Editing 1947 flying disc craze (section)

===Increasing prominence===
From June 24 to July 1, official response was one of skepticism and humor; that changed during the first week of July, when reports from reputable witnesses prompted further reactions and investigations.<ref name="auto36"/>

====Lt. Governor sighting followed by official investigation====
On July 2, Idaho Lt. Governor [[Donald S. Whitehead]] revealed publicly that both he and Boise Justice J.M. Lampert had witnessed objects on June 24, the day of Arnold's sighting.<ref name="auto31">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/566291520/|title=2 Jul 1947, 1 - The Times-News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7aJVq5-ZkuEC&pg=PA180|title=Outbreak!: The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior|first1=Hilary|last1=Evans|first2=Robert E.|last2=Bartholomew|date=April 11, 2009|publisher=Anomalist Books, LLC|isbn=9781933665252 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D5tTAAAAMAAJ|title=Report on the UFO Wave of 1947|first=Ted|last=Bloecher|date=April 23, 1967|via=Google Books}}</ref> The next day, papers nationwide reported that Lt. Gen. [[Nathan F. Twining|Nathan Twining]], commander of [[Wright Field]], had announced that Air Material Command had opened a probe into the discs. Twining claimed that a "reputable scientist" had seen the disc-like objects in flight. Twining urged all persons seeing the strange objects in flight to contact Wright Field.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/566291653/|title=3 Jul 1947, 1 - The Times-News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

That day, headlines proclaimed "U.S. Stops 'Laughing Off' Stories of Flying Discs", quoting an Army Air Force spokesman as saying "If some foreign power is sending flying discs over the United States, it is our responsibility to know about it and take proper action".<ref name="auto36">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/683746478/|title=3 Jul 1947, 1 - Los Angeles Evening Citizen News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Army experts acknowledged that they could not explain the disc and reported having checked research authorities and contractors, none of whom knew anything concrete about the discs.<ref name="auto25">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/38901616/|title=3 Jul 1947, Page 2 - The Times at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  They suggested the discs might be the product of a civilian inventor.<ref name="auto28">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/358928569/|title=3 Jul 1947, 1 - The Daily News-Journal at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

The ''[[Idaho Statesman]]'' quoted an unnamed military officer as saying he thought the air forces and FBI had been showing "complacency" by not pushing for a more "vigorous investigation". It also reported that Kenneth Arnold has not been contacted by military or the FBI about his sighting.<ref name="auto23">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/723487694/|title=3 Jul 1947, 1 - The Idaho Statesman at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  The ''Statesman'' quoted the FBI special agent in charge of the area's FBI force, [[Guy Banister|W.G. Banister]], who reported "I don't know any more about it than what I read in the newspapers."<ref name="auto23"/>

====San Francisco fireworks and stories of landings====
On July 3, press nationwide reported a story from California Highway Patrol Sergeant David Menary who told of seeing six large metallic discs dive into the San Francisco Bay at high speed the prior day.<ref name="auto13">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/458782396/|title=3 Jul 1947, 6 - The San Francisco Examiner at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Menary had been accompanied by Walter Castro, a garage owner.  On July 3, US Army major Steve Monroe of [[Presidio of San Francisco|the Presidio]] issued a report explaining that Menary's sighting had been caused by 'some of the boys' experimenting with fireworks.  Monroe announced further such experiments would be cancelled.<ref name="auto13"/>

On July 3, press announced a "mystery missle" had been seen in Altadena, California and was believed to have landed nearby; the witness stated that object "was NOT {{sic}} a 'flying disc'".<ref name="auto14">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/628345830/|title=3 Jul 1947, 11 - Metropolitan Pasadena Star-News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  That same day, press reported on a potential landing in San Miguel.<ref name="auto32">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/17214918/|title=3 Jul 1947, Page 1 - The Gallup Independent at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

====July 4 press reports====
By July 4, reports had spread to 11 states and two Canadian provinces, with new sightings reported in Delaware.<ref name="auto17">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/566291780/|title=4 Jul 1947, 1 - The Times-News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Headlines declared the recent investigation had finished: "Army Air Forces Drops Inquiry Into Mysterious 'Flying Discs'; Maybe They're Just Imaginary".  An Army Air Force spokesman explained that the inquiry "has not produced enough fact to warrant further investigation".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/664344070/|title=4 Jul 1947, 1 - The Bangor Daily News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

Also on July 4, the United Press quoted [[Meade Layne]], a publisher of an occult magazine, who speculated that the discs were "etheric".<ref name="auto34">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/809588970/|title=4 Jul 1947, 1 - The Tribune at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  Alternatively, the San Francisco Chronicle published a letter from local eccentric Ole J. Sneide who claimed that the discs were "oblate spheroid space ships" who "have been absent from our planet since before the fall of the Roman Empire, when the Great Master left earth for the outer galaxy by fohatic {{sic}} teleportation."<ref name="auto34"/>
{{external media
|image1=[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23246299/harrisburg-telegraph/ Frank Ryman photograph]
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That same day, it was reported that Frank Ryman, a Coast Guard yeoman in Seattle, had photographed a disc.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/745115299/|title=4 Jul 1947, 9 - The Columbia Record at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="auto27">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/213019753/|title=5 Jul 1947, Page 4 - The Town Talk at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="auto59"/>  Also on July 4, it was reported that eight military men were hospitalized with burns after an acid accident at White Sands under Lt. Col. Harold B. Turner.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/2859461/|title=4 Jul 1947, Page 2 - Clovis News-Journal at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

====Flight 105====
{{main|Flight 105 UFO sighting}}
{{Location map+|USA West|width=150|float = right|caption=Flight 105 departed Boise bound for Pendleton.|places=
{{Location map~|USA West|
lat_dir=N|lat_deg=43|lat_min=36|lat_sec=57|mark = BSicon_AIRCLUB_fliph.svg | marksize =16 |
lon_dir=W|lon_deg=116|lon_min=12|lon_sec=6|label=Boise | label_size = 100 |position=right}}
}}
On the evening of July 4, United Airlines Flight 105 took off from [[Boise, Idaho]] in a [[DC-3]] bound for [[Pendleton, Oregon]].<ref name="auto59"/><ref name="auto">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjI4X7ZOvOIC|title=Watch the Skies!: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth|first=Curtis|last=Peebles|date=March 21, 1995|publisher=Berkley Books|isbn=9780425151174 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/569377870/|title=8 Jul 1947, 1 - The Spokesman-Review at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  In a sign of the times, on departure Boise tower jokingly suggested the crew "be on the lookout for 'flying saucers'".<ref name="Jul5">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/428762908/|title=5 Jul 1947, 3 - The Columbus Telegram at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

During the flight, the crew reportedly observed "four or five 'somethings'", described as "smooth on the bottom and rough appearing on top", but they could not say whether they were "oval or saucer-like".<ref name="Jul5"/>  One object was reportedly larger than the rest.<ref name="Jul5"/>  The crew later witnessed what they interpreted as four additional objects.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/350610291/|title=5 Jul 1947, 1 - Rapid City Journal at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

====Group sightings====
The Flight 105 sighting was widely publicized on July 5. Also on July 5, papers reported a group of 60 picnickers in Twin Falls Park had witnessed 35 discs over a twenty-minute period the prior day.<ref name="auto48">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/723487814/|title=5 Jul 1947, 1 - The Idaho Statesman at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  Police in Portland received reports of discs, some reports coming from members of local law enforcement in Portland and Vancouver; the International News Service reported that "hundreds of persons" viewed the strange objects, up to 20 in number.<ref name="auto26"/>  At [[Hayden Lake, Idaho]], a group of 200 people were said to witness a disc for thirty minutes.<ref name="auto18">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/569193624/|title=5 Jul 1947, 1 - The Rock Island Argus at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  Six people in Boise reported seeing discs the previous day.<ref name="auto26">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/723487819/|title=5 Jul 1947, 2 - The Idaho Statesman at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

On July 5, it was reported that a balloon and a six-pointed, star-shaped tinfoil object was recovered in [[Pickaway County, Ohio]] by farmer Sherman Campbell; the press speculated the object may have been responsible for recent local 'flying saucer' reports.

Also on July 5, press reported on the disappearance of an Army C-54 transport plane.  The plane went missing after departing Bermuda bound for West Palm Beach with six men aboard.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/80175383/|title=5 Jul 1947, Page 2 - Statesman Journal at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  Years later, the disappearance and flying discs would be incorporated into the [[Bermuda Triangle]] folklore.

Wire service reports quoted astronomer Oliver J. Lee of the [[Dearborn Observatory]] as suggesting the discs were "probably man-made and radio controlled".<ref name="auto18"/>  Human behavioral expert John. G. Lynn blamed the "wave of saucer hysteria" on "recent predictions that an atomic war would break out, laying waste the United States".<ref name="auto18"/>  A Louisiana paper quoted physicist Norris Sill, a member of the Navy staff at the [[Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll|Bikini tests]], as discounting the suggestion that nuclear fission was causing the sightings, saying there was "no plausible connection between the two".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/213019734/|title=5 Jul 1947, Page 1 - The Town Talk at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

====Atomic link claimed====
{{Flying disc craze of 1947 map of reports - Jul 6}}

During the 1947 craze, flying discs and atomic weaponry became linked in the public consciousness.<ref>G. Arnold, Ch. 12</ref>  On July 6, headlines proclaimed "Discs Atom Products, A-Bomb Scientist Says".  Articles cited an unnamed "noted scientist in nuclear physics" affiliated with CalTech who had been part of the Manhattan Project.  The scientist declared "People are not 'seeing things'" and 'said flatly that experiments in "transmutation of atomic energy" being conducted at Muroc Lake Calif; White Sands, N.M.; Portland Ore., and elsewhere are responsible for the "flying discs".<ref name="auto64">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/527531897/|title=6 Jul 1947, 4 - Scrantonian Tribune at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  Papers observed that the "Bulk of the flying disc reports have generated in a wide circle through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon surrounding the [[Hanford Site|Hanford works]]".<ref name="auto58">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/182928820/|title=6 Jul 1947, Page 17 - Star Tribune at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  Col. F. J. Clarke, commander of Hanford, denied knowledge of any connection.<ref name="auto58"/> [[Harold Urey]], atomic scientist in Chicago, dismissed the report as "gibberish", as did Atomic Energy Commission chair [[David E. Lilienthal]].<ref name="auto58"/>

The Associated Press reported that fighters had been placed on alert at [[Muroc Army Airfield]] and Portland, Oregon—two hotspots of reports in the prior weeks.<ref name="auto46">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/566291869/|title=6 Jul 1947, 1 - The Times-News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>  By July 6, reports had spread to 31 states.<ref name="auto46"/>  Louis E. Starr, the national commander of the [[Veterans of Foreign Wars]], called for more information about the discs, declaring that "Too little is being told to the people of this country".<ref name="auto46"/>

====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>