Kenneth Arnold's flying saucers

On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold said he saw nine shining objects race past him close to Mount Rainier, Washington. His report gave the world the phrase "flying saucer".

On June 24, 1947, Kenneth Arnold was piloting a light aircraft close to Mount Rainier. According to NBC News, he saw a line of nine objects to his left, between 20 and 25 miles to his north, flying at his own altitude, flashing in the sunlight as they crossed the sky.

Arnold landed to refuel at Pendleton, Oregon, and told Nolan Skiff, editor of the East Oregonian. HistoryLink says Arnold described the objects moving in a rippling line, the way a saucer bounces when skipped over water, and threading between the peaks at close to 1,400 miles an hour. The Associated Press took up Skiff's story and it made front pages across the country on June 26. A wire report printed in The Nome Nugget quoted an army spokesman in Washington, D.C., who said that only a V-2 rocket, at some 3500 mph, flew that fast, and that it moved too quickly for anyone to see.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum says no one can know what Arnold saw. It adds that his account put "flying saucer" into the speech of millions, and that he kept explaining it for the remainder of his life. Wikipedia reports that James Easton was one of several to propose American white pelicans: big birds of the region with wingspans that can pass 3 metres, pale undersides that catch the light, and a crescent-like outline in flight.