Today, June 24, back in 1947 was the day which led to the coining of the term "flying saucer."
Pilot Kenneth Arnold saw what appeared to him to be a series of fast flying objects that he afterwards described as skipping on the air like a saucer being skipped across the water.
He was misquoted by the press, though, as having said that he saw "flying saucers." Arnold tried to correct the impression, saying that he didn’t say that the craft were saucer shaped but that they moved like a someone skipping a saucer on the water.
His actual description was: "They were half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. …they
looked like a big flat disk." What he thus described as more like a "flying wing" aircraft design (something we puny humans had actually already built). Nertheless, the term (and the shape) stuck.
He also didn’t say anything about them being from outer space. In 1947, hot on the heels of WWII and all the weapons and aviation research it involved (including what we were retrieving from the Nazis via classified projects like Operation Paperclip), might have made a more terrestrial explanation plausible.
But that didn’t stick either.
Pilot Kenneth Arnold was really lucky to see a UFO on the sky. I wish if I could see one, but sometime I think it may me dangerous too. Anyways its time to stay glued to the telescope because we might catch sight of an UFO 🙂