Event · 24 June 1947 – 31 July 1947 · United States, especially the Pacific Northwest
The 1947 flying disc wave
Also known as 1947 wave, summer of 1947 flying saucers, flying disc craze 1947
In the weeks after Kenneth Arnold's sighting of 24 June 1947, newspapers across the United States carried hundreds of reports of flying disks, peaking around the Fourth of July. They came from pilots, police officers and ordinary citizens, with clusters in the Pacific Northwest, and among them on 8 July was the Roswell Army Air Field press release announcing a recovered “flying disc”, withdrawn within hours as a weather balloon.
Some were photographed: in Tulsa, the Tulsa Daily World printed a freelance photographer's picture of eight lights, noting that other photographers said it could be faked by superimposing spots on a negative. Whether the wave was a real surge in sightings or a press-driven craze is still debated; the Air Force took it seriously enough that by September its Air Materiel Command judged the phenomenon “something real”, and Project Sign followed.
Sources: Project Blue Book case files (U.S. National Archives) · Oregon Journal and Roswell Daily Record (July 1947) · Twining memo (1947)
Facts and claims
- documented Kenneth Arnold's report of nine objects near Mount Rainier on 24 June 1947 was carried by the wire services, and the press's phrase for his description, “flying saucers”, named the phenomenon; an Air Force summary in his Blue Book file says his description “was shortened to ‘Flying Saucers’ by newspaper men and resulted in the popular use of this term”. Source: Project Blue Book case file: Mt. Rainier, Washington, June 1947 (Kenneth Arnold)
- documented On 4 July 1947 alone, the Air Force's files record reports from Portland policemen and deputy sheriffs, harbor patrolmen, private citizens and a United Air Lines crew near Boise; the Oregon Journal of 5 July, preserved in the file, opens: “Whatever they are, there are some disk-like objects flying around in the sky.” Source: Project Blue Book case file: Portland, Oregon, and the Northwest, July 1947 (incidents of 4 July)
- claimed On 8 July 1947 Roswell Army Air Field announced that it had recovered a “flying disc”; the next day the Roswell Daily Record reported that the rancher Mac Brazel, after collecting the debris on 4 July, “The next day he first heard about the flying disks, and he wondered if what he had found might be the remnants of one of these.” Source: ufology.patrickgross.org (archived)
- documented In September 1947 the commander of Air Materiel Command, Lt. Gen. Nathan Twining, wrote that “the phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious”, which led to Project Sign. Source: Twining memo: AMC Opinion Concerning “Flying Discs”
Connected files
Incidents
- Kenneth Arnold sighting near Mount Rainier (includes) — It began with Kenneth Arnold's report of 24 June 1947
- Portland police and harbor patrol disk sightings (includes) — Portland police and harbor patrol reported disks on 4 July 1947
- United Air Lines Flight 105 sighting near Emmett, Idaho (includes) — A United Air Lines crew reported disks near Boise on the evening of 4 July 1947
- Roswell crash (includes) — Roswell Army Air Field announced a recovered “flying disc” on 8 July 1947, at the height of the wave
Documents
- Twining memo: AMC Opinion Concerning “Flying Discs” (followed by) — In September 1947 Air Materiel Command judged the phenomenon “something real and not visionary or fictitious”
Mentioned in this file
- Kenneth Arnold (Person)
- Project Sign (Program)
- Project Blue Book (Program)
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)