➡ Kenneth Arnold, a respected businessman and experienced pilot, reported seeing nine shiny unidentified flying objects near Mount Rainier in June 1947. His description of their movement led to the term “flying saucer.” However, the media and military may have misrepresented his account, leading to widespread misinformation about UFOs. Despite skepticism and controversy, Arnold’s sighting sparked a wave of similar reports and is often credited as the start of modern UFO fascination.
➡ Arnold reported seeing fast-moving objects in the sky in 1947, with his estimates of their speed and size changing over time. Despite inconsistencies in his story, other sightings around the same time lend some credibility to his claims. The military dismissed his account, but theories suggest he might have seen experimental aircraft or meteor fireballs. Arnold himself believed they were some type of unconventional airplane.
➡ The article discusses various theories about UFO sightings, including the possibility of them being meteors or extraterrestrial beings. It mentions a significant increase in UFO sightings after the use of nuclear power as a weapon, suggesting a possible link. The most likely explanation, according to the author’s research, is that these sightings could be secret experimental military aircraft. However, the author believes that no theory can be completely ruled out and encourages readers to share their own experiences of strange occurrences.

Flying saucers, UFOs, UAPs, however you refer to them, they have become ingrained in our society. Many Credit Kenneth Arnold’s June 1947 sighting and the publicity around it was starting the modern fascination with UFOs. They even say that the term flying saucer came from Arnold’s sighting. And after Arnold’s sighting, reports of flying saucers came pouring in from all over the country and the world. But there’s a problem. The media took some liberties with Arnold’s description of the objects. So the public has been given misinformation about UFOs from the very beginning. On today’s project, we’re going to look at the Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting, the media and military’s handling of it, and some theories on what he might have seen.

Let’s see what the evidence says. My name is Face and welcome to Project Conspiracy. Kenneth Arnold lived in Meridian, Idaho just outside of Boise and sold fire extinguishing equipment. In 1940 he started his own company, Great Western Fire Control Supply and he had a reputation as a respected businessman. Arnold’s job required frequent travel to rural areas over five western states. Instead of constantly chartering flights, he purchased and flew his own aircraft. In the three years before June 1947, Arnold flew between 40 to 100 hours per month. He had over 4,000 hours of mountain high altitude pilot time and he was a member of the Idaho Search and Rescue.

At the time of his sighting, Arnold was 32, married and had two young daughters. And Kenneth Arnold’s reputation as a pilot and as a person would be put to the test after what he reportedly saw in the skies. On on June 24, 1947, I had finished my work for the Central Air Service at Chehalis, Washington and at about 2 o’clock I took off from Chehalis Airport with the intention of going to Yakima, Washington. Arnold was flying his Collair A2. That day the skies were clear so Arnold decided to spend an hour or so searching for a C46 Marine transport that crashed in December 1946 with 32 Marines aboard.

The transport went down somewhere near Mount Rainier in Washington state and there was a five thousand dollar reward for finding it. Arnold estimated that he was around 25 miles from Mount Rainier and climbed to 9,200ft when things got interesting. According to Arnold, at about 3pm A very bright flash lit up the plane and the sky around me. At first Arnold thought it was the sun, but the flash happened again and that’s when I saw where it was coming from to his left, he saw a string of nine shiny unidentified flying objects speeding past Mount Rainier. I judged their size to be at least 100ft in wide span.

Arnold would later describe the airborne objects as flying in a diagonally stepped down echelon formation stretched out over five miles. The objects moved in unison and flew on a horizontal plane. But they also weave side to side, sometimes flipping and banking, darting around like the tail of a Chinese kite or a flock of geese. As Arnold described, the objects also did not leave a jet trail behind them. As to the speed of the objects that Arnold saw, he calculated the time it took the objects to travel between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, which is about 50 miles.

He clocked them at a minute and 42 seconds, which he admitted was a rough approximation. Before he did any formal calculation just based on seeing them, he thought that they were doing at least a thousand miles per hour. Then Arnold first estimated the speed of the objects at a minimum of 1200 miles an hour. He later recalculated and determined that the objects were actually going somewhere between 1350 and 1700 miles per hour. To put this in perspective for June 24, 1947, the official airspeed record at that time was 623 miles per hour. The speed of sound is about 767 miles per hour.

And Chuck Yeager wouldn’t break the sound barrier until October 1947, four months after Arnold’s sighting. That means that as reported by Arnold, the objects were going between two to three times as fast as what aviation was supposed to be capable of at the time. Time. I continued my search for the Marine plane for another 15 or 20 minutes. And while searching for this Marine plane, what I had just observed kept going through my mind. I became more disturbed. So after taking a last look at Teton Reservoir, I headed for Yakima. Arnold landed at the Yakima Washington airport and told his good friend Al Baxter what he had seen.

Baxter listened to Arnold patiently and was kind, but it seemed like Baxter didn’t really believe Arnold. I landed at Pendleton, Oregon that same day where I told a number of pilot friends of mine what I had observed. And they did not scoff or laugh, but suggested they might be guided missiles or something new. In fact, several former army pilots informed me that they had been briefed before going into combat overseas that they might see objects of similar shape and design as I described, and assured me that I wasn’t dreaming or going crazy. The next day, June 25, Arnold stopped by the local newspaper, the East Oregonian.

He wanted to Ask them if the military had been testing secret warplanes in the area. Arnold told them his story, and the paper published an article about Arnold’s sighting. The headline read, impossible maybe, but seeing is believing says Flyer. The paper reported that Arnold saw nine saucer like aircraft flying in formation, and Arnold’s story spread quickly. By the next day, June 26, the Chicago sun published an article titled Supersonic Flying Saucer cited by Idaho Pilot. As near as I can tell, this or something pretty similar is how the term flying saucer entered the mainstream American lexicon in the middle of the 20th century.

But there’s a problem. According to Arnold, it wasn’t true. Arnold gave a detailed report to the military after the sighting. He told them that the objects did not appear to me to whirl or spin, but seemed in fixed position, traveling as I have made drawing. According to Arnold, that was consistent with what he told the media. And it seems like Arnold distrusted the media after their initial reports. If what Arnold says next is true, you might understand why he feels that way. According to Ed Moreau, who interviewed Kenneth Arnold in 1950, Arnold said the When I described how they flew, I said that they 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 they were saucer like I said that they flew in a saucer like fashion. In fairness, the original East Oregonian article never used the term flying saucer. But describing them as saucer like aircraft was enough to spark the imagination of other reporters. What Arnold actually saw looked more like this. No harm, no foul, right? Well, this was one of the first post World War II sightings in the United States that received nationwide news coverage and whether true or not, is generally credited with being the first modern UFO sighting.

In other words, modern UFO sightings have been shrouded in misinformation from the start. Over the next six weeks, 850 additional sightings of flying disks were reported. And Arnold’s report arguably laid the foundation for some aspects of the Roswell New Mexico incident, which took place just weeks later in July of 1947. You’ve probably heard of the Roswell incident, and yes, there was questionable information transmission around that incident too. So much so that it could probably be its own episode. Well, that’s exactly what I’m here for. So if you want a misinformation part two on Roswell, let me know down in the comments or in our discord links in the description, Kenneth Arnold was determined to find out what he saw on June 24, 1947.

One of his main theories was that the objects he saw had something to do with the army or Air Force, and the military was interested in Arnold, too. The Cold War had begun by the time of Arnold’s sighting, and activity in the skies of the western United States could mean Soviet trouble. So the Pentagon directed the Air Technical Intelligence center at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio to investigate. The Air Force concluded that Arnold saw a mirage, but Arnold fought against that conclusion. A number of newsmen 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. But some military documents weren’t so nice in their findings on Arnold’s case. The entire report of this incident is replete with inconsistencies. It is to be noted that the observer has profited from this story by selling it to Fate magazine. And the military wasn’t wrong about Arnold’s story having inconsistencies. In Arnold’s statement to the military, he said, their speed at the time did not impress me, particularly because I knew that our army and Air Forces had planes that went very fast.

But right after the sighting, in a June 26, 1947 article, when talking about his speed estimate, Arnold said, I could be wrong by 200 or 300 miles an hour, but I know I never saw anything so fast. Sounds like Arnold was pretty impressed with the speed of the objects, doesn’t it? Speaking of the speed of the objects, don’t forget that Arnold initially reported that the objects were going 1200 miles per hour, but then increased it up to 1700 miles per hour. There were also problems with the size descriptions that Arnold gave, especially when coupled with his speed estimates.

Interestingly, Arnold seemed willing to speculate about what he saw, and his consistency in that endeavor is debatable. In a June 26, 1947 article, he appeared to write off new jet planes because their motion was wrong for jet jobs. In his April 7, 1950 call with Ed Morrow, Arnold said, I assumed at the time they were a new formation or a new type of jet. In that call, he also reportedly said, if it’s not made by our science or our Army Air Forces, I am inclined to believe it’s of an extraterrestrial origin. At one point, Arnold said, I thought it was a new type of missile.

So Arnold wasn’t the mark of consistency, but as many times as he likely had to tell the story over the years, I’m willing to cut him a little slack. It’s understandable that he probably thought about the encounter from every angle over time and what’s on one’s mind at any given time can influence what they say publicly. Or maybe he’s being dishonest, but I don’t have the energy or resources to go down those rabbit holes. While there were some inconsistencies with Arnold’s story over the years, there is also evidence that supports what he said. Some have said that there were as many as 18 other UFO sightings in the Pacific Northwest sky on June 24, 1947.

That morning, prospector Fred Johnson reportedly spotted five or six round metallic looking disc about 30ft in diameter and 1,000ft above him. One source said that at 3pm the same time as Arnold’s sighting, a member of the Washington State Forest Service reported seeing flashes over Mount Rainier and witness Sydney Gallagher reported seeing nine shiny disks flash by. On June 26, 1947, the Seattle Daily Times reported that Elma Shingler’s claim to see shiny platter like objects hurtling through the sky at tremendous speed. The objects were coming from the southeast heading northwest towards the Cascade Mountains and this took place around the same time as Arnold’s sighting.

On July 4, just days after Arnold’s sighting, a United Airlines DC3 crew led by Captain E.J. smith took off from Boise, Idaho and sighted nine disk like objects pacing their plane over Idaho, not far from Arnold’s initial sighting. Arnold said he conferred with the captain and they agreed that they had observed the same type of aircraft at the size, shape and form. Based on all this, I’m going to go ahead and say that Arnold probably didn’t see a mirage. Despite that, the military still didn’t think much of Arnold’s story. The report cannot bear even superficial examination, therefore must be disregarded.

There are strong indications that this report and its attendant publicity is largely responsible for subsequent reports. Look closely at this statement. It’s not what the government says here, it’s what they imply. I read this as insinuating that Arnold’s report might be the case that started the flying saucer uptick or craze that went around the US in the 1940s or 50s. But while the media reported that Arnold saw a flying saucer, Arnold himself didn’t claim to see a flying saucer. That said, I have read his book the Coming of the Saucers and he does tend to throw the terms flying Saucer and flying disc around pretty loosely, maybe just using them generically at that point to describe what he saw.

But could media reports themselves make people think that they’re seeing flying saucers in the sky? That question is beyond the scope of this episode, but it’s a potentially fascinating phenomenon. I plan to take a closer look at it on a future episode. For our purposes today, we can say that stress and trauma can be powerful actors. Think about the decade leading up to the year 1947 for the average American. They were coming out of the Great Depression. In 1938, Orson Welles read the War of the Worlds on CBS radio, making some Americans think the world was ending.

Then Time magazine named Adolf Hitler as its man of the year. In 1941, Japanese forces attacked Pearl harbor, essentially forcing the United States into World War II. At some point, everyone realized they made a mistake and Hitler was actually a murderous psychopath. Most lost numerous friends and loved ones due to the war. It had been a traumatic decade for most people on Earth, really. And now they’re hearing reports of flying saucers in the sky. I could entertain the idea that some people heard these flying saucer reports, saw something in the sky, and were able to convince themselves that they saw a flying saucer that wasn’t really there.

That probably does account for some percentage of sightings that happened after Arnold’s sighting. But while there are legitimate psychological and physical explanations for many sightings, it is an uncomfortable but undeniable fact that all the subsequent UFO and UAP sightings can’t just be explained away. So if the government is trying to insinuate that Arnold is somehow responsible for the subsequent UFO sightings that followed, that’s a bridge too far for me. So the Air Force says Arnold saw a mirage. Arnold swears it was not a mirage. And there seems to be a respectable amount of evidence that Arnold wasn’t just seeing things.

So what did he see on June 24, 1947? Well, Arnold himself said, I am convinced in my own mind that they were some type of airplane, even though they didn’t conform with the many aspects of the conventional type of planes that I know. Arnold’s daughter Kim said he believed that our military would come forth and tell everyone what these strange things really were, and it never happened. So naturally. One of the leading theories is that the objects were experimental aircraft flown by the United States. Relevant to this theory is that McChord Field, aka McChord Air Force Base, is about 52 miles from Mount Rainier.

Rabbit Hole War. What would become McCord Field was acquired by the federal government in 1938, it was originally controlled by the army and was part of Fort Lewis. In August 1946, McChord was assigned to the Air Defense Command with a mission of air defense of the United States. Next we discuss legislation. Hooray. The national security Act of 1947 established the Department of the Air Force and became law on June 26, 1947, about a month after Arnold’s sighting. The Air Force was technically started when a Secretary of the Air Force was appointed on September 18, 1947. McChord Field became independent of four Fort Lewis in 1947 after the Air Force was created and it was renamed McChord Air Force Base.

Keep in mind that at other locations, like around Groom Lake, aka Area 51, aka S4 UFOs, many of which were probably military craft, were reported for decades before the government admitted that a military base even existed there. So could what Arnold saw have been experimental military activity at McChord or another air Force base? Well, the main problem with that is the speed that Arnold reported around 1700 miles per hour. That speed exceeded the capabilities of human aircraft at the time. This situation brings to mind the old conspiracy theory adage that government technology is at least 20 years ahead of what the public sees.

We tested this theory in our DARPA lifelog episode and it was pretty accurate. Let’s see how it holds up here. Arnold said he saw an aircraft going 1700 miles per hour in 1947. 15 years later in 1962, the airspeed record was 1665 miles per hour. 18 years later in 1965, the airspeed record was 2070 miles per hour. And this is the closest record we’ve got to 20 years from 1947. So according to the 20 year tech test, the government should have been flying at about 2,000 miles per hour in 1947. So it looks like Arnold’s report is within the margin of error of the 20 year tech test.

You may ask yourself, what does the exercise we just performed prove? Not much. It’s mostly just a fun exercise and certainly an interesting consideration. But if you told me that the United States or Soviets had a craft in 1947 that went 1700 miles per hour, in the context of the history of human aviation, that feels a little faster than what I would expect the government to be capable of in 1947. But it’s possible that I’m naive and our government was completely capable of something around those speeds in 1940, that would not surprise me one bit. Also, it’s Possible that Arnold misjudged the size or speed of the objects, but that he was correct that they were still going much faster than anything that should have been in the skies around that time.

Either way, the theory that Arnold saw secret experimental government craft seems entirely viable and even believable. Another theory speculates that Arnold actually saw meteor fireballs. Apparently, meteor fireballs have been mistaken by pilots for UFOs over the years. According to one source. Based on what I found, this theory appears to be based on pretty generic information, like the fact that meteors tend to enter this area more often during June afternoons than other times of the year. But while the support for this theory seems flimsy, the theory itself seems like it could be a plausible explanation in some circumstances.

Circumstances based on Arnold’s descriptions, it sounded like the objects he saw were making intelligent maneuvers, something that a meteor wouldn’t do. So, without better evidence, the meteor fireball theory seems possible, but unlikely. Our next theory, of course, is aliens or ETs or interdimensional beings or non human biological entities, whatever or whoever you think is responsible for the UFOs in the skies. But I’ve got to warn you, we are now entering the speculation zone. If you’ve looked into UFOs at any decent length, you’ve probably heard reports of them being around sites with nuclear material. And it seems like that might have been the case for whatever was in the air in 1947, too.

After Arnold’s report became public on June 25, 1947, others came forward about what they had seen. A July 8, 1947 AP article reported that Charlie Hamlet of Kingsport, Tennessee, said he saw similar discs with a bright aluminum color going at terrific speed. Two years prior to Arnold sighting, Hamlet said he kept quiet about it because of the Oak Ridge Atomic Bomb Plant, which was a war secret at the time. The Oak Ridge Atomic Bomb Plant, officially known as the Y12 National Security Complex, was built as part of the Manhattan Project to enrich uranium for the first atomic bombs.

So I interpret what Hamlet said as meaning he didn’t want to report his sighting and risk exposing the secret uranium plant during wartime. This seems entirely reasonable. But what does this Tennessee sighting have to do with Kenneth Arnold? Well, the Hanford site is a former nuclear production complex on the Columbia river in Benton county in Washington State, east of Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. The Hanford site was also established as part of the Manhattan Project in 1943. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first atomic bomb tested in the Trinity nuclear test. And in the Fat man bomb used in Nagasaki.

So could Arnold have seen the craft of otherworldly beings going to scout the nearby nuclear facility? Well, that’s tough to say, but it sure is interesting that UFO sightings started spiking right after humans used nuclear power as a weapon. Coincidence, I’m sure. Here’s what I’ll say. Based on the totality of my research, the most probable explanation seems to be that Arnold saw secret explanation experimental military aircraft. But while some explanations seem more likely than others, I genuinely don’t think that we can rule out any explanation discussed today, be it Mirage, military or alien. And while we may never know for certain what Kenneth Arnold saw on June 24, 1947, his story has had a lasting impact on American society, and people should be able to tell their stories of the strangeness they’ve encountered without fear of ridicule or judgment.

Quite frankly, I love hearing the stories, so send me your stories of the high strangeness you’ve encountered, be it a UAP sighting, a cryptid, a haunting time slip, whatever weirdness you’ve seen, email it to me@facerojectconspiracy.com there’s other ways to send them in the Description if email doesn’t work for you. Oh yeah. If you don’t want your story or something in it, like your name or some particular detail shared, make sure to let me know that in the submission, because I may share these on the show and let me know in the comments what you think Kenneth Arnold saw.

I appreciate you taking the time to join me on this project, and we’ll see you on the next one. Until then, watch out for the lizard people.
[tr:tra].