page_title: Flying saucer
hierarchical_section_title: Flying saucer
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover of the pulp science fiction magazine Amazing Stories October 1957. This was a special edition devoted to "flying saucers", which had become a national fad following the 1947 sightings of saucer-shaped flying objects by airline pilot Kenneth Arnold and others, inspiring US Air Force investigations such as Project Blue Book.
context_page_description: A flying saucer is a descriptive term for a supposed type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has generally been supplanted since 1952 by the United States Air Force term unidentified flying objects. Early reported sightings of unknown "flying saucers" usually described them as silver or metallic, sometimes reported as covered with navigation lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly, either alone or in tight formations with other similar craft, and exhibiting high maneuverability.
context_section_description: A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a supposed type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has generally been supplanted since 1952 by the United States Air Force term unidentified flying objects (or UFOs for short). Early reported sightings of unknown "flying saucers" usually described them as silver or metallic, sometimes reported as covered with navigation lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly, either alone or in tight formations with other similar craft, and exhibiting high maneuverability.
caption: October 1957 issue of Amazing Stories magazine devoted to flying saucers. The sightings starting in 1947 ignited an obsession with flying saucers that lasted a decade.
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