Creepy Green Light
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius
We all heard the story that Kenneth Arnold said the MOVEMENT of the craft was like a saucer skipping on water - not their shape. We've heard that a million times. But according to Wikipedia - he did liken there shape to a saucer. This is what it says;
Several years later, Arnold would state he likened their movement to saucers skipping on water, without comparing their actual shapes to saucers,[3] but initial quotes from him do indeed have him comparing the shape to like a "saucer", "disc", "pie pan", or "half moon", or generally convex and thin (discussion below).
Then this other part doesn't make sense to me. I was wondering how far away these objects were. I'm thinking that he was pretty close to them since he made out structure & detail. However, according to Wikipedia it says the objects were approximately 23 miles away. That doesn't make sense to me. In just my experience of being an aircrewman in the U.S. Navy - I'm trying to envision that I'm back in my plane, staring out of one of the windows & seeing an object 23 miles away. Then on top of that being able to give you the objects shape/size etc. I'm almost thinking that cannot be right. Could you imagine being on a boat in the open ocean & calm seas - and then someone pointing to something and saying see that other boat? That's 23 miles away. Tell me what type of boat it is and its features/shape.
At one point Arnold said they flew behind a subpeak of Rainier and briefly disappeared. Knowing his position and the position of the (unspecified) subpeak, Arnold placed their distance as they flew past Rainier at about 23 miles (37 km).
Several years later, Arnold would state he likened their movement to saucers skipping on water, without comparing their actual shapes to saucers,[3] but initial quotes from him do indeed have him comparing the shape to like a "saucer", "disc", "pie pan", or "half moon", or generally convex and thin (discussion below).
Then this other part doesn't make sense to me. I was wondering how far away these objects were. I'm thinking that he was pretty close to them since he made out structure & detail. However, according to Wikipedia it says the objects were approximately 23 miles away. That doesn't make sense to me. In just my experience of being an aircrewman in the U.S. Navy - I'm trying to envision that I'm back in my plane, staring out of one of the windows & seeing an object 23 miles away. Then on top of that being able to give you the objects shape/size etc. I'm almost thinking that cannot be right. Could you imagine being on a boat in the open ocean & calm seas - and then someone pointing to something and saying see that other boat? That's 23 miles away. Tell me what type of boat it is and its features/shape.
At one point Arnold said they flew behind a subpeak of Rainier and briefly disappeared. Knowing his position and the position of the (unspecified) subpeak, Arnold placed their distance as they flew past Rainier at about 23 miles (37 km).