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• •
"FLYING saucers" are
back in the news.
, From New · York comes a
eport that Captain Jack
dams, pilot of t he Chicago
~nd Southern Airlines, radioed
that he and a co-pilot had
crossed the path of a large fly
ing s a u c e r, with lighted
windows and a peculiarly
coloured blinking light on
top and travelling at about
600 m.p.h, over Arkansas.
This was followed by a news
cable from Lisbon: Scores of
flying saucers reported by
coastguards of bfie North
Portugal coast flying in line
and other formations and
moving west " faster than
tracer bullets."
So the 1950 "saucer season"
seems to pave opened early.
First report of these strange
craft came on June 25, 1947,
when a Mr. Dahl of Tacoma,
Washington, noticed a circular
flying machine, like a silver
oughnut, cutting capers over
is back-vard.
Presently he saw five more
planes " rotating round a
venth.t Speculations
The centre craft then began
to shed metallic ra in. Most of
it fell seawards, but one piece
landed in Mr. Dahl's yard.
On July 4, the first photo
graph of a •• flying saucer"
was taken by a Seattle coast
guard. The snap revealed a
small white oblong, set against
a dark gre:Y background.
The U.S. Navy said that
the descriptions fitted its new
wingless plane-the " Flyi11g
Pancake "-but there was only
one of t hese, and it had never
ventured outside Connecticut.
A meteorologist suggested
that solar reflections on low
cloud would produce similar
effects. and a Los Angeles
scientist talked about "trans
mutation of atomic energy."
A letter to a San Francisco
newspaper hinled at an inter-
p~netary solution.
e San Francisco corre-
s ndent was soon to find his
icJ a carried a stage further.
•. Mead Layne, publisher
an occult magazine, pro-
l
duced an a,1·Ucle in which he
claimed to have received a
message, via a medium that
t,here were people aboa1'.d the
" saucers."
• They came from another
planet, and wished to try liv
mg on earth.
In Britain "saucers" were
reported over Brighton beach,
and another was seen by a
clergyman·s wife at Sandwich.
Back in America President
Truman compared the rumours
to the scare of over a hundred
years ago, when word got
around that there were men
and bats living on the moon.
The neatest "flying sa ucer"
quipping came from Mr.
Grom Y k o at U.N.- head
quarters.
" Some," he said, "attribute
them to the British for export
ing too much whisky to the
U.S., others that it is a Russian
discus thrower training for
the Olympic Games who does
not know hL~ 9wn strength."
The first flying saucer fever
died down under sheer weight
of explanation, but reports
still came in.
Spain suspected
In May, 1948, a U.S. Air
F o r c e intelligence officer
opined that t he " discs " were
the work of ex-Nazi s:ientists
in Spain.
During Franco's 1938 siege
of Madrid his German allies
had t ried out a circular missile,
with an explosive centre and
four engines around the cir
cumference.
The experiment had failed,
bu~ in 1944 the Germans had
repeated it, using jet engines.
It was believed that the
scientists responsible h a tl
escaped from the Russian
zone, through France, and
\\'ere now working for Wle
Spanish Government.
It: D ec em be 1·, 1949, the
offi.c1al body which had bi
established in America to pro e
the " saucers" was disba.nd .
It had been in operation f r
two years, and had investigat
375 incidents.
I t · said that the phenomenon
was caused by : (a) misinter
pretation of various conven
tional objects; (b) a mild form'
of mass hysteria; (cl hoaxes.
. An~ the1·e, one might have
11nag111ed, the story would have
end e·d. But the •· flying
saucers " r e f u s e d to be
grounded.
Fellow travellers?
The present phase of flying
saucerisms reached _its climax
on March 9, when a U.S.
business man, tra,·eJJi.ng in
Mexico, claimed to have seen a
streamlined " d isc •· in \\'hich a
23in. tall pilot had perished.
A Mexican denial inuueii
ately followed publication f
the story, but not J,ef e
Denver, C9lorado, had c
portcd that a similar "sauce "
bad co~e to grief near by a:;1d
three httle men bad been dis
covered inside it.
The Defence Department of
the U.S., repeating its denial
of " flying saucers.'' said : " If
these saucers start landin g,
and little men with radar
sticking out of t heir ears clilnb
out, we shall have to do some
thing about it."
" Flying saucers" have now
been seen in pretty well every
country of the world. They
have been chased by jet planes,
and observed by scientists and
have baffled all attempts to
explain them away. ~
Are they sheer fantasy. or s
there a grt1in of t.rulh. in t
accounts? Your guess is •
good as mine.0