"Flying saucer" is the term commonly used to describe
Unidentified flying objects, (
UFOs) particularly those that are alleged to be
alien spacecraft. The origins of the term lie in the report of a UFO sighting by Kenneth Arnold on
June 24th 1947, near
Mount Rainier,
Washington. The nine objects he saw were not saucer-shaped: drawings showed something more resembling a "
flying wing" style aircraft. However, he described their movement as a kind of skipping, like a saucer skimmed over water; press reports picked up the "like a saucer" phrase, and reported it as a "flying saucer".
Since that day, the number of different shapes, sizes and configurations of reported UFOs has been large, with accurate descriptions of chevrons, equilateral triangles, spheres, domes, diamonds, shapeless black masses, eggs and cylinders being amongst the reports. The fact that there are so many different shapes, size and configurations is in favor of the socio-psychological paradigm.
See also : George Adamski, UFO