Kenneth Arnold

Kenneth A. Arnold ( * May 29, 1915 in Sebeka (Minnesota ); † January 16, 1984 in Bellevue) was an American pilot and businessman. He became famous for its sightings of unidentified flying objects near Mount Rainier on June 24, 1947 for the first time he used the term flying saucer.

Life

Arnold was born in Sebeka, Minnesota and grew up in Scobey, Montana. He attended the University of Minnesota. Arnold began working in Boise, a company that installs and sells the extinguishing systems in 1940 at Great Western Fire Control Supply.

UFO sighting

On June 24, 1947 claimed Arnold while he was flying near Mount Rainer (Washington) that he had seen nine unusual objects flying in the clouds. He further said that he had stopped the time and appreciate their speed at 1200 mph (1932 km / h). First, he recognized only one kind of balls of light, until he came closer. The first reports described eight objects as flat, plate-like discs and an object as the flat and bat -like or crescent shaped. Although Arnold in their own documents, as in a letter to the U.S. Air Force from 1947 and an article in FATE magazine from 1948, the objects referred to as " saucer -like discs" and " saucer like objects", Arnold has later the term " flying saucer "by itself. In a radio interview from 1950 Arnold denies the term " saucer " to have meant as a description for the look. He had always described the objects as " Disk". The term "flying saucers " had been a misunderstanding with reporters:

.. " ... When I Described How They flew, I said thatthey flew Like They take a saucer and throw it across the water Most of the newspapers misunderstood and misquoted that too They said that I said that theywere saucer -like; I said thatthey flew in a saucer -like fashion. "

"" ... When I described how they flew, I said that they fly, as if you take a plate and let him jump over the water. Most newspapers misunderstood that and quoted me wrong. They wrote that I would have said, they were plate -like, I said they flew in the way of dishes " ".

Although Arnold UFO sighting is often considered as the beginning of the phenomenon, there was a short time before the ghost rockets in Finland as well as the airship wave at the end of the 19th century, similar sightings. However, his sighting is considered the first after the Second World War, which got widespread attention from the press and the public nationwide. It was then across the United States increased sightings, but what were some back for some time, but were now made ​​public.

The U.S. Air Force had no rationelen explanations for the sighting, while others tried to explain the matter. These statements ranged from mirages of snow mountains, on misidentified meteors and flying pelicans.