Encounter Atlas

Creature index / UFOs and UAP

Flying saucer

Also called Disc, Flying disc, Saucer-shaped UFO

The classic disc-shaped UFO that launched the modern era of sightings.

On June 24, 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold reported nine shiny objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier, Washington, moving "like a saucer if you skip it across water". Newspapers coined "flying saucer" within days, and a wave of reports swept the country.

Two weeks later came Roswell. In the decades since, disc shapes have stayed among the most reported UFO types, and the US Air Force set up Project Sign, Grudge and Blue Book to investigate them.

Browse 10,622 US Air Force Project Blue Book case files on the map or by state.

What witnesses report

  • Metallic disc, sometimes with a dome
  • Silent, very fast or hovering
  • Lights around the rim

Famous cases

  1. 1947Kenneth Arnold sighting
    Mount Rainier, Washington
  2. 1947Roswell incident
    Roswell, New Mexico
  3. 1950McMinnville photos
    McMinnville, Oregon

Seen the Flying saucer?

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