Editing 1947 flying disc craze (section)

====Reports peak====
By July 7, the [[Los Angeles Times]] proclaimed: "Flying ‘Whatsits’ Supplant Weather as No. 1 Topic Anywhere People Meet".<ref>Los Angeles Times, July 7, 1947</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title='UFO' Review: Outer Space, the Inside Story |url=https://manhattan.institute/article/ufo-review-outer-space-the-inside-story |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=Manhattan Institute |language=en}}</ref><ref>Last Week Tonight, April 21, 2024</ref> That day, newspapers announced that reports "poured in" from the San Francisco Bay.  Berkeley professor [[Raymond Thayer Birge]] reassured the public that the discs "aren't coming from outer space".  Army pilots began flying "camera patrols" as 11 planes were equipped with telescopic cameras in the hopes of capturing images of a flying disc.<ref name="auto52">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/292796768/|title=7 Jul 1947, 1 - News-Journal at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

Also on July 7, press reported the account of Vernon Baird, who claimed to have seen a 'Flying Yo-Yo' over Montana.<ref name="auto49">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/428764300/|title=7 Jul 1947, 1 - The Columbus Telegram at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  Baird, a civilian pilot working work for a mapping firm, reported the object "came apart like a clamshell. The two pieces spiraled down somewhere in the Madison Range".  Baird described seeing similar objects darting around "like a batch of molecules doing the rumba."  Later that day, it was reported that Baird had admitted the entire story was false.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/624925011/|title=7 Jul 1947, 1 - Ventura County Star at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

One recovered disc was revealed to be a circular saw blade with tubes and wires attached, while a second disc turned out to be locomotive packing washers.<ref name="auto52"/><ref name="auto89">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/798426337/|title=7 Jul 1947, 2 - The Memphis Press-Scimitar at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

Retired general [[Hap Arnold]] (no relation) publicly speculated the discs had either been developed by United States scientists or were foreign technology that "operating out of control".<ref name="auto89"/>  The ''Los Angeles Examiner'' received and publicized a letter claiming the discs were atomic-powered Russian planes.<ref name="auto89"/>

[[Winfred Overholser]], a nationally renowned psychiatrist, described the reports as a "national hysteria".<ref name="auto79">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/616084762/|title=7 Jul 1947, 6 - The Times Dispatch at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref> In contrast, Harry A. Steckel, psychiatric consultant to the Veterans Administration, dismissed the "mass hysteria" explanation, adding that the disc might be the result of "experiments by unknown government agencies".<ref name="auto79"/>

On July 7, it was reported than an Army weather kite was found on a farm near Granville, Ohio.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/287371827/|title=7 Jul 1947, 1 - The Newark Advocate at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  Truman returned to Washington after a weekend in Charlottesville, driving himself most of the way, with police escort.<ref name="auto108">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/761535159/|title=7 Jul 1947, 1 - Abilene Reporter-News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

Also on July 7, it was reported that the FBI was investigating a letter received by the ''Los Angeles Examiner'' which claimed the discs were atomic-powered Russian craft.  The ''Examiner'' turned the letter over to authorities after a recommendation by a "top-flight atomic scientist" who appraised the letter as "not all nonsense".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/458810880/ | title=The San Francisco Examiner 07 Jul 1947, page 2 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/594876423/ | title=Deseret News 07 Jul 1947, page 1 }}</ref>