Early UFO / Saucer Reports

Considering they're not meant to exist, flying saucers do seem to pop up quite a bit in government documentation..

Silver rotating UFO over US Atomic facility


Flying discs over Hanford Nuclear plant


Flying disc over Topcliffe


Circular objects over Langley AFB


Rotating saucer shaped object over Georgia


Maxwell AFB Emergency Report - Flying Saucer


Disc shaped object over Minot AFB - 1966


Flying disc over Chicago's O Hare airport - 1952

link

and contrary to popular belief UFO/Saucer reports also seem to pop up in the literature way back before the Kenneth Arnold case.

Curt Collins has conducted some great research below into the historical aspect citing Dewitt Miller's early UFO reports (who was himself sourcing Charles Fort) and the page is well worth a look for anyone with an interest in (or opinion on) the subject.

The 1st UFO book? Forgotten Mysteries by R. DeWitt Miller

Charles Fort - First Ufologist?

Charles Fort was an early-twentieth-century thinker and writer often credited with "inventing" the supernatural, or the paranormal, by creating a neutral category for anomalous observations, discoveries, and experiences.

Before Charles Fort, anomalies were typically explained away, or else absorbed into pre-existing explanatory frameworks like religion and mythology. Thanks to his efforts, they can now be set aside for further research, even if they're still often ignored in mainstream science.

Anyone aware of any other early pre 1947 UFO/saucer reports then please post as it would be interesting to see how many are out there - I know I've read quite a few over the years although finding them again might not be easy.




Spanish Civil War - 1930's.

Located at a considerable distance, and at an altitude of 200 meters, the soldier saw an object resembling “a Mexican hat” the color of flat aluminum. The sun’s rays, reflecting off its surface, enabled him to see that it was a metallic device. It flew slowly as it approached the witness’s position. It was then that he was able to observe it with greater detail:

“Seen from below, its shape was exactly that of a cartwheel. In its center, from where the spokes emerged, it had what looked like a photo camera lens and gave a sensation of depth.”

When the object approached even closer, passing almost directly overhead, the soldier was even able to make out some curved black windows which appeared on the side of the remarkable “Mexican hat”. The following is a transcript of an interview with the ABC Andalucía newspaper:

UFOs Over Spain During The Civil War.

Nick Redfern on WW2:

Yes, “Foo Fighter” was the primary term used to describe what was seen during the Second World War. But, the term “Disc” was also used during the hostilities with the Nazis. I mentioned this to a certain UFO researcher recently and who practically had a # fit. I was wrong, he assured me, stating that when it comes to unidentified “things” in the sky, the word “Disc” was not used until 1947.

Actually, that’s wrong, as I pointed out. Granted, many people – even within Ufology – may not know just how widely “Disc” was used during the Second World War..

See Link.

..These are just two examples of many from the Second World War – and declassified by the British Government – which refer to UFOs as “Discs” several years before the term “Flying Disc” was created in 1947. In some of the declassified wartime files, the “Discs” were described as being mere inches in size. On other occasions, though, pilots reported such “Discs” as being several feet in diameter – and in a few cases even bigger.

And, while we’re still on the game of the name, it’s worth noting that the words “Unidentified Flying Objects” were used as early as just two months after the Kenneth Arnold sighting of June 24, 1947. This was when the words “Flying Disc” and “Flying Saucer” were on the minds of many. The relevant document originated with the U.S. Air Transport Command’s Weekly Intelligence Summary and is dated August 1

Mysterious Discs Of The Second World' War

Possible candidate thread:

As my night vision improved I saw a grey saucer-like object emarge as part of the lights. It is still difficult to describe its size... Our Lancaster was a large aeroplane but the only comparison I can make is that we were but a dot on a sheet of foolscap paper. We all watched this object for about three minutes. We watched it shoot away—it was just a flash of light and the vast size was gone in less than a second, without any noise...

1944—Bomber Encounters Giant Disk

Old witness reports are the best:

“Seen from below, its shape was exactly that of a cartwheel. In its center, from where the spokes emerged, it had what looked like a photo camera lens and gave a sensation of depth.”

Excellent work

Great stuff, there also been lots of reports of orbs of light etc in Irish folk lore. I know in the 19th century there was newspaper reporting people getting taken and orbs of lights

THE CELTIC ALIEN: FAIRY FAITH IN THE UFO ERA

citeseerx.ist.psu.edu...

a reply to: karl 12


In 1897 a UFO crashed in Aurora, Texas where it hit a windmill and exploded. The remains of an alien body were recovered and buried in the local cemetery. This documentary was premiered at the first annual Aurora Alien Encounter on Saturday, April 16th, 2016 - An event to commemorate the historical incident

On October 4 1967 flashing lights could be seen in the sky, and an unidentified large object made contact with the waters of Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. After investigations from the Canadian Coast Guard, the RCMP, and the Canadian Armed Forces and reports and speculation from witnesses, journalists, and UFO enthusiasts the event would later become the most well-known UFO incident in Canada. This documentary uncovers new witness accounts, photographic evidence, various investigation reports, and historical archives to examine exactly what happened on the coast of Nova Scotia that night, and how much information surrounding the case has been intentionally hidden.

a reply to: karl 12

One cannot forget the 'airship' sightings in the late 19th century, Aurora comes to mind.

Another interesting thing is the Mandela effect-Kenneth Arnold never coined the term flying saucers-that was the reporter who interviewed him, he said that they looked like saucers skipping over water when describing their movements.

a reply to: karl 12

What we call Flying Saucers - only one type of UFO, also Cigar shaped and a few other's also appear in ancient account's.

Now just one person of interests is Alexander of Macedon, AKA Alexander the Great.

One interpretation of ancient account's of his conquest of Tyre for example says that he was in danger of having to call off the siege as the wall's of the city and it's location had afforded it an almost impregnable position and up to this point all his attempt's to take it had failed but then flying SHIELD's or what we could term UFO's flew over and struck the city wall with lightning breaching it allowing Alexanders men to pour in and take the city.

But on another Occasion UFO type object's thwarted his attempt to invade India so they were not always on his side or so it would seem? (shaping human destiny perhaps, prune here and plant there).

There appears to be an old thread from 2015 about Alexanders flying shield's, not very in depth but at least it's something.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

And of course there are alternative interpretations of these and earlier account's such as the Tutmosis the third account from ancient Egypt etc.

a reply to: karl 12

There was some TV show I caught the tail end of recently and they said the first settlers UFO report was 1640's in what was to become the USA

Hey Karl,

you might wanna check this inconspicuous report here


www.meteoritehistory.info...


snippet

"aërolitic (according to Baumhauer's Catalogue). Toulon. A fireball, which seemed to fall with detonation into the sea. Buchner says it rose by degrees and then descended again, then bounded back, and exploded at a great height."


what kind of fireball goes up and down?In any case its also pertinent to those interested in uso phenomena as most these are above waters

It's very interesting to note that UFOs (of some sort) were seen throughout history, but there was a big shift in thoughts about them after the news of Kenneth Arnold's sighting in 1947. But even before that, many people believed in life on other worlds, and a few thought visitors were coming here in spaceships.

Thanks, karl 12, for mentioning my work on UFO history at The Saucers That Time Forgot. STTF is a joint effort with Claude Falkstrom who unearths most of the news clippings the stories are written around.

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum

Old witness reports are the best:

Love them mate, digging for old saucer reports might keep me a bit busy and do seem to remember a very old account of a huge disc shaped object emerging from the ocean.. but can't seem to find it.



a reply to: ConspiracyMysteries

Thanks for the post mate - think there's some doubt as to the story's authenticity but do appreciate the addition.

The Aurora 1897 probable hoaxed UFO crash

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie.

Another interesting thing is the Mandela effect-Kenneth Arnold never coined the term flying saucers-that was the reporter who interviewed him, he said that they looked like saucers skipping over water when describing their movements.

Don't know about the Mandela effect but Jess made a great thread here about the case a while back and there's a good vid below where he's not too happy about pilot UFO sightings being ignored.





Seems he was also of the opinion that UFOs and USOs are one in the same.


PIC

So Karl...thanks for the thread.

But based on the meager evidence we have so far on the technical nature of "flying discs" spinning...

Does the ET disc's entire hull spin while in flight, or does only the top or bottom section of the hull spin; with one or the other being stationary?

If the latter part is true...I'm speculating that the disc's top hull might be non-integral with the bottom hull --- meaning that the top and bottom hull are not fused together as one piece --- Which could partially explain why only one section of the disc's hull is spinning but not the other.

Cheers...

Erno

originally posted by: LABTECH767

What we call Flying Saucers - only one type of UFO, also Cigar shaped and a few other's also appear in ancient account's.

Plenty of cheeky UFO shapes been reported over the years mate (link) but would like to try and keep this thread solely about saucer reports - otherwise it might go a bit giddy.

originally posted by: LABTECH767

Now just one person of interests is Alexander of Macedon, AKA Alexander the Great.

Really do appreciate the input and thanks for linking that really important thread by Bybyots - there's a segment of an interview below with Jacques Vallee's co-author Chris Aubeck ('Wonders In The Sky') and in the full version I think he mentions the Alexander the Great account not being included due to dubious source material.

Video

George Knapp spoke with Chris Aubeck, who compiles reports of historic sightings of strange objects in the sky, and has written two books about the subject, one with famed and controversial researcher Jacques Vallée. He told host George Knapp that we now have the means (through the internet) to check many reports against records of people, places, geography, astronomy, and weather to determine how accurate they might be. When he started to look, Aubeck said, "it was kind of impressive how many cases there were." He has examined folklore about aerial anomalies going back 500 years, ending with the year 1879 because that was when people began to report airships with humans in them.

I can only offer a flimsy Tunguska event, I am only suggesting this as who really knows, it could have been carrying a microbe of some sort, life from elsewhere.

And there was talk that Alexander the Great had a close encounter of the S.H.E.I.L.D. variety, no mention of Nick Fury though but Jacques Vallee

Great OP and more great replie with lots to decipher

Yet another excellent thread, Karl.

Do you remember the 17th century French token that hit the news a few years ago...?

A 17th century French token has UFO hunters claiming 'absolute proof' of UFO sightings hundreds of years ago. The ancient jeton, a coin-like object used for counting, depicts an unusual circular entity that looks remarkably like a flying saucer. Some have even argued that this represents the Biblical Ezekiel's wheel, which they claim is the Bible's own tale of a UFO encounter.

www.coinbooks.org...

They look like tic tacs. Big fast tic tacs.

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum
Old witness reports are the best:

“Seen from below, its shape was exactly that of a cartwheel. In its center, from where the spokes emerged, it had what looked like a photo camera lens and gave a sensation of depth.”

Excellent work

yeah, these days it's more like this:

UFO crew: quick, increase the ionization factor tenfold to obscure the details in case that being has a video recording device
random witness: oh f..k, i left my smartphone in the car...

related:
www.discaircraft.greyfalcon.us...

a reply to: ConfusedBrit

Before we shout UFOs at everything (especially at artwork which was made in a different epoch), please be so kind and read some further information like sprezzatura.it... and try to consider alternative explications.
Regarding the coin, I remember it depicts the shield of Minerva, representing some kind of protection.

originally posted by: ufoorbhunter

There was some TV show I caught the tail end of recently and they said the first settlers UFO report was 1640's

in what was to become the USA

Would like to see that one mate and there's an interesting article here describing 'puritans' experiencing a UFO and missing time from 1639 - also a case below from 1878 involving a farmer witnessing an object (the size of a saucer yet resembling a balloon) which "appeared to be going through space at wonderful speed" - could be nothing but it states at the link that Hynek studied the sighting and classified it a 'daylight disc'.

Text

a reply to: CardDown

Hats off to you (and Claude) for some mighty fine research mate - really interesting reading and hadn't heard of Project A before either!

There has not been enough sightings for proper analysis," Dr. Hickman asserts. However, he reports about 20 percent of the sightings reported to the university "cannot be explained away by ordinary procedure." And these unexplained phenomena have a general consistency— "a saucer-shaped object, flat on the bottom with rounded edges and rising to a slight dome on top." The color in these sightings is similar, all bright blue or green. Dr. Hickman also finds significance in that similar objects have been sighted throughout the nation, Canada and the world.

Historians trace the appearance of strange sky objects to 1762, Dr. Hickman says, with the first report in this country in 1873. But the rash of reports did not break out until the American people became "sky minded."

Project A: The Short Life of a UFO Study

Also found it relevant that Dr Hickman classified a 20℅ unexplained rate as that fits in with other official data.

Cheers.

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum
Old witness reports are the best

They are, if really old.

Unfortunately, we see many "reports of reports", but we never see the original reports.

originally posted by: ArMaP

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum
Old witness reports are the best

They are, if really old.

Unfortunately, we see many "reports of reports", but we never see the original reports.

That's an interesting concept. If a report is very old, or even brand new, and it is copied word for word, then it IS the report.

To get a "report of a report" in accurate form, it just needs to be verbatim, no? And thus it IS the report.

If by a report of a report, you mean a story that has changed quite a lot after being retold, like "I heard a guy say once...", then I would agree, or do you mean a majority of reports simply can't be trusted because they are unverified as a verbatim copy of the original content?