question Arnold's reliability. Arnold, in fact, revised some of his calculations on different occasions.^[9]

However, Arnold was a very experienced pilot who would have been skilled at judging angles and distances from the air. He also explained his distance estimate wasn't just a guess but based on seeing the objects momentarily disappear behind a subpeak of Mt. Rainier, which was 23 miles from his position on a map. His speed estimate was similarly based on using known landmarks plus use of his plane's clock. Arnold also remained fairly consistent in his descriptions.

Furthermore, Arnold apparently had nothing to gain by fabricating the story. Indeed, he did not seem to enjoy the ensuing publicity, later remarking "none of us appreciates being laughed at" before largely retiring from UFO-related endeavours. He also expressed some disbelief in his own sighting, but said he had to trust his own eyes.

Skeptic Steuart Campbell has argued that the objects Arnold reported could have been mirages of several snow-capped peaks in Cascade Range. Campbell's calculation of the objects' speed determined that they were travelling at roughly the same speed as Arnold's plane, indicating that the objects were in fact stationary. Mirages could have been caused by temperature inversions over several deep valleys in the line of sight ^[10]. Steuart Campbell (born 16 April 1937) is an Edinburgh-based sceptic and investigative science writer born in Birmingham. ...

It is true that when Arnold had turned the plane so as to fly parallel to the apparent north-to-south course of the objects the relative bearing to very distant mountains would change at a much slower angular rate than the bearings to nearby peaks, i.e. as nearby landmarks fell aft of the left wing parallax would cause distant landmarks to be relatively displaced in the opposite direction. Because mirage affects visual elevation but preserves visual bearing, detached mirage images of distant peaks could appear to pace the plane. However, Arnold said that he first saw the objects crossing the nose of his plane at high speed from north-to-south before he turned south in order to watch them through the open side canopy. Parallax does not explain this. He also said he saw the objects fly in front of Mt. Rainier; they could be seen in profile and also flashing brightly against the snowfields of Rainier. That would be impossible for mirages of mountain peaks dozens of miles away to the south.

UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass^[11] cited an article by Keay Davidson of the San Francisco Examiner in arguing that Arnold might have misidentified meteors on June 24, 1947. In his rebuttal, optical physicist and UFO researcher Bruce Maccabee^[12] argues this metor hypothesis is untenable, due to striking differences between the motion of comets and the movement of the objects reported by Arnold, and due to corroboration of the objects' shape by the prospector near Mt. Rainer. Philip Julian Klass (November 8, 1919–August 9, 2005) was born in Des Moines, Iowa and died in Merritt Island, Florida. ... The San Francisco Examiner is a daily newspaper in San Francisco, California, where it has been published continuously since the late 19th Century. ... Photo of a burst of meteors with extended exposure time A meteor is the visible path of a meteoroid that enters the Earths (or another bodys) atmosphere, commonly called a shooting star or falling star. ... Dr. Bruce Maccabee, Ph. ...

James Easton^[13] was the first of several skeptics to suggest that Arnold may have missidentified pelicans: the birds live in the Washington region, are rather large (wingspans of over three meters are not uncommon), have a pale underside that can reflect light, can fly at rather high altitudes, and can appear to have a somewhat crescent-shaped profile when flying. Maccabee argues^[14] that this pelican explanation is untenable, citing several factors. Most importantly, Maccabee cites Arnold's change of direction towards the south, roughly parallel to and behind the objects towards the end of his 1947 encounter; if Arnold had been following pelicans, Maccabee argues Arnold's airplane would have quickly closed the distance. For other uses, see Pelican (disambiguation). ...

Donald Menzel's explanations

Donald Menzel was a Harvard astronomer and one of the earliest UFO debunkers. Over the years, he offered several mutually exclusive explanations for the Arnold's 1947 UFO sighting. U.S. Navy optical physicist Bruce Maccabee rebutted Menzel's explanations in a 1986 monograph, arguing that Menzel often left out data that conflicted with a given 'explanation'. ^[15] Donald Howard Menzel (April 11, 1901 – December 14, 1976) was an American astronomer. ... A Debunker is an individual who strongly believes that certain claims are false, exaggerated, unscientific or pretentious and therefore discredits and exposes them. ... Dr. Bruce Maccabee, Ph. ...

1. In 1953. Menzel argued that Arnold had seen clouds of snow blown from the mountains; Maccabee noted that such snow clouds have vague, hazy light, not the mirror-like brilliance reported by Arnold.
2. In 1963, Menzel argued that Arnold had seen orogenic clouds or wave clouds; Maccabee noted that this conflicted with testimony from Arnold and others that the sky was clear.
3. In 1971, Menzel argued that Arnold had merely seen spots of water on his airplane's windows; Maccabee notes that this contradicts Arnold's testiomony that he had specifically ruled out water spots or reflections shortly after seeing the nine UFOs. For example, the early Bill Bequette article of June 26 in the Pendleton East Oregonian has Arnold saying he at first thought that maybe he was seeing reflections off his window, but "he still saw the objects after rolling it down."

This wave cloud pattern formed off of the ÃŽle Amsterdam (lower left corner, at the tip of the triangular formation of lenticular clouds) in the far southern Indian Ocean. ...

Other sightings by Arnold and his opinion

In a 1950 interview with journalist Edward R. Murrow, Arnold reported seeing similar objects on three other occasions, and said other pilots flying in the northwestern U.S. had sighted such objects as many as eight times. The pilots initially felt a duty reporting the objects despite the ridicule, he said, because they thought the U.S. government didn't know what they were. Arnold did not assert that the objects were alien spacecraft, although he did say: "being a natural-born American, if it's not made by our science or our Army Air Forces, I am inclined to believe it's of an extra-terrestrial origin." Then he added that he thought everybody should be concerned, but "I don't think it's anything for people to get hysterical about." The extra-terrestrial speculation may have been motivated by a desire to allay public fears of the (seemingly) real possibility of a foreign invasion — Arnold's sighting was less than two years after the end of World War II and in the early stages of the cold war. Edward R. Ed Murrow (April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American journalist and media figure. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

The first issue of Fate (1948) featured the article The Truth About The Flying Saucers by Arnold. In 1952 he described his experiences in the book The Coming of the Saucers, which he and a publisher friend named Raymond A. Palmer published themselves. This section does not cite its references or sources. ... Raymond A. Palmer (1910-1977) was the influential editor of Amazing Stories from 1938 through 1949, when he left publisher Ziff-Davis to form his own company. ...

References

Jerome Clark (1946 - ) is an American researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena; he is also a songwriter of some note. ... Idaho Statesman is a U.S. daily newspaper serving the Boise, Idaho metropolitan area. ...

External links

• Out of This World: 60 Years of Flying Saucers by Nigel Watson
• The most complete Arnold sighting description and analysis on the net
• Resolving Arnold part 1
• Resolving Arnold part 2
• Transcript of telephone conversation with Arnold by Edward R. Murrow
• Some early newspaper articles on the Arnold sighting

Edward R. Ed Murrow (April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American journalist and media figure. ...

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