KENNETH ARNOLD'S FLYING SAUCERS
My formative days in ufology, like many others who grew up in the U.K., (in my case, Glasgow, Scotland) during the late 1970s and 1980s, largely consisted of reading everything ever written by the wondrous Jenny Randles, then graduating to computer bulletin boards, including the U.S. based FidoNet and ParaNet, where you could read the latest UFO conspiratorial rants from William (Bill) Cooper and John Lear, plus receive regular updates on Dulce, New Mexico, an allegedly covert underground base, jointly operated with aliens.
This led to regular attendances at the yearly UFO Magazine conference in Leeds, England, where I first met and subsequently became good friends with the late Graham Birdsall, the magazine's editor.
At Graham's invitation, I wrote several articles for the magazine and later on established a Yahoo based forum, The UFO Research List (UFORL), which existed from 1999 until 2004, when Yahoo ceased to offer a hosting service.
During that time, I was regularly in touch with American journalist A.J.S. (Salley) Rayl, who was hosting a new online enterprise by the Microsoft Network (MSN).
Entitled 'Project: watchfire', this would address the late December 1980, UFO related incidents at RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge, a twin complex, located in the county of Suffolk, England. Separated by Rendlesham forest, it was operated by the U.S. Air Force.
The MSN initiative featured seminal interviews with Col. Charles Halt and Staff-Sergeant Jim Penniston, two of the central participants in events which transpired.
Being familiar with the case background, I was able to suggest a number of key questions, which Sally kindly asked on my behalf, one in particular, resulting in a longstanding mystery being solved.
From the 13 May, 1997 transcript:
RAYL: We received an e-mail earlier in the day from a fellow by the name of James Easton who lives in Scotland and apparently has been researching this case during recent months.
[...]
One thing that he mentioned and a question that I would like to pass on to you is why have there been variances in the dates given for both incidents? Your memo claims that the dates were on the evening, early morning of the 26th, 27th and 28th, 29th of December, respectively. But elsewhere, you know, the dates have been given as 25 to 26 and 29 to 30, he says. So why, why are there differences in those dates?
HALT: Well, I tried to go back and recover the police blotter and the security blotter think I mentioned to you earlier to re-affirm the dates. Keep in mind, I wrote the memo several weeks
later. And it was not a really important memo.
The date was not critical. The critical portion was, you know, what happened and are you interested? And how about getting involved and let's investigate this.
It's possible that I, I put the date down wrong. But I don't believe so.
[END]
Col. Halt (at the time a Lt. Col.) had indeed given the incorrect dates, which resulted in consideration confusion from the outset, especially at the Ministry of Defence and now we knew the peculiar reason why.
Although the contents were intended for MSN subscribers only, I secured permission to publish transcripts of all interviews undertaken, which enabled a much clearer understanding to become widely available, especially here, in the U.K.
Additional case investigation, led to the discovery of all original, written witness testimonies and I published these online during March, 1998 in a document entitled:
It was a revelation that the first night's UFO encounter, involved a two mile pursuit through the forest by three members of base Security Police, before realising that nearby Orford Ness lighthouse had been a factor.
Naturally, this proven aspect did not go down well with advocates of an extraterrestrial involvement.
Hardly my fault, though and I did stress that in lengthy correspondence with Airman 1st Class, John Burroughs, another participant on our first night, he had explained it was unrelated to the unfamiliar lights, first observed.
Similarly, when the outcome of extensive research into police officer Lonnie Zamora's 24 April, 1964 close encounter at Socorro,
was published in a colour feature supplement, by the El Defensor Chieftain, in November, 2003, it was akin to sacrilege for some.
Again, it simply revealed that pursuant to information provided to myself by world renowned balloonist Don Piccard and Jim Winker, historian for Raven Industries, I had uncovered the unpublished existence of a then top-secret CIA research program, which might have a connection.
Note that the article heading has an intentional question mark.
Latterly, some cursory investigation into the May 19, 1967 Falcon Lake, Canada incident, deemed as deserving of a specially minted coin by the Canadian government, unexpectedly led to a darker, hidden side, concerning the sole witness, Stefan Michalak.
In December 1964, Michalak had been charged by police in relation to a serious car crash, resulting in horrific injuries to another person standing beside their vehicle and which involved potential drink-driving.
Subsequently, a belligerent Michalak chose trial by judge, instead of jury, defended himself and was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, with the judge's summary vehemently questioning the veracity of Michalak's account:
Reckless driving brings motorist year in jail
Disclosing the existence of same did not please everyone. If deciding upon the merits of Michalak's 1967 story, would you rather not know?
Guess I am no stranger to controversy then.
Which brings us to research into Kenneth Arnold's founding tale.
The front cover story in the August 2000 edition (FT137) of Fortean Times magazine, was an article writing by myself, entitled 'Flight of Fantasy', which offered a prosaic solution to the enigma of what might have been encountered by private pilot Kenneth Arnold on 24 June, 1947 and which gave the world 'flying saucers'.
My stated rationale for the research endeavour, which spanned two years, was straightforward; if there was no merit in Arnold's sighting having an extraterrestrial connotation, then it merely served to detract from the genuine perspective and overall context, concerning any understanding of what truly constitutes the 'UFO Phenomenon'.
Naturally, the article's conclusion met with a diverse response, inevitably being an anathema to 'flying saucer' aficionados. It was, of course, a threat to the very pillar of all which ensued.
Conversely, amongst the most significant endorsements were comments expressed by Dr Jacqueline Mitton, public Relations Officer for the Royal Astronomical Society.
In personal correspondence, Dr Mitton wrote, "I found what you had to say of great interest and your detailed research adds strong weight to the interpretation of Arnold's sighting as birds".
Dr Mitton considered that my research, particularly the profound repercussions resulting from an almost certain misidentification of, 'Arnold's peak', merited being presented to the 'British Association for the Advancement of Science'.
In The Mammoth Book of UFOs (2001), author Lynn Picknett dedicated several pages to my article and this was Lynn's summation:
"In the intervening half century or so, there have been many attempts to explain Kenneth Arnold's watershed saucer sighting, but perhaps British UFOlogist James Easton has come closer than most to discovering the true nature of what Arnold saw all those years ago. In a tour de force of research, he has set out the stages of his detective work, revealing the possibility that the "screwy formation... of nine flying disks" were, in fact, a flock of white pelicans flashing in the sunlight.
At first, this seems ridiculous. How can relatively small creatures look like large flying discs? And how on earth can they travel at such enormous speeds-twice the speed of sound? Easton's research doggedly deals with these problems".
There was one particularly controversial aspect, the identity of a "jagged peak", which Arnold perceived the formation of nine puzzling 'tail-less aircraft', to have momentarily passed behind. He relied upon this apparent occurrence, as an indication of the objects' size and how far distant they were.
Both of these were crucial factors in his later calculation of their speed. If either was erroneous, anything reliant upon that data, would be baseless.
Recently, I revisited the case, armed with a new research tool, namely Google Earth and its 3D mapping capabilities.
Could this new undertaking, result in a breakthrough.
Before publishing details of the resultant outcome, it is necessary to look back and the following is an updated version of my 2000 article, substantially expanded upon and incorporating elemental, previously unpublished evidence, which has come to light in the intervening years..
The modern UFO era is widely believed to have begun on 24 June 1947, when American private pilot Kenneth Arnold encountered nine, unidentified flying objects over the Cascade mountain range in Washington state. Arnold was a former football star from North Dakota who now sold, installed and maintained fire control equipment. He travelled extensively and flew a Call-Air light aircraft that had been especially designed for “high mountain country”.
On that fateful day, he was flying to Pendleton, Oregon, via a stop at Yakima, Washington, after completing some work at Chehalis Air Service, Washington. His route took him close to a region where a missing Marine transport C-46 aircraft was believed to have crashed, south-west of Mt. Rainier in the Cascades. There was a five thousand dollar reward to anyone who located it, so Arnold had allowed an hour scouting for any wreckage. It was during this search that he observed nine objects in a “screwy” formation.
At first, Arnold thought they were geese. Then, as their airspeed seemed much too fast, he next assumed they must be military aircraft; however, he was puzzled why he couldn’t see any tails on them.
The objects seemed to be heading in the direction of Mt. Adams. As the speed capabilities of military jets were a hot topic of debate amongst pilots at that time, Arnold decided he would try to ‘clock’ their airspeed. Using both mountains as markers, he timed the passage at one minute and forty-two seconds, which he thought was “pretty fast”.
When Arnold landed at Yakima, he asked to speak in private with an acquaintance, Al Baxter, manager of Central Aircraft. Arnold related his tale and Baxter then called in several other pilots to hear the story. One of them suggested that Arnold had merely seen some guided missiles from Moses Lake. Somehow the seeds of the ‘saucer myth’ were sown during the Yakima stop. As Arnold recollects - in his book The Coming of the Saucers (1952) - its growth was rapid…
“I proceeded to gather my scattered wits together, got back in my airplane, and took off for Pendleton, Oregon. I remembered that I had forgotten to mention the fact that one of these craft looked different from the rest, was darker and of a slightly different shape, and that I hadn’t told the Yakima boys that I had clocked the speed of this formation within fairly accurate limits. While flying to Pendleton I took my map from its snap holder on the extreme edge of my instrument panel, grabbed a ruler, and began figuring mathematically miles per hour. Figuring and flying my airplane at the same time was a little confusing, and I thought my figures were wrong and that I had better wait until I landed at Pendleton to do some serious calculating.”
“When I landed at the large airfield at Pendleton there was quite a group of people to greet me. When I got out of my plane no one said anything. They just stood around and looked at me. I don’t recall just how the subject came up in those first few minutes after I landed, but before very long it seemed everybody around the airfield was listening to the story of my experience. I mentioned the speed I had calculated but assured everybody that I was positive that my mathematics were lousy.”
Arnold’s calculated that the velocity was in excess of 1200 miles per hour, double the capability of any known US Air Force jet. (This was at the height of the Cold War so many found it quite disconcerting that America’s finest were possibly being outclassed.)
Arnold described how those nine objects in formation resembled “the tail of a Chinese kite” blowing in the wind, or “speed boats on rough water”. Using an unusual simile, he added: “they flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water.” In the media frenzy that followed, this phrase, intended to describe their motion, was misconstrued to be a description of how the objects looked. So ‘flying saucers’ were born and the true facts swept aside in the ensuing hysteria.
From these newspaper reports - before the ‘flying saucer’ mythology got a firm grip on popular imagination - we can locate Kenneth Arnold’s earliest expressions. He described the objects as “flat like a pie pan and somewhat bat-shaped,” according to Pendleton, Oregon, East Oregonian of June 26. They were “crescent-shaped planes”, stated the Oregon Journal on June 27, reporting Arnold as saying: “They looked like they were rocking. I looked for the tails but suddenly realized they didn’t have any. They were half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear.”
It’s clear that Arnold is not describing ‘flying saucer’ UFOs as we have come to picture them. In a formative radio interview for KWRC on 26 June, he confirms these odd details: “I couldn’t find any tails on ‘em. And, uh, the whole, our observation of these particular ships, didn’t last more than about two and a half minutes and I could see them only plainly when they seemed to tip their wing, or whatever it was, and the sun flashed on them. They looked something like a pie plate that was cut in half with a sort of a convex triangle in the rear.”
As an experienced pilot, Kenneth Arnold seemed to be a reliable witness; but what could he have observed that so perplexed him? The most obvious explanation was a formation of military aircraft, which for some reason he didn’t recognise and was simply mistaken about their airspeed.
On first examination, there are some intriguing possibilities about this hypothesis. Arnold’s crescent-like object resembles the tail-less ‘flying wing’ concept pioneered by John ‘Jack’ Northrop in the United States. Northrop’s XB-35, YB-49 and particularly YRB-49A were all similar to Arnold’s depiction.
However, prior to 24 June 1947, only one XB-35 had been built and due to several mechanical problems it had been grounded since the previous September. The second XB-35 to be built made its maiden flight on 26 June, 1947, two days after Arnold’s sighting. The testing was carried out at Muroc Dry Lake (later re-named Edwards Air Force Base) in California, far removed from Washington’s Cascade mountain range. The Northrop YB-49, a jet-propelled derivative of the XB-35, first flew on 21 October 1948. Only one YRB-49A was built, but that didn’t take off until May 1950.
In Germany, the Horten brothers - contemporaries and counterparts of Jack Northrop – had also developed innovative ‘flying wing’ designs. Their ‘Ho IX’ (also known as the ‘Go 229’) was nearing production as WWII ended. During late April 1945, the Horten plant at Friedrichsroda was occupied by American troops and, allegedly, one of the ‘Ho IX’ airframes was transported back to the to the US. The design is almost identical to Arnold’s crescent-like sketch.
 |
At this point, Arnold concluded that the intermittent flashing came from an internal light source - hence inclusion of same, in front center of his depiction. |
So, decades before today’s dark rumours about recovered alien technology at Area 51, could the US Air Force have been indulging in a spot of clandestine reverse-engineering, not of alien but German craft? Aviation historians seem satisfied that the looted ‘Ho IX’ airframe was never completed and test-flown in the US. Even if it had been, those other eight, tail-less objects that escorted it and matched its airspeed are not accounted for.
The contemporary similarity between experimental flying wings and Arnold’s ‘flying saucers’ is therefore a remarkable coincidence and nothing more. The hypothesis that Arnold witnessed nine such top-secret, tail-less aircraft is not, evidently, sustainable.
If Arnold did not see secret aircraft, what other terrestrial phenomenon could account for nine airborne objects in formation before we make that leap of logic to postulate craft from another world. It was UFO researcher Martin Kottmeyer who came up with a promising direction… birds. In July 1997, he advocated that a flock of swans could be sufficiently unusual to have deceived Arnold.
The clue to possibly identifying the enigmatic objects was in Arnold’s description of their flight characteristics. Often, birds and aircraft have a distinctive signature - known to birdwatchers as the ‘jizz’ - and from this a probable identity can be determined, even if the original sighting was inconclusive.
My own inquiries began at this point as I put the matter to experienced ornithologists in America. Contacting an Internet-based discussion forum for ‘Pacific North-west birders’, I outlined the reason for my query. Summarising Arnold’s description, I asked if there were any indigenous bird species that might be implicated.
Arnold’s details were indeed recognised by the American birders and suddenly we had a prime candidate for his sighting … a formation of American White Pelicans.
Indigenous to Washington, the American White Pelican (Pelecan userythrorhynchos) is the largest bird in North America and among the biggest in the world. It weighs up to 15kg, (33lb) and its massive wingspan can extend to three metres (10 feet) or more. Sightings in the Cascade Mountains would be rare enough for Arnold to be unfamiliar with them; nevertheless they continue to be recorded in the vicinity as high altitude migrants.
Predominately white, with black wing-tips, these birds are highly reflective, often described as “sparkling” or “flashing” in the far distance, even when effectively lost from sight. They are also ‘tail-less’, with a ‘bat-like’ profile.
Michael Price of Vancouver first offered the suggestion: “Given the location, 25 miles off Mt Rainier’s glacial sides, ice would be a great substitute reflector and would easily blast enough sunlight back up onto birds’ underwings to make them reflect very brightly. Just look at the excruciating whiteness of the underwings of an adult white-headed gull flying over snow on a sunny winter day.”
He continued: “There’s a possible candidate species in the area at that time of year, sporadically, whose color, size, flight profile and proclivity for formation flight at sometimes quite high altitude would even more produce every detail of the phenomenon which Arnold observed: a flock of non, or failed-breeder, southbound White Pelicans. They’d have been large enough to visible for a good distance, they fly in formation, and if the light were reflecting just right off a large nearby glaciated peak, their comparatively vast white underwing area would reflect a ton of light in exactly the pattern described by Arnold.”
Price concluded: “I’d submit that the hypothesis of a small southbound flock of American White Pelicans observed by someone unfamiliar with underwing reflectivity would provide the same phenomena and be at least as good an alternative possibility than seeing artefacts from another planet. Darn it!”
Price’s colleague, Don Baccus, agreed, recalling how deceptive the birds could appear in flight: “I couldn’t think of any bird that would show such a cadence and literally twinkle white while switching from soaring to flapping”.
Richard Rowlett, from Seattle, concurred: “Oh no! Another myth debunked! White Pelicans was the first thing that came to mind as I was reflecting back on an ultra-high flying southbound formation I saw a few years ago over the Barancas in western Durango, Mexico, east of Mazatlan. It was a fluke that I detected them at all by unaided eye. Even in the binoculars, I was perplexed about what they were for a while, at first not even sure they were birds.”
Peter Kingsmill, Director General of The Redberry Pelican Project (Canada) Foundation, one of the Canada’s foremost conservation organisations, told me: “Everything in Arnold’s description [..] points to the strong possibility he saw a flock of American White Pelicans, the formation, the allusion to the tail of a Chinese kite, etc. I have also been baffled by optical illusions of distance when these birds are against a backdrop of hills.”
Although awkward on the ground, with that huge wingspan, pelicans are majestic in the air and under ideal flying conditions, could show a surprising turn of speed, as Mike Havener, a glider pilot who has written of his experiences flying alongside pelicans [4] confirmed: “The glider I was flying has a 38 mph stall speed [..] I was flying at 52 mph between thermals and these birds were staying with me.”
Could Arnold have misconstrued the position and distance of the objects? He believed the objects were many miles distant, yet previous attempts to solve the ‘flying saucer’ riddle have deduced that Arnold could have misjudged the perspective against a background of snow-covered hills.
Martin Kottmeyer wrote: “In The Coming of the Saucers [Arnold] said they momentarily disappeared ‘behind a jagged peak that juts out from Mount Rainier proper.’ In his memoir for the First International UFO Congress [Arnold] says, ‘When they turned length-wise or flat-wise to me they were very thin and they actually disappeared from sight behind a projection on Mount Rainier in the snowfield’. These are not exactly the same thing, but they give a fair indication of what to look for on the geological survey maps.”
Kottmeyer continues: “Arnold estimated the crafts were at an altitude of 9,200 feet plus or minus 1,000. The task at hand is thus to locate some feature extending above the 8,200 foot level. This yields a neat little surprise. There are no such peaks between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. The closest thing I could find was Pyramid Peak, which stands only 6,937 feet tall in front of Mount Rainier’s base. There is a sharp little projection called Little Tacoma which sticks out around the 10,000 foot level, but it is on the wrong side of the mountain to be seen from Arnold’s flight path. It would be badly stretching things to suggest he got either his position or altitude that far wrong.”
Seeking to clarify this geographical conundrum, I again took the query to people with good local knowledge. David Basset, a mountaineer with vast experience of Mt. Rainier and surrounding peaks, responded: “The jagged peak you are referring to is clearly Little Tahoma. It is jagged because it is unglaciated and very steep. It rises from the base of Mt. Rainier on the East or Southeast side. You said the observation was taken from the west or southwest. This might be troubling because it is on the other side of the mountain, but rest assured, Little Tahoma is the peak. It stands out, being much higher than any other mountain close to Rainier.”
Located at Mt. Rainier National Park, Park Guide Chris Trotter, and Douglas Kraus, the Park Naturalist, confirmed: “The consensus from my co-workers is that the ‘jagged peak’ is Little Tahoma. This peak can be seen from many areas around the mountain.”
It looks likely that Little Tahoma (or Tacoma) is the only peak which matches Arnold’s description and it could have been visible from his location. If we accept this there are fundamental repercussions.
Arnold relied on the apparent, momentary disappearance of the objects behind a far-off peak to establish the objects’ distance and consequently their airspeed.
Arnold, flying more or less eastwards towards Mt. Rainier’s slopes, consistently and repeatedly told how the nine objects, travelling southwards, passed directly in front of him on the western slopes of Mt. Rainier. Little Tahoma, however is on the mountain’s far eastern side. The obvious conclusion is that Arnold misperceived how those nine objects momentarily disappeared behind this remote peak. In fact, they absolutely must have passed in front of it.
Commenting on the unreliability of perceptions of perspective, Kottmeyer wrote: “Normally one prefers early accounts to later ones, but the Congress memoir may provide the clue to what happened here. When the object turned flatwise, the optical thickness likely dropped below the one half minute resolution limit and briefly dropped from sight. The rough surface of the mountain provided opportunities for an illusory correlation of the disappearance to some feature of the mountain. The disappearance seemed to be caused by an intervening feature where none in fact existed. With no firm lower distance estimate, the way is opened for the objects being closer to Arnold than he had surmised.”
Asked how far distant a formation might be visible. Mike Havener, the glider pilot, replied: “Visibility depends on several factors. The one having the most effect of course is how much ‘haze’ or other particulate matter is in the air (ie. smog, smoke). At low altitudes, visibility is lowered because of this. However, at higher altitudes, something like the white body of a pelican contrasts nicely with the blue sky. I (a pilot with average eyesight) can distinguish the basic shape (a body with wings) of these pelicans from about 4 miles when flying above the haze. From 4 to maybe 6 miles they become small dots.”
What might have completely mislead Arnold is how these birds employ a distinctive flapping and gliding motion. From video footage I have watched, a typical sequence is three seconds flapping followed by twelve seconds gliding. During one minute, this would equate to 12 and 48 seconds respectively. If these were the source of Arnold’s unidentified objects and given that he estimated the total observation at approximately two and a half minutes, then throughout the sighting they could have been gliding for a full two minutes, during which time they would exhibit rigid wings and may also have been non-reflecting.
Bear this in mind when reading this description from Arnold in his book: “Another characteristic of these craft that made a tremendous impression on me was how they fluttered and sailed, tipping their wings alternately and emitting those very bright blue-white flashes from their surface.” This correlates with a distinctive characteristic of American White Pelicans:
"In the air, also, their movements are easy and strong, but not very rapid. They give a few flaps of the wings, then sail a short distance, then again give a few flaps of the wings.
They are usually in flocks, and it is interesting to see the alternate flapping and sailing of the whole as though directed by a leader".
Source: 'Birds of the United States...'
During a lecture given to the 'UFO Congress', Chicago, ILL, on June 24, 1977, Arnold expanded on the related details:
"I observed it seemed to... the first craft was at a higher elevation than all the rest of craft, which, of course, is not conventional, military formation at all, in either this country or Russia or Germany or anything that I had ever heard of before.
...and they would flutter like this and sail and they seemed to fly just as readily on edge as they did on a level. As I mentioned before they seemed like they were linked together in a sort of diagonal chain-like formation, similar to geese, but, uh (chuckle) they were not geese.
I was very puzzled about that. However, I made a special note, they were all independent. Individually they were flying on their own, but every once in a while one of them would give off a flash like this and gain a little more altitude or deviate just a little bit from the echelon formation. And this went periodically on among them... alternatingly, I should say...".
Arnold may as well be describing other distinguishing features of American White Pelicans. The shape of their echelon formation alters in flight and as each bird takes its turn to flap and then sail in unison, this creates a ripple effect.
Some of these distinctive attributes, can be seen evidenced in a brief cameo ('fair use' deemed to apply regarding copyright) from Sir David Attenborough's 1998 BBC TV series, 'The Life of Birds':
It was the ‘mirror-like’ flashing that drew his attention initially to the objects and it is frequently mentioned in those early newspaper reports and the radio interview in which he said: “I was approximately 25 to 28 miles from Mt. Rainier, I climbed back up to 9200 feet and I noticed to the left of me a chain which looked to me like the tail of a Chinese kite, kind of weaving and going at a terrific speed across the face of Mt. Rainier. I, at first, thought they were geese because it flew like geese, but it was going so fast that I immediately changed my mind and decided it was a bunch of new jet planes in formation.”
A few weeks later, in his report to the Air Force, Arnold claimed that the intensely bright reflections were first apparent when the objects were a considerable distance north of Mt. Rainier. By the time he wrote his book, these flashes of light, from objects “over a hundred miles” northwards, had become so strong they “lit up the surfaces of my aircraft”.
Arnold was, plainly, not familiar with the unusual undulating flight – like a roller coaster or 'skipping across water' - and ‘kite-tail’ appearance of pelicans in formation, which can momentarily puzzle even experienced pilots and bird-watchers.
During my research, I located the following description of pelicans in flight from an article by Alexander Virden; note the similarity to Arnold’s impression of how his nine objects resembled “the tail of a Chinese kite”…
“They all execute the ripple, at the precise point the first started to climb. Then follow him down, each waiting for the bird in front to flap his wings, for two powerful strokes, before returning to a glide. The staccato movement is like the first film of a bird in flight, one frame at a time.”
“Then I realize about thirty birds trail in a line, and second and third squadrons move up, to the left and right. Bombers, they are too large for fighters, yet more graceful, flying in perfect formation. The second and third groups fan out, from the center line, forming flawlessly into Vs, mirroring the very image of flight.”
“The sun burns the whites of their perfectly rigid backs upon the negative of my mind, blinding my eye to all else. Looking forward, the first to pass, are now black tipped diamonds [..] They appear as crepe paper strips, tied to an invisible wind.”
“This was on the other side of the world - in Brisbane, state capital of Queensland. I was in an office overlooking the city (arguing, if I remember correctly, with a customs inspector about import licenses) and it was late in the afternoon. The sun was low on the horizon - and moving slowly above it from north to south was a line of brilliant silver disks.”
“They looked like metallic mirrors, and they were oscillating or flip-flopping with a regular seesaw motion. Once again, I could not guess their size or distance; they were so bright and tiny against the darkening sky that it was almost impossible to decide their shape, but they gave the impression of being ellipses. I don’t mind admitting that in the few minutes before they came closer I felt myself wondering if the Martian invasion had started; this was the only time I have ever seen a fleet of textbook flying saucers.”
“In this case, the explanation turned out to be something I already knew - and didn’t believe. Many UFO sightings (including one that is the subject of a celebrated and authentic film) were due, I’d read, to birds reflecting sunlight under unusual conditions of illumination. This theory seemed so absurd that I dismissed it contemptuously; but it is perfectly correct.”
“The lights I saw flipping across Brisbane were nothing more than seagulls, the undersurfaces of their wings acting as mirrors. Though I have lived beside the sea for a quarter of my life and am doing so now, this is the only time I have ever witnessed this phenomenon, and I would never have credited it without the evidence of my own eyes. The effect of oscillating metallic disks was absolutely realistic; it would have fooled anyone.”
This was not just “anyone” but the SF writer Arthur C. Clarke in a 1958 non-fiction essay, ‘Things in the Sky’.
When I began my investigation, I was naturally cautious that an explanation for Arnold’s pivotal ‘UFO’ sighting could be credibly sustained as a formation of birds. Imagine my surprise when American historian Ed Stewart coincidentally uncovered a long forgotten newspaper report, from the British Columbian of New Westminster, This sensational story was published on 12 July 1947, just two and a half weeks after Arnold’s sighting:
SAYS FLYING SAUCERS ARE PELICANS
Spokane, Wash., July 12 (BUP).
A veteran Northwest Airlines pilot who has flown over the Pacific northwest’s ‘flying saucer’ country for 15 years today took all the glamor out of the mystery of the flying discs. All that people have been seeing, he said, are pelicans. Or maybe geese or swans.
Capt. Gordon Moore disclosed that he and his co-pilot, Vern Kesler were saucer-hunting last Wednesday on a regular flight between here and Portland, Ore. Kesler was sure he had seen some flying saucers on July 2, and the pilots were armed with movie cameras and binoculars for another encounter.
“Suddenly we spotted nine big round disks weaving northward two thousand feet below us,” Moore related.
“We investigated and found they were real all right --- real pelicans”.
Whether Capt. Moore was truly perceptive in suggesting this quite extraordinary origin of ‘flying saucers’, we can never know for sure. Only Kenneth Arnold really understood what he witnessed.
On its own, Arnold’s story was treated by the media with due scepticism and occasional ridicule. It’s ironic to realise that if Moore and Kesler had never determined the source of those “nine big round disks” which they stumbled upon, theirs, too, might have become a highly publicised UFO case, especially given its proximity to Arnold’s own encounter in both time and geography. It would, undoubtedly, have been used to bolster the inexplicable nature of Arnold’s ‘flying saucer’ experience.
As more people began to report seeing ‘flying disks’, the media perspective changed; soon the phenomenon became a predicament for the American government and military, concerned both with the extent of the sighting ‘flaps’ and America’s mastery of its own skies. To some extent that dilemma is still with us as part of Arnold’s substantial legacy.
There are well documented inconsistencies, in Kenneth Arnold's varying accounts.
This, however, extends beyond and for reasons unknown, the initial publication of his account was altered in some key respects.
'FATE' magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1
Spring 1948
The FATE article is over 95 per cent a verbatim copy of Arnold's letter to the Air Force.
The Air Force letter transcript I am using, is from the 'PROJECT 1947' web site.
This is clearly not Arnold being careless in transcribing the Air Force letter, inherent changes being quite specific, as emphasised.
"Anyhow, I discovered that this was where the reflection had come from, as two or three of them every few seconds would dip or change course slightly, just enough for the sun to strike them at an angle that reflected brightly on my plane".
"Anyhow, I discovered that this was where the reflection had come;from, as two or three of them every few seconds would dip or change course slightly, just enough for the sun to strike them at an angle that reflected brightly in my eyes".
"As I was flying in the direction of this particular ridge, I measured it and found it to approximately five miles so I could safely assume that the chain of these saucer like objects were at least five miles long. I could quite accurately determine their pathway due to the fact that there were several high peaks that were a little this side of them as well as higher peaks on the other side of their pathway".
"As I was flying in the direction of this particular ridge, I measured it and found it to be approximately five miles, so I could safely assume that the chain of these saucer-like objects were at least five miles long. I could quite accurately determine their pathway due to the fact that there were several of them as well as higher peaks on the other side of their pathway".
"As the last unit of this formation passed the southern most high snow-covered crest of Mt. Adams...".
"As the last unit of this formation passed the northernmost high snow-covered crest of Mt. Adams...".
"...I am making a drawing to the best of my ability, which I am including, as to the shape I observed these objects to be as they passed the snow covered ridges as well as Mt. Rainier".
"...I am making a drawing to the best of my ability, which I am including, as to the shape I observed these objects to be as they passed the snow covered ridges at Mt. Rainier".
A chief advocate that Kenneth Arnold did inadvertently come across nine spaceships, is Bruce Maccabee.
In June, 2017, Maccabee published a book entitled, 'Three Minutes in June', a eulogy and anniversary celebration of events on that fateful day.
Perhaps exemplifying the paucity of any tangible evidence since, the book's cover does not depict an archetypal 'flying saucer'. Neither does it portray Kenneth Arnold's own depiction, of the UFO, which looks far removed from anything like the celebrated icon.
Maccabee will tell you that Arnold could not possibly have been so mistaken, as he was traveling in this, that or the other direction and would have known the difference between pelicans and travellers from Zeta Reticuli, or wherever.
This is lamentably misleading, especially as he knows the very issue was discussed by Brad Sparks, himself, myself and others, at great length, on the 'UFO Research List', way back in 1999.
Quoting Arnold's letter to the Air Force:
"A number of news men and experts suggested that I might have been seeing reflections or even a mirage. This I know to be absolutely false, as I observed these objects not only through the glass of my airplane but turned my airplane sideways where I could open my window and observe them with a completely unobstructed view. (Without sun glasses)".
This seems to be a point which was regrettably never clarified in later years, as were obviously now many others, and we can only deduce what exactly happened.
Judging by his comments from the interview, it sounds like Arnold made that turn just after he began his timing exercise.
Which window - right or left-hand side - would Arnold probably have 'lined up' sideways with the objects? Does that tell us how he most likely turned his airplane and in which direction?
What then - did he return to his original heading?
Unless we quantify this, it's debatable - not factual - what Arnold's perceptions were throughout the incident".
Brad replied:
"This indicates that we really need to know the exact path of Arnold's plane. If he made a left turn to watch them out the right hand window, then the bird hypothesis is dead, as I said before.
But if he made a left, and then a right, then it isn't dead".
There is also no surprise to find an unequivocally correlated facet, equally absent from Maccabee's tribute.
Kenneth Arnold had a second ‘close encounter’ only five days later, during which he saw a number of small objects “fluttering and flashing a dull amber colour”. He recalls, in The Coming of the Saucers, that as he came in to land at La Grande airfield, Oregon, he observed “a cluster of about twenty to twenty-five brass coloured objects that looked like ducks.” They seemed about two or three feet in diameter, Arnold said, but “I knew they were not ducks because ducks don’t fly that fast.”
Arnold claimed they came within 400 yards of his aircraft and noted: “I was a little bit shocked and exited when I realized they had the same flight characteristics of the large objects I had observed on June 24.”
Arnold had captured some film of these further using his newly acquired $150 movie camera.
In perhaps a little-known publication, Ray Palmer, publisher of 'FATE' magazine and co-author of 'The Coming of the Saucers', reveals:
"He sent me an 8mm film which showed about 40 frames of what seemed to be “brown ducks” flying at some distance from his plane, but which he was sure weren’t ducks.
I sent that film to Wright-Patterson Field (with a trap in mind - I would sacrifice the film as evidence). They kept it six months before returning it with the comment - we don’t see any brown ducks.
Which is what I had been waiting for: I screened the film and found instantly that the 40 frames had been cut out as I had anticipated and the film spliced together again.
Obviously the Air Force didn’t want to face the stymie factor, and be forced to explain the brown ducks or admit they were so incapable of protecting our national security in the skies that they couldn’t even identify brown ducks, so they excised the ducks!".
This remarkable insight comes from:
Recently, I was browsing the Google Earth web site and astounded by its extraordinary 3D capabilities, a thought came to mind; might this conceivably assist in determining once and for all, whether the jagged peak of Little Tahoma could be confirmed as a viable candidate.
The outcome was affirmative, as demonstrated separately, here:
I was able to make Martin Kottmeyer aware of the new findings and ask the question:
"Having seen the related terrain in 3D, has your opinion altered in any way"?
Martin, whose research contributions, over many years, I hold in the highest esteem, cordially replied:
"When I said Little Tahoma "is on the wrong side of the mountain to be seen from Arnold's flight path," I should have lingered for a more precise and rigorous wording, but the fact it was on the wrong side of the mountain seemed the salient point at the time. It was unworkably paradoxical for it to be what the objects flew behind. Give me I at least intuited that much in seeing Little Tahoma was not on the side of the mountain facing Arnold".
If further persuasive evidence is required, does it categorically exist in the following, which is fresh, supporting material.
"The flight of the pelican is a sight to behold. The bird’s large wing surface area allows it to make a few flaps and then glide for several hundred yards. When in a flock they usually fly in single file or in a v-formation. Their flight is often described as “follow the leader” because if the lead bird makes a dip all the other birds make the same dip". Source
Compare with Kenneth Arnold's remarks from a nascent, Associated Press (AP) news release:
PENDLETON, Ore, June 25 (AP)
""Nine bright, saucer-like objects flying at "incredible" speed at 10,000 feet altitude were reported here today by Kenneth Arnold, Boise, Ida., pilot who said he could not hazard a guess as to what they were.
(...)
They were flying between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, in Washington State, he said, and appeared to weave in and out of formation. Arnold said he clocked them and estimated their speed at 1.200 miles and hour.
(...)
Arnold said he clocked the time the objects took to fly from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams, and from that estimated their speed at 1200 miles an hour. He said they appeared to fly almost as if fastened together - if one dipped, the others did, too".
"...the lead bird makes a dip all the other birds make the same dip".
"...if one dipped, the others did, too".
Incidentally, keeping in mind this all relates solely to Kenneth Arnold's formative testimonials and from researching newspaper archives now available online, there were a number of occasions during that era where American White Pelicans had been mistaken for 'flying saucers'.
One such instance prompted a newspaper to publish the following, long before I had merely enquired of Pacific North-west ornithologists, if anything outlined in Kenneth Arnold's descriptive details, might conceivably be familiar...
If a squadron (correct terminology) of American White Pelicans were not the source of Arnold's fleeting sighting, then in conjunction with the above, their echelon, strung-out formation, flapping and sailing, rippling flight characteristics, whatever else was responsible, performed an outstanding impression.
Aside from which, we never had an archetypal 'flying saucer' in the first place, an elementary fact, which Kenneth Arnold tried to redress, although to no avail.
A further, new discovery, is what might be a little-known interview.
Courtesy of:
Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon)
25 June, 1982
'Flying saucer' now 35 years old
SEATTLE (AP) - Thirty-five years after he reported seeing the first modern-day "flying saucer," Kenneth Arnold continues to be visited by new theories of what he and where it was coming from.
Arnold, now 67, speculates that the nine shiny, pulsating objects he saw bounding through the daylight sky near Mount Rainier on June 24, 1947, might have been life forms from another planet paying a call to Earth. Another possibility, he says, is that the visitors are links between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
His report to the Civil Aeronautics Board on the crescent-shaped, 100-foot-wide objects launched the modern era of "flying saucer" sightings. Arnold is a retired private pilot and runs his own engineering business and now lives in Meridian, Idaho
"We've gone to the moon and that's just a stepping stone to other planets. If there is life out there, maybe there are people or life as we recognize it and maybe they'd make the journey here," he said Thursday on the anniversary date.
"Then there might be two worlds connecting the living and the dead. Maybe you continue living when you die. I can't envision myself on the steps of God, playing a harp with 10 million other souls... Maybe it has something to do with that."
Arnold has reported seeing Unidentified Flying Objects at least eight times, the last time in 1952, over the Nevada desert,
(...)
"There is one thing I'd like to straighten out," he added.
"I didn't create the word "flying saucer. This young reporter from Pendleton asked me how they flew and I said they flew very erratically, they flipped and flashed, like if you took a saucer and threw it across the water. So from that, everybody wrongly assumed they were round instead of crescent shaped."
(...)
(End of extract)
The full article has, with copyright permission, been uploaded to my website.
When Kenneth Arnold gave what may may have been his last filmed interview, he had this to say:
Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World:10, U.F.O.s (September, 1980)
Program narrative: ...later he was beseiged by reporters and one of them asked him how the objects flew.
"...I says... well I tell you...they flew erratitcally like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water...
And then of course, all of a sudden, the term 'flying disk' and this type of thing, or 'crescent-shaped', or whatnot, was completely dropped and everybody started seeing 'flying saucers'...
...and they've been seeing them ever since...".
(End)
Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World:10, U.F.O.s (September, 1980)
Program narrative: ...later he was beseiged by reporters and one of them asked him how the objects flew.
"...I says... well I tell you...they flew erratitcally like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water...
And then of course, all of a sudden, the term 'flying disk' and this type of thing, or 'crescent-shaped', or whatnot, was completely dropped and everybody started seeing 'flying saucers'...
...and they've been seeing them ever since...".
(End)
As Brad Sparks remarked during discussions, over 20 years ago, now,
"It is troubling that there is only one report of objects similar to what Arnold described".
Even that one, the 7 July, 1947 William Rhodes photographs, from Phoenix, is arguably clutching at straws.
However and perhaps ironically, this is a case I spent some time researching last year and with gratitude to David Marler, was able to obtain a copy of the original photographic evidence.
I was able to prove how contrary to claims that Rhodes, a keen amateur photographer, had developed the negatives himself and it raised suspicions, they were in fact developed for him by an acquaintance, who worked for the Arizona Republic newspaper.
Moreso, I could illustrate an intriguing comparison with a 1975 case, from Northern Carolina:
Together with extreme doubts, concerning the validity of Kenneth Arnold's sole calculations after the event and utterly misconstrued narrative, the genesis of 'flying saucers', could hardly have a more specious foundation
Nonetheless there are, of course, numerous cases, spanning the years since, which seem to be credible and difficult to rationalise.
Particularly so, those involving extremely close encounters with triangular-shaped, aerial phenomena, such as these examples and many of which I have documented directly with the witness.
The point being, you have to go where the evidence leads and can only highlight same.
Other than that and in the absence of definitive proof, it is for others to make a personal judgement call.
Which is where, so far as all encompassed herein, it still stands.
Nowadays, I administer the Facebook group,
UFO Research List , set up in April 2022 and which now has some 2,500 subscribers...
...and try to stay out of trouble.
© James Easton
August, 2023
jeaston.blog@gmail.com
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