Why are they called 'flying saucers'?

[halagad]

Here are a couple of the 34,692,095,436,094,112,835 things in the UFO field I don’t understand. Why, during his interview, did Ken Arnold say the craft he saw near Mt. Rainer were “skipping like saucers across water”? I don’t know about the rest of the world, but in Kansas, if one were to use the simile of skipping and water we would say “skipping like stones across the water”. We don’t throw saucers across the water here, we use flat-bottomed stones.
To be even more anal, why isn’t there more discussion about the movement exhibited by the craft? Moving through the air and bouncing as if you were bouncing off water is not a smooth way to fly, it would be quite bumpy. Has anyone heard of any other sightings wherein the craft were moving along in a bumpy manner?
It is also interesting to me to follow the progression of shapes of UFO’s. Those at Maury Island were evidently shaped like a donut. Only a few weeks later, Ken Arnold’s were shaped kind of like a B-2 bomber. After the name flying saucer got attached to them, they became saucer shaped for many years. One of my sightings was of a cylindrical or cigar shaped craft. Now many seem to be triangular.
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I want to thank Gene and Dave for an excellent (most of the time) show and a forum where unimportant questions like mine can be asked.

 

[Gareth]

Arnolds were crescent shaped I believe. Like a flying wing. I really do think that its a coincidence that he described them as flying saucers and that many people see round disc shaped craft. The round shape is the most structurally strong. Most people think Arnold also saw discs and when they find out he didnt get suspicious. I truly belive it was just a coincidence.

 

[dhatz]

People were reporting disks before Arnold. Only one of the UFOs reported by Arnold was crescent-shaped, the others he described as round with a indentation, but I doubt he could have discerned many structural details from the estimated distance. In addition to "skipping over water" he said the UFOs "fluttered like the tail of a chinese kite".

 

[dhatz]

Btw Dr Bruce Maccabee has a page about Arnold's case: ULTIMATE ARNOLD: Kenneth Arnold Sighting

 

[Experiencer7]

Because "Teacups" would just be stupid.

 

[trainedobserver]

I have often wondered if Arnold didn't see some form of the Horten Ho IX. I also have wondered why so many different types of 'craft' have been reported over the years. Sometimes they seem to be restricted to a geographic area or 'flap' such as in the Gulf Breeze sightings. The Gulf Breeze UFOs were of a design that (if I am not mistaken) were never seen before or since. Bruce Maccabee's opinion of the photos and Ed Walter's causes me to doubt that the sightings were a hoax but it is extremely difficult to tell from what information is available. Before Arnold there were the 'mysterious airships' and so forth which seem to strange up the mix even more.

Now it seems that triangular craft are in vogue. What's next I wonder?

John Keel wrote that "Once you have established a belief, the phenomenon adjusts its manifestations to support that belief and thereby escalate it." Could it be that once people started believing in flying saucers they began to appear as such? I personally don't think it is an adaptive thing like that but who would know and how could you tell.

 

[Kandinsky]

"I was fascinated by this formation of aircraft. They didn't fly like any aircraft I had ever seen before. In the first place, their echelon formation was backward from that practiced by our Air Force. The elevation of the first craft was greater than that of the last.They flew in a definite formation, but erratically. As I described them at the time, their flight was like speed boats on rough water or similar to the tail of a Chinese kite that I once saw
blowing in the wind. Or maybe it would be best to describe their flight characteristics as very similar to a formation of geese, in a rather diagonal chain-like line, as if they were linked together. As I put it to newsmen in Pendleton, Oregon, they flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water".

I observed them quite plainly, and I estimate my distance from them, which was almost at right angles, to be between twenty to twenty-five miles. I knew they must be very large to permit me to observe their shape at that distance, even as clear a day as it was. In fact, I compared a zeus fastener or cowling tool I had in my pocket with them, holding it up on them and holding it up on the DC-4 that I could observe at quite a distance to my left, and they seemed smaller than the DC-4; but I should judge their span would have been as wide as the farthest engines on each side of the fuselage of the DC-4.

http://www.ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=513

I'll let his own words do the talking...

 

[paraschtick]

Just a side note. Didn't some debunker say that what Kenneth Arnold saw was ummm ... pelicans . Geez ... they really think we are stupid don't they???

 

[Experiencer7]

Just a side note. Didn't some debunker say that what Kenneth Arnold saw was ummm ... pelicans . Geez ... they really think we are stupid don't they???

Yes., and the pelicans had swamp gas.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Yes., and the pelicans had swamp gas.

For pelicans it's a sign of privilege.

 

[Xylo]

Just a side note. Didn't some debunker say that what Kenneth Arnold saw was ummm ... pelicans . Geez ... they really think we are stupid don't they???

I was at the beach a couple of years ago, just staring out at the water after sunset, when suddenly 7 or 8 dimly lit objects flashed across my field of view. I actually jumped and did a double-take. Upon closer inspection I realized it was birds that were reflecting the lights of the boardwalk. Gee didn't I feel silly after that.

However, that doesn't apply to Mr. Arnold's sighting.