by Karl Pahamtang, Factoidz Writer

The first report of flying saucers was received in 1947. That year an airplane pilot claimed to have seen nine saucers playing tag around Mount Rainier. Since then the United States Air Force has received thousands of saucer reports.

It set up a system for the investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects – UFO’s for short.

Many people believed that the saucers were spaceships that had flown to the earth from other planets. Aboard them were believed to be strange beings that had come to study us.

WHAT ARE FLYING SAUCERS

Nearly everyone who reports a flying saucer has seen something. But what? In some cases that “something” has been a weather balloon, a satellite, a cloud, a meteor, a star, or a bird. It has been a comet, a planet, or fireworks.

It has been what we call sun dogs; these are images of the sun reflected through ice crystals.

Here are three cases of saucer reports, together with an explanation of what the people saw

Case 1

An American pilot, flying night patrol over the U.S naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, spotted a saucer and gave chase. The saucer took the form of an orange light that out-turned, out-climbed, and out-dived the plane. Finally the light made a turn to the left and slowed down. It hovered above the water for a moment and then disappeared.

The pilot was surprised to learn that he had been in a “dogfight” with a weather balloon released from the base that night. Air currents had carried the balloon up, down, and around. And so the pilot had thought it an aircraft of some kind.

Over the years about 25 percent of the UFO’s have turned out to be balloons usually know just where each was at the given time. So it has been easy to trace many saucer reports to balloon at high altitudes.

Case2

Late one night in Levelland, Texas, two farm workers were driving home. Their truck stalled after a lightning flash. As the driver was trying to start the engine he noticed what seemed to be a flaming ball coming toward them. The ball passed over the truck, giving off heat and making a great rushing sound. Then it seemed to drift off toward the town. What they had seen was fireball lightning.

Other people in the area said that they too had seen fireballs that night. Soon after there were stories of a visit by a flying saucer from another world.

Scientists have yet to learn all about ball lightning. It appears as a bright ball and varies in size from a few inches in diameter to several feet. The color of the ball may range from orange to red or from blue to light.

A ball sometimes forms right after a lightning flash. It may drift about on the air or slide along a fence rail; it may glide across the floor of your living room after coming down the fireplace chimney.

The ball may exist for a few minutes or for only a few seconds. Then it may either disappear quietly or explode.

Many flying-saucer stories have been traced to fireballs.

Case 3

In Washington, D.C., radar operators on the night shift saw something on their screens that caused alarm. At 11:40 P.M. the operators at Washington National Airport reported seven “targets” over the nation’s capital. Nearby Andrews Air force Base also reported targets. A jet fighter plane was ordered into the air.

But by the time it was able to search the area, the “targets” had vanished from the radar screens.

The next day flying-saucer stories were all over Washington. Was the capital being invaded?

A week later, at 10:30 P.M. , radar at National Airport showed more of the mysterious targets. Washington was being surrounded by a ring of unknown objects. Air Force officials were being called to the airport immediately. All passenger planes approaching Washington were sent to other airports.

Air Force planes searched the skies around the capital. For several hours the planes patrolled but saw nothing. Radar sets on the ground were still picking up the mysterious targets. But radar in the search planes were not. By dawn the targets had faded away.

For weeks afterward people talked about the saucer invasion. As it turned out, a trick of the weather had caused the targets on Washington’s radar screens.

A radar set sends out a series of very short radio waves. If the waves strike an object, they bounce back to the radar set. The object shows up as a “blip” on the radar screen. On the nights in question, there were no objects on the sky, but blips were seen on radar screens just the same.

Because of freak weather conditions, the radar waves were being refracted (bent) down to the surface. There they picked up ground objects.