ACUFO:

New 'Saucer ' Tales Flood Nation

Disks Reported Near Bay District

By The Associated Press

The "Flying Saucers" mystery closed in on Santa Monica today with reports that the mysterious sky visitors were seen nearby.

Two fliers from Santa Monica airport, Pilot Dan J. Whelan and Duncan Underhill, said they were "scared silly" by one of the saucers, 40 to 50 feet in diameter, at 7000 feet 25 miles south of Santa Monica. "They looked exactly like skeet disks."

Frank E. Chester, Beverly Hills, reportedly spotted a flock of the saucers between Pacific Palisades and Malibu. "They crackled at a speed of 300 or 400 miles an hour, not more than 1000 feet over my car. and disappeared over the ocean," he said.

Hundreds of persons throughout the West told today of seeing mysterious sky discs while scattered observers elsewhere in the country said that the bright, saucer-like objects zipped high over them in the Independence Day sky.

From Idaho, Oregon, Washington in the Far West, Louisiana in the South, Michigan in the Midwest, Pennsylvania in the East and Canada's East Coast Prince Edward Island came reports of the strange objects first reported over Washington state June 25 by Kenneth Arnold of Boise, Id.

(Military and scientific experts in Washington had only bleak looks and shoulder shrugs today at a new rash of "flying saucer" reports from around the country. Researchers of the Army, Navy and a government observatory agreed on one thing - they "don't know what it's all about - or so they said.)

Both ground and aerial observers told of seeing the discs. Early in the afternoon Portland, Ore., police, swamped with calls, issued an all-clear alert and within minutes two patrol cars radioed reports that they were watching the discs.

Observers said they were certain they were not the 24 P-80 jet planes which were high over that city yesterday.

At 2:50 p.m.. a group of picnickers at Twin Falls, Id., said they saw discs going West. A few minutes later another group was seen and at 3:10 a third group of the discs - the total number was estimated at 35 - was seen also speeding West. Nearly 60 persons were in the observing group.

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Scientists Deny Heavenly Upset

WASHINGTON (AP. -- U.S. Naval Observatory officials concluded unofficially today that the mysterious "flying saucers" were not astronomical phenomena.

An official said the observatory's unofficial decision was based on descriptions of the strange flying objects, since none of their astronomers had seen them.

Meanwhile, both the Army and Navy confessed themselves unable to give an explanation for the reported objects. The Army began an investigation Thursday.

New 'Saucer' Reports Flood Nation From West To East

Continued From Page 1

At 7 p.m., George Astor of Spokane, Wash., said a group of 200 persons observed one disc circle for 30 minutes at Hauser Lake, Id., before it zoomed upward and disappeared.

The entire crew or a United Airlines plane said they saw the discs - "like a pancake standing on end" - eight minutes after taking off from Boise at 9:04 p.m., and kept them 1n sight for about 12 minutes.

Yeoman Frank Ryan of the Seattle Coast Guard photographed a disc - but it appeared in the negative only as a pinpoint or light.

A Los Angeles pilot and his companion said they were "scared silly" when they saw what they thought was one of the flying saucers moving swiftly North by Northeast at 7000 feet, some 2000 feet above their plane.

At New Orleans, Miss Lillian Lauters said she saw one going northeast over Lake Ponchartrain last night. Port Huron. Mich., also joined the reporting group.

And for the first time, reports came from the East. Something round with a luminous halo was sighted over Philadelphia, but Dr. M. K. Leisy said it appeared to be going at about the speed of the wind blowing clouds.

From Summerside, Can., on Prince Edward Island, came reports or the discs, one was said to be moving South and another Southeast.

Nearly all of the observers agreed that the objects - whatever they might be - were round, flat and shiny. How big they were remained uncertain.

Capt. E. J. Smith, pilot of the United Air Lines plane which spotted several, said "it's hard to judge size unless you know how far away a thing is."

But, he agreed with others that he had seen the much-discussed "saucers," and added, "none of us believed in these saucer reports before."

Newsman Sees Disk

By JOHN CORLETT
Idaho Manager, United Press

BOISE, Id. (U.P.) - Just before dusk last night, as my wife and I and two friends were relaxing after dinner, a tiny white disk - one of the mysterious "saucers" - scudded across the sky at a terrific speed.

We were entertaining friends and were relaxing in the garden when my wife suddently pointed skywards and cried. "Look!"

In just about the time it takes to turn your bead, the silver object was nearly out of sight.

Both my wife and I, and our guests, Mr. and Mrs. V. H. Selby, caught a glimpse of the tiny object. Selby is a Boise artist.

During the last few days we had discussed the various news stories carried about the discs, many of which came from the Boise area, and, frankly, I had been a bit skeptical of tbem. But tbe disk was unmistakable, even in the three of four seconds time during which we had the chance to see it.

The disk traveled at a high rate of speed. It appeared firts in the Northwestern sky, apparently coming from the general direction of the Oregon-Washington line, and sped southeast.

There was no noise - absolutely none that we could hear, either before or after the disk shot by.

Until last night I didn't believe in them. But I know that those "saucers" aren't just a myth, part of someone's imagination. It took seeing them with our own eyes to believe in it.

DISCS

'Flying Saucer' Mystery Reaches Fever Pitch As Veteran UAL Pilots Spot Them in Flight; People Seeing 'Em From New Orleans To Portland, Ore.

PORTLAND, Ore., -- (AP) -- The "flying saucers" mystery reached fever pitch Saturday, after "I saw them myself" statements from a United Air Lines crew, scores of Portland residents and 60 picnickers at Twin Falls Park in Idaho.

The UAL pilot, co-pilot, and stewardess, who had scoffed consistently at "flying saucers" tales, said they saw such objects Friday night while flying a passenger plane from Boise, Ida., to Portland.

Their statements followed a day during which the "saucers" were reported seen in many parts of the nation.

Many Portlanders - including police, experiences fliers, and three newspapermen - declared they saw silvery discs undulating over Portland.

In New Orleans, Miss Lilian Lawless said she saw an object, shining like silver or chromium, flying at a great height and at a terrific speed in a northeasterly direction over Lake Pontchartrain.

Describing what they saw as flat, translucent plates 12 to 15 inches in diameter, several Port Huron, Mich., residents reported seeing the "saucers".

Capt. E. J. Smith, Seattle, a veteran of 14 years with United Air Lines, said he observed the round flat objects - "like a pancake standing on end" - for about 12 minutes while flying from Emmett, Ida., to a point southeast of Ontario, Ore.

He radioed the Ontario airport but airport officials saw nothing.

Sixty persons picnicking at Twin Falls Park, near Twin Falls, Ida., said they saw the discs Friday afternoon. A party of seven first saw some and 10 minutes later, a crowd of 20 or 30 people saw another batch of nine or ten. Word passed around, and soon the waiting crowd saw another batch circling and climbing.

At Seattle, Frank Ryman, coast Guard yeoman, said he took a picture of what some residents north of Seattle thought was a flying disc. The photograph showed a pinhead-size light spot against the dark evening sky.

The Oregonian dispatched a plane to hunt Portland's saucers. It found nothing but empty sky.

From Summerside, Canada, on Prince Edward islands, came reports of the discs. One was said to be moving south and another southeast.

Nearly all of the observers agreed that the objects - whatever they might be - were round, flat and shiny. How big they were remained uncertain. Dan J. Whelan, Los Angeles pilot, estimated the one he saw at 40 to 50 feet in diameter, while Port Huron residents thought they were small.

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SOUTH CAROLINA.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- (INS) -- An Augusta physician said he was certain that he saw the "flying saucers."

Dr. Colden R. Battey claims he spotted the peculiar soaring discs six weeks ago in the middle of the day while fishing in St. Helens sound near Beaufort, B. C. This was four weeks before the first published reports of the discs.

West coast reports recently mentioned the "flying saucers," stating that watchers have seen them frequently since June 24, and suggesting that they were a new type of aircraft known as the "flying flapjack."

Battey declared he had not mentioned this sooner because he regarded the peculiar objects as either balloons for meteorological purposes of the new kind of "flying wing" aircraft.

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PENNSYLVANIA

PHILADELPHIA -- (INS) -- Several Philadelphians Saturday joined the growing list of persons across the nation who have reported sighting"flying saucers."

Dr. M. K. Leisy, a junior interne at the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental Diseases, reported that he saw a dark spherical object with a luminous halo moving slowly through the sky.

Leisy said the object appeared to be propelled with whirring jets.

Authorities said "several" other persons in West Philadelphia reported that they saw strange objects in the air Friday night.

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ILLINOIS.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- (INS) -- A group of motorists reported Saturday they had glimpsed the mysterious "flying saucers" which have been puzzling army officials and meteorologists.

One of them, Claude Price, superintendent of concessions at the Illinois state fair, said the group stopped their cars on a road two miles west of Decatur and watched the discs shoot across the sky.

[Photo caption:] 'FLYING DISC' PHOTOGRAPHED
-- Coast Guardsman Frank Ryman reported he photographed a mysterious "flying disc" near Seattle Friday night and said he thought the white dot near center of the picture is it. Photo is nearly 20 times enlarged from original. (AP Wirephoto Saturday.)

More Seen In Nebraska

(Special to the Star.)

OHIOWA, Neb. -- More eyewitness reports on the "flying discs" in Nebraska came from here Saturday.

L. Kaderabek said on the night of June 23 he and his family saw "objects in the western sky that seemed like rockets shooting from among the clouds at about 15 or 20 seconds apart." The discs were traveling at a very rapid speed, Kaederabek reported.

The Ohiowa observers watched the spectacle for approximately an hour.

Omaha and Scottsbluff residents previously reported seeing the discs.

Reports Come in From All Over Nation Telling of Sighting Mysterious Discs

Reports of the unexplained "flying discs" came from all points of the continent Saturday. Here are typical dispatches.

PHILADELPHIA, July 5 (AP) -- An astral phenomenon was being investigated here Saturday to determine whether Philadelphians had seen mysterious "flying discs" in the sky.

Dr. M. K. Leisy, a junior interne at the Pennsylvania hospital for mental diseases, and other persons in the western section of the city reported seeing strange craft in the skies Friday night.

It was something round with a luminous halo about it, Dr. Leisy declared. It was not shiny itself, but dark in color and seemed to be propelled by whirling wings.

Contrary to previous reports from other parts of the country on the high speed of the flying discs, Dr. Leisy said the object he saw was moving at approximately the speed of the wind, below the clouds. It eventually vanished in the clouds, he added.

AKRON, O., July 5 (AP). -- "Flying saucers" made their appearance here Friday night.

Dr. Forrest Shaver said the silvery disc he saw "looked like a balloon with a light inside."

Harry E. Hoertz described it as "a light with a propelling device." Both men said they saw the "saucers" about 8:30 P.M. while driving near Akron.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., July 5 (INS). -- A group of motorists reported Saturday they had glimpsed the mysterious "flying saucers" which had been puzzling army officials and meteorologists.

One of them, Claude Price, superintendent of concessions at the Illinois state fair, said the group stopped their cars on a road two miles west of Decatur and watched the discs shoot across the sky.

LOS ANGELES, July 5 (AP). -- Pilot Dan J. Whelan and a flying companion, Duncan Underhill, reported they were "scared silly" when they saw what they believed was a "living saucer" about 25 miles south of here Friday.

"The saucer was above us, traveling at what we'd estimate was 450 to 500 miles an hour," said Whelan. "It was at 7000 feet, about 2000 feet above me. It was not spinning, but looked exactly like a skeet (a disc used in target practice).

"We checked its direction -- north by northwest -- and we'd say it was 40 to 50 feet in diameter."

AUGUSTA, ME., July 5 (AP). -- The civil aeronautics administration office said it had received a report that a dozen of the mysterious sky discs had been seen over this city.

The CAA said Dr. Kelly, program director at radio station WRDO here, advised that he saw about 12 objects believed to be discs.

Kelly said the objects were traveling northerly "very fast."

ROGERS, ARK. July 5 (AP). -- J. P. Crumpler, a Rogers real estate dealer, said Saturday he saw one of the "flying saucers" Monday night during a windstorm. He was watching the approach of a storm cloud from the porch of his home when the disc appeared out of the northwest and vanished rapidly into the southwest, he said.

SAN JOSE, CAL., July 5 (AP). -- Sgt. Charles R. Sigala of the army air forces said he and three others saw a silvery, flying disc over his home at near-by Mountain View Saturday at 11 A. M.

Sigala, who is on leave from Hamilton Field, said the object was clearly visible to him, his wife, mother-in-law, and a neighbor. It circled around over the mountain at about 5000 feet, dipped several times and then headed toward the sea, he said.

He estimated the object was as big as an automobile.

SUMMERSIDE, Canada, July 5 (AP) -- Farmers in this Prince Edward Island region claim to have seen more of the mysterious disc-like missiles reported flying through northern skies earlier this week.

James Harris, farmer at Sherbrooke, one mile north of here, and his hired man, Herman Linkletter, said they saw one of the objects last night traveling from the northwest toward the southeast.

At about the same time Brenton Clark at Augustine Cove, about 18 miles from Sherbrooke, said he saw a bright object traveling north to south at medium height.

NEW ORLEANS, July 5 (INS). -- The "flying disc" mystery spread to the deep South Saturday.

Miss Lillian Lawless of New Orleans said she saw a saucer-like "pure silver" object hurtling over Lake Pontchartrain at New Orleans. The disc, she said, was flying in a northeasterly direction "with terrific speed."

AUGUSTA, Ga., July 5 (INS). -- An Augusta physician said he was certain Saturday that he saw the "flying saucers."

Dr. Colden R. Battey claims he spotted the peculiar soaring discs six weeks ago in the middle of the day while fishing in St. Helena sound near Beaufort, S. C. This was four weeks before the first published reports of the discs.

He said that when he saw the four discs at 11 A. M., they were traveling at an altitude of more than 20,000 feet and at a high rate of speed.

He described them as silver.

PORT HURON, Mich., July 5 (INS). -- The mysterious "flying saucers" which have been sighted in several states across the country Saturday were reported over Port Huron, Mich.

Mrs. John R. Warner, a 34-year-old housewife, told International News Service that she and several neighbors witnessed the fast-moving objects criss-crossing across the sky last night.

WALTER, Okla., July 5 (AP) -- Two "flying saucers" which "were flying in the air -- passing each other and going back and forth" were reported Saturday by C. E. Holman, 67-year-old Walter gardener.

Holman said he saw the discs about 10 P.M. the night of June 25, and that after watching them "flying around each other" for about 30 minutes he went to bed.

"I thought about waking up some of my neighbors but decided if it meant the end of the world they would be just about as happy sleeping when the world ended," he said.

LOS ANGELES, July 5 (INS). -- Leo Bentz, once a noted builder of auto racing cars, produced a possible new theory Saturday on the enigma of the "flying saucers."

Bentz, now an automobile dealer in suburban Whitter, told of a confidential demonstration of a saucer-like flying model in Los Angeles' Griffith park back in 1928.

He said the inventor's name was George de Bay, a native of France.

He quoted the inventor as saying:

"It's like a saucer -- an oblong saucer -- or meat plate."

Bentz said they went out to Griffith park where de Bay flipped a disc-like model of the device into the air with rubber bands and demonstrated its feasibility.

SEATTLE, July 5 (INS). -- Another flying disc was reported seen over Seattle Saturday by a woman and her four-year-old son.

Mrs. Florence Frye, a librarian at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said her son, Carl, first spotted the object and pointed it out to her. She described it as:

"Brilliant -- so brilliant in fact that it hurt my eyes to watch and I had to blink and turn away."

Viva Anderson, Portland attorney reported she and a friend, Betty MacManneman, also an attorney, saw a group of objects from in front of her home at Melcrest Court apartments, 711 S.E. 11th Ave.

"They looked like half-inflated footballs and appeared to be faceted on top like rough cut diamonds," Miss Anderson said. She said that the main group of objects flashed like tinfoil, but that one which dropped much lower than the rest appeared to be "slightly brown."

States where the discs have been reported: Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Michigan, Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Maine, Florida, Utah, Maryland, Iowa, Kansas and the District of Columbia.

LOS ANGELES --- Pilot "scared silly". L.A. pilot and his companion report that they were "scared silly" when they saw what they thought was one of the flying saucers moving swiftly northeast at 7000 feet, some two thousand feet above their plane.

1947: Los Angeles Examiner

FLIERS GET CLOSE UP-ONE SAYS OVALS "SCARED HIM SILLY"

Dan J. Whelan and Duncan Underhill of Hollywood reported that near Santa Manica at 5 P.M. on July 4, 1947, they saw a disk above them at 2,000 feet. The fliers were about 7,000 feet altitude. It was a disk-shaped object, not spinning, but resembling a rifle practice disk target, forty to fifty feet in diameter and traveling at about 400 to 500 miles an hour.

- July 5, 1947: Los Angeles Examiner.

AVIATORS SEE FLYING SAUCERS UP CLOSE - ONE SAYS "THESE OVALS GREATLY DISTURBED HIM"

Dan J. Whelan and Duncan Underhill, of Hollywood, reported that on July 4, at 5 p.m., near Santa Monica, they had seen a disc about 600 meters above them. They were then flying at an altitude of 2,000 meters. It was a flat, round object resembling a practice target, measuring 12 to 55 meters in diameter and flying at 700 to 800 km/h.

In Santa Monica, California, at 5:00 P.M. PST pilot Dan J. Whelan and another flyer, Duncan Underbill [sic], witnessed a "flying saucer" 40 to 50 feet in diameter "catapulting across the sky" at about 450 to 500 miles per hour toward the northwest on a steady course at 7,000 feet. 21

In Frank Scully's book Behind the Flying Saucers, I found another Santa Monica sighting. On Independence Day, back in 1947, two pilots, Dan J. Whelan and Duncan Underhill, were flying at 7,000 feet when they spotted an object about 2,000 feet above their plane. It appeared to be a "disk-shaped object, not spinning, but resembling a rifle practice target, forty to fifty feet in diameter, and traveling at around 400 to 500 miles an hour."

816: 1947/07/04 17:20 1 118:15:00 W 33:46:00 N 3333 NAM USA CLF 6:7
W/LONG BEACH,CA:2/Pvt PLANE:50'SKEET-SCR/7000'alt >>NNW/500mph OVHD:OBS SCARED
Ref#187 BLOECHER,Ted:REPORT/UFO WAVE of 1947 Case No. 254: IN-FLIGHT

Project 1947 Reports, newsclippings and documents (cases from Jan Aldrich and Barry Greenwood)

report on the UFO wave of 1947, Ted Bloecher

1947, July 4

USA, near Los Angeles

A pilot and a passenger observed at 17:20 a flying object in the shape of a disc traveling at 400–500 mph toward the northeast; the object measured 40 to 50 feet in diameter (Project ACUFOE, catalogue 1999, Dominique Weinstein)

July 4 [1947] - After 5:00 p.m. Private pilot Dan Whelan and passenger Duncan Underhill are flying at 5,000 feet west of Long Beach, California, when they see a disc about 2,000 feet above them, traveling at 400–500 mph. They estimate it is 40–50 feet in diameter and flying north-northwest. (“‘Air Disc’ Mystery Grows, Baffles U.S.,” Hollywood (Calif.) Citizen-News, July 5, 1947, pp. 1, 3; Bloecher, p. III-10)

Table of Reports, Jun 25 - Jul 21

Report publish date	Location	Date of claimed sighting	Name	Notes	Bloecher # [A]
Jul 6 [No.]	Santa Monica, California	Jul 4	Dan J. Whelan, Duncan Underhill (14)	Vanished in the direction of Catalina Island,	#254