Kenneth Arnold 'flying saucer' sighting turns 75

[UM-Bot]

75 years ago, pilot Kenneth Arnold sighted several strange objects in the skies near Washington’s Mount Rainier.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/358747/kenneth-arnold-flying-saucer-sighting-turns-75

[the13bats]

In 47 seems everyone saw flying saucers.

[jethrofloyd]

From Live Science article June 21, 2011:

''But most historians think the objects weren't from outer space at all: "It was probably pelicans flying in formation," Sheaffer said. "Probably Arnold misjudged the distance and thought they were huge objects at a great distance but they were actually much closer."

https://www.livescience.com/33351-flying-saucers-turn-64-look-back-origins-ufos.html

[jethrofloyd]

Pelicans flying in formation:

 

And Kenneth Arnold's sketch of the ''flying saucer'':

[the13bats]

This was one of the cases i heard in childhood when i was all credulous and not til i learned more details did i toss this one in the trash bin.

What ive gathered arnold first said they looked "bat winged" then chevron, yeah, bird like, and press called it flying saucers because of that Roswell crap in 47 too and seeing flying saucers sells more papers than seeing birds.

Arnold got his 15min fame and was looked at as a visionary and screwball eccentric he then teams up with ray palmer who published fate magazine and would you believe palmer changes the name to flying saucers magazine

And arnold was a story writer, the mag was something of a tabloid style and palmer was like a carnival sideshow talker it seemed palmer loved to put something over on his readers who loved him doing it to them.

At one point arnold suggested what he saw were a new form of life.

If anyone runs into the article where it states arnolds family doubted him please post a link as i might be confusing that with Derenberger.

 

 

[astrobeing]

Just look at the progress that UFOlogy has made since then. So many books. So many movies. So many television series. So many dollars spent and earned.

[NCC1701]

Train of meteorites just skipping earths athmosphere.

[astrobeing]

45 minutes ago, NCC1701 said:

Train of meteorites just skipping earths athmosphere.

In the middle of the day.

[L.A.T.1961]

Not sure the bird idea works, the aircrafts relative speed would not allow the objects to fade off into the distance if both going in the same direction.

If birds the plane should outrun them and leave them behind. The opposite of what was described by Arnold.

I think the meteor idea is better.

Although the specific time of 1:42 sec to travel between fixed points is a long time to see a meteor low enough to be affected by the atmosphere.

 

[the13bats]

The rub here is we have to assume KA was a man not to embellish or make up BS but i do not have that faith in him.

He jumped right on writing fiction fluff.

 

[L.A.T.1961]

12 minutes ago, the13bats said:

The rub here is we have to assume KA was a man not to embellish or make up BS but i do not have that faith in him.

 

 

Its true but deciding to invent a tall tale does not guarantee a big initial interest by the press, that was out of his hands, and would have implications if the whole exercise was about becoming famous and turning that into cash ?

[the13bats]

28 minutes ago, L.A.T.1961 said:

Its true but deciding to invent a tall tale does not guarantee a big initial interest by the press, that was out of his hands, and would have implications if the whole exercise was about becoming famous and turning that into cash ?

Because there was a huge "flying saucers" flap in 47 and KA might have just wanted attention he might not have thought out stories equal cash.

My speculation is KA was bored flying along saw something, glare, birds, planes, doesnt matter that gave him the idea of his sighting.

[L.A.T.1961]

23 minutes ago, the13bats said:

Because there was a huge "flying saucers" flap in 47 and KA might have just wanted attention he might not have thought out stories equal cash.

My speculation is KA was bored flying along saw something, glare, birds, planes, doesnt matter that gave him the idea of his sighting.

The big event that year was Roswell and was a few weeks after the K A story.

If it had been the other way around jumping on the bandwagon could have been a motive as well as misidentification. 

Edited June 29, 2022 by L.A.T.1961

[the13bats]

12 minutes ago, L.A.T.1961 said:

The big event that year was Roswell and was a few weeks after the K A story.

If it had been the other way around jumping on the bandwagon could have been a motive as well as misidentification. 

Go look at timelines on Roswell brazel wasnt in a hurry to report it, no the 47 UFO flap was well underway by the time KA jumped aboard.

This seems moot to me are you perhaps thinking KA saw more than prosaic mundane?

 

[L.A.T.1961]

Just now, the13bats said:

Go look at timelines on Roswell brazel wasnt in a hurry to report it, no the 47 UFO flap was well underway by the time KA jumped aboard.

This seems moot to me are you perhaps thinking KA saw more than prosaic mundane?

 

No, my motivation is to try and rule out what doesn't explain the event. 

Like Birds or meteors, I don't think they stand up to much scrutiny.

It can reduce options as to what happened if not the final solution, which I am happy to leave to other to decide. 

What really happened is dependent on the viability of the witness.

But I have a dislike of solutions to things, like ufo sightings, when the explanation logic does not meet the same evidenced based requirement for proof of a sighting. 

It is the process of analysis I am just as interested in as the event itself.

 

[the13bats]

18 minutes ago, L.A.T.1961 said:

No, my motivation is to try and rule out what doesn't explain the event. 

Like Birds or meteors, I don't think they stand up to much scrutiny.

It can reduce options as to what happened if not the final solution, which I am happy to leave to other to decide. 

What really happened is dependent on the viability of the witness.

But I have a dislike of solutions to things, like ufo sightings, when the explanation logic does not meet the same evidenced based requirement for proof of a sighting. 

It is the process of analysis I am just as interested in as the event itself.

 

Yeah i know calling it swamp gas or birds is so damn boring even when it is swamp gas or birds.

In the KA sighting i agree they were UFOs and to a point i doubt birds or aliens actually aliens is not on option but if and thats a qualifying "if" i go on what KA claimed it actually doesnt rule out birds or aircraft known or secret, and as much as i hate to say it a weather balloon with reflectors in tow.

i kind of doubt it was glare or reflection so i admit i dont know.

[jethrofloyd]

Hm, isn't Nimitz 'Tic-Tac' a UFO very similar in shape to the UFO in Arnold's drawing?

 

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by jethrofloyd

[Trelane]

4 minutes ago, jethrofloyd said:

Hm, isn't Nimitz 'Tic-Tac' a UFO very similar in shape to the UFO in Arnold's drawing?

 

 

Yeah, no.

[astrobeing]

12 hours ago, L.A.T.1961 said:

Its true but deciding to invent a tall tale does not guarantee a big initial interest by the press, that was out of his hands, and would have implications if the whole exercise was about becoming famous and turning that into cash ?

Buying a lottery ticket doesn't guarantee a big cash return either but that doesn't stop people. Ken Arnold didn't even have to go through the trouble of faking a photograph or anything. He just had to tell a story and see what happened. He was a lucky man as were many others after him who also got rich.

[stereologist]

On 6/28/2022 at 1:02 PM, the13bats said:

This was one of the cases i heard in childhood when i was all credulous and not til i learned more details did i toss this one in the trash bin.

What ive gathered arnold first said they looked "bat winged" then chevron, yeah, bird like, and press called it flying saucers because of that Roswell crap in 47 too and seeing flying saucers sells more papers than seeing birds.

Arnold got his 15min fame and was looked at as a visionary and screwball eccentric he then teams up with ray palmer who published fate magazine and would you believe palmer changes the name to flying saucers magazine

And arnold was a story writer, the mag was something of a tabloid style and palmer was like a carnival sideshow talker it seemed palmer loved to put something over on his readers who loved him doing it to them.

At one point arnold suggested what he saw were a new form of life.

If anyone runs into the article where it states arnolds family doubted him please post a link as i might be confusing that with Derenberger.

 

 

Arnold is 1 month ahead of Roswell. The events are so close it is tricky

[stereologist]

12 hours ago, L.A.T.1961 said:

The big event that year was Roswell and was a few weeks after the K A story.

If it had been the other way around jumping on the bandwagon could have been a motive as well as misidentification. 

But Roswell was not a big event until the Berlitz book came out in 1980

[stereologist]

Let me check. June 24, 1947 Arnold

Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting - Wikipedia

Roswell is July 8, 1947

Roswell incident - Wikipedia

[the13bats]

28 minutes ago, stereologist said:

Arnold is 1 month ahead of Roswell. The events are so close it is tricky

We know the date brazel filed the police report the rub is he said he found the junk "weeks" before that. So im not sold arnold didnt hear something somewhere.

Brazel had his son with him when he found the junk.

His report didnt describe space craft but rather balloon and radar target debris

[quillius]

https://www.saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/ptsarnoldsmt.html

 

for what its worth

[stereologist]

23 hours ago, the13bats said:

We know the date brazel filed the police report the rub is he said he found the junk "weeks" before that. So im not sold arnold didnt hear something somewhere.

Brazel had his son with him when he found the junk.

His report didnt describe space craft but rather balloon and radar target debris

But the newspaper report caused by a statement from the base about a saucer crash was after Arnold.