On June 24th 1947, the word, flying saucer was coined by journalists who were reporting an odd story about Kenneth Arnold who while flying his plane over Washington spotted nine boomerang shaped craft that seemed to skip across the air as a “saucer would skip across water.” These unknown craft were mirror bright and traveled at fast speeds, faster than any jet that would eventually show up in the skies many years later.
The “flying saucers” had arrived only because the media said so.
The flying saucer was most definitely a media creation; a marketing label developed to sell newspapers. It would become a word that not only was used to encourage the believers and the witnesses but it also was used in a derisive manner.
Originally Broadcast 6/29/2016
Ground Zero: Aftermath
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