Do you know why UFOs are depicted as flying saucers?

The phrase "flying saucer" has become a household word. This is actually a synonym for an unidentified flying object. In films, computer games and comics, aliens very often travel on vehicles of this shape.

But few people know that the expression "flying saucer" appeared literally by mistake.

June 24, 1947, an amateur pilot named Kenneth Arnold was heading on his plane at an air show in Oregon. Suddenly, he saw a bright blue flash of light in the sky near Mount Rainier, and then noticed nine more in succession. Kenneth was convinced that they came from unidentified flying objects.

Arnold told about what he saw, to representatives of the United Press newspaper. In an attempt to describe how these flashes of light moved, the pilot said that they flew "like a saucer when you put it on water." The reporter misinterpreted his words and decided that the objects themselves were like saucers. As a result, the news across America began to repeat that the pilot saw alien ships in the form of "flying saucers". That's the whole story.

This is the case when the misinterpretation of the words of one person predetermined the development of the image of UFOs in modern popular culture.

If a reporter 75 years ago had listened to Kenneth Arnold's story a little more attentively, now spacecraft in Babylon 5, Star Trek, Jupiter Ascending, The Twilight Zone, Mars Attacks, Doctor Who, and American Horror Story would take a very different form.

Arnold himself did not compare the shape of the UFO to disks or saucers at all. In a later interview he gave in 1950 to journalist Edward Murrow, Kenneth declaredthat he was misquoted.

Astrophysicist Donald Menzel in his book Flying Saucers explanation what Arnold noticed. He believes it was common optical illusion, parhelion, or "false sun" - a halo effect that occurs due to ice crystals floating in the air.

Here is a quote from his work: “On a clear, still day, one or more layers of fog or dust may appear in the earth's atmosphere. Such a layer is almost invisible when you look at it from below or from above, but from an airplane flying along it, it is perfectly visible. Under certain conditions, fog or haze reflects the sun's rays, almost like a mirror... Of course, it was a false sun. In general, contact with brothers in mind is again postponed indefinitely.

Avro Canada VZ‑9 Avrocar testing in 1961. Video: United States Air Force Archive

In general, purely theoretically, the form disk not the worst for an aircraft that can go into space. Firstly, the dish has good aerodynamic stability. Secondly, it will be able to effectively slow down on the atmosphere planets when leaving orbit, if the lower part is covered with heat-resistant ablative protection.

And people even tried to develop devices with a round wing. For example, in 1934 at the University of Miami, tested a plane called Nemeth Umbrella Plane - "Umbrella". After that, several more prototypes were created, including the VZ-9 Avrocar fighter from Canada, which the United States developed during the Cold War.

But in the end, aircraft designers decided to return to aircraft of a more familiar shape. It turned out that the disk-shaped devices keep well in the air, but badly adapted for maneuvering.