--- description: June 24, 1947: Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO claim, about what he said were objects flying near Mount Rainier title: Flying Saucers in the Sky: How the UFO Myth Got Its Shape image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt674af4ee6e674e70/698855a035ba6f89dcc0ddb3/saucer.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Bizarre](/tag/bizarre/) ## Bizarre Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # This Is Why People Think UFOs Look Like 'Flying Saucers' by [Jennifer Latson](/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 24, 2015 2:30 PM CUT  A picture, taken through the window of a laboratory by a U.S. coastguard, shows four unidentified flying objects as bright lights in the sky, in Salem, Mass. on Aug. 3, 1952. A picture, taken through the window of a laboratory by a U.S. coastguard, shows four unidentified flying objects as bright lights in the sky, in Salem, Mass. on Aug. 3, 1952.Popperfoto / Getty Images by [Jennifer Latson](/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 24, 2015 2:30 PM CUT It’s credited as the first modern UFO sighting and the origin of America’s obsession with flying saucers. But it might have all been based on what [_The Atlantic_ calls](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/the-man-who-introduced-the-world-to-flying-saucers/372732/ "undefined") “one of the most significant reporter misquotes in history.” On this day, June 24, in 1947, an amateur pilot was on his way to an air show in Oregon when he saw a bright blue flash of light in the sky near Mount Rainier. At first he thought it was the sun glinting off another aircraft, but the only other plane around was about 15 mi. away, and not glinting. Then he saw nine more flashes of light, in quick succession — coming from what he later described as unidentified flying objects. It was when the pilot, Kenneth Arnold, tried to describe the motion of the objects to a reporter for the United Press that the mix-up occurred. He said they flew “like a saucer if you skip it across the water.” The reporter took this to mean that the objects themselves were saucer-like, and news reports across the country repeated that Arnold had seen “flying saucers.” Suddenly everyone was seeing what Arnold had seen, except that he hadn’t. [Per TIME](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,986565,00.html "undefined"): “By July 4, newspapers were heralding literally hundreds of reports of ‘flying saucers’ in skies across the nation.” On July 7, a New Mexico rancher reported finding what he thought was the crash site of a flying saucer near Roswell, N.M. When he shared his theory with officials at the Roswell Army Air Field, they concurred, and issued a press release claiming they had “captured” a flying saucer. (The next day, cooler heads prevailed higher up the chain of command. The Air Force retracted the claim and said that what they had actually captured were the remains of a weather balloon.) But while Arnold didn’t say he’d seen saucers, he believed he’d seen something otherworldly. He’d calculated the speed of the flying objects at more than 1,200 mph — nearly twice the speed of sound, at a time when planes hadn’t yet cracked the sound barrier. He couldn’t come up with an explanation other than the extraterrestrial, since the flying pattern of the objects was too erratic for planes and too fast for almost anything else. “Everyone says I’m nuts,” he’s quoted as saying in [a 1947 newspaper story](http://www.project1947.com/fig/1947b.htm "undefined"), “and I guess I’d say it too if someone else reported those things. But I saw them and watched them closely.” Although the objects Arnold saw have never been incontrovertibly identified, the Air Force eventually offered a better explanation for the Roswell crash site — and even admitted to a cover-up of sorts, according to TIME. That weather balloon wasn’t really a weather balloon, the Air Force acknowledged in 1994, but neither was it a flying saucer: Most likely it was one of a train of high-altitude balloons carrying acoustical equipment to monitor Soviet nuclear tests in the years following World War II. **_Read more about flying saucers, here in the TIME Archives_**: [Did Aliens Really Land?](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,986565,00.html "undefined") ### PHOTOS: 20 Breathtaking Images of Earth From Space  Aleppo, Syria, May 26, 2013 – The Citadel of Aleppo – medieval fortified palace DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Belfast, Northern Ireland, Nov. 3, 2013 – “Wish,” a large-scale art work DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Utah, USA, April 22, 2013 – Colorado River DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Cuanza River, Angola, April 28, 2013 – Cambambe Dam DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Doha, Qatar, March 4, 2013 – Artificial island spanning nearly four million sq meters. DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Dunalley, Australia, Jan. 6, 2013 – fires, false color image (red = healthy vegetation) DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Australia, April 22, 2013 – Great Barrier Reef DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Gwadar coast, Pakistan Sept. 29, 2013 – new island created by earthquake in Pakistan DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Croatia, Feb. 16, 2013 – Galešnjak (Island of Love) DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Hong Kong, China May 9, 2013 – giant rubber duck DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, March 22, 2013 – Manam Volcano DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Namib Desert, Namibia, May 13, 2013 – Sossusvlie area DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Naples, Italy, Feb. 19 2013 – Mount Vesuvius DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Niger, Feb. 13, 2013 – Arlit Uranium Mine DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Schooner Cays, Bahamas, May 26, 2013 DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Sochi, Russia, March 17, 2013 – Site of 2014 winter Olympics DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Near the city of Sur, Oman, Feb. 13, 2013 – massive “green tide” DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Valencia, Spain, July 19, 2013 – Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia and Gulliver Park with an enormous fiberglass model of Lemuel Gulliver trapped DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Versailles, France, Aug. 20, 2013 – Palace of Versailles DigitalGlobe—Getty Images  Xi'an, China, Sept. 24, 2013 – Shiyuan Park DigitalGlobe—Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3930602/first-reported-ufo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3930602/first-reported-ufo/"},"headline":"This Is Why People Think UFOs Look Like 'Flying Saucers'","datePublished":"2015-06-24T14:30:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:54.283Z","description":"June 24, 1947: Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO claim, about what he said were objects flying near Mount Rainier","url":"https://time.com/3930602/first-reported-ufo/","keywords":["Bizarre"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt674af4ee6e674e70/698855a035ba6f89dcc0ddb3/saucer.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Latson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt674af4ee6e674e70/698855a035ba6f89dcc0ddb3/saucer.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Salem, Massachusetts, USA. 3rd August, 1952. 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