"Flying saucer" -- the term -- was coined 60 years ago, when salesman and pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in a "V" formation over Mount Rainier, Washington. Arnold told a reporter on June 24, 1947 that the UFOs flew erratically, fluttering and tipping their wings, like "a saucer if you skip it across water" -- and a worldwide subculture was born.
In the six decades since, flying saucers have inspired scores of movies, TV shows and a mini publishing industry. They're supposedly the source of crop circles and cattle mutilations, and they've spawned several cults and a minor religion. Fodder for government commissions, both real and imagined, the mysterious vehicles have also fed government conspiracy theorists, who believe we're being lied to.
"The evidence is overwhelming that some UFOs are intelligently controlled ET spacecraft," says Stanton Friedman, a leading ufologist, who argues further "that the subject represents a cosmic Watergate, that there are no good arguments against these conclusions and that flying saucers and the worldwide government cover-up are the biggest story of the millennium.
"I don't worry much about convincing skeptics," Friedman says. "Those who are willing to look at the scientific evidence will be convinced."
Of course, aliens and UFOs were around long before "flying saucer" was coined. UFOs have been seen for centuries, regarded as spirits, angels, dragons, phantom airships and ghost aircraft.
In 1938, Orson Welles' radio dramatization of War of the Worlds created mass hysteria. During World War II, allied pilots often reported seeing balls of light following their aircraft. They were nicknamed "foo fighters" and were regarded as German secret weapons. Shortly after the war, ghost rockets were seen throughout Europe. In 1946, at least 1,000 ghost-rocket sightings were reported in Sweden alone.
But never have flying saucers been a bigger part of the zeitgeist than they are now. In 2002, a Roper poll found that one in seven U.S. citizens claim to have seen a UFO or know someone who's had an alien encounter. A recent survey estimated half the U.S. population believes the media is conditioning the public for our first alien encounter. Every year, thousands of UFO sightings are made worldwide. The numbers reported to the authorities or media are difficult to gauge -- and even the most die-hard ufologists admit that the majority of sightings can be explained as aircraft, mirages balloons, snow showers or orographic clouds.
