Jets 'Circle' Mysterious Flying Discs
The Washington Post
July 26, 1952
LOS ANGELES, July 25 (U.P.) - New reports of "flying saucers" or some other mysterious objects in the nighttime sky came today from various parts of the Nation.
But as reports of disc-like objects continued to mount, scientists remained skeptical.
Ogdensburg, N.Y., residents reported two or three jet planes circled three silver objects high in the sky for about 20 minutes today.
Harold Frank, a radio newsman, reported the objects appeared to be round, silvery and in three sections. He said his station - WSLB - had been swamped with telephone calls from inquisitive persons. It was not known immediately where the planes were from.
"Flying saucer" watches in Southern California have reported seeing something flitting over the Hawthorne and Inglewood areas this week. Mrs. Vern Margolis said that last night she saw an object in the northwestern sky after midnight.
"It appeared elongated at first and then seemed to form into a ball and disappeared real fast," she said.
At Wilmington, N.C., a large number of persons telephoned police last night to say they saw a bright object flashing overhead at "terrific speed."
Scientists at Griffith Park Observatory here took a dim view of the reports coming from Southern California. They said that despite the reports throughout the last week, nothing unusual had been seen through the observatory telescopes.
One Southern Californian, Robert Buckles, said he was on duty at the Los Angeles Airport control tower when a strange object appeared.
"There is no such thing as a flying saucer," he said, "but there was an unidentifiable object over Los Angeles that at first was stationary and then flew away with vapor or smoke trails behind it."
J.P. Bradshaw, labor union official at Wilmington, N.C., estimated the speed of the object he saw at "in excess of 600 miles an hour." He said he was certain it was not a meteor or shooting star.
University of Chicago scientists were ready for reports of "flying saucers" that came today. The university sent 25 balloons into the sky with equipment for atomic research, each time similar balloons were released before, the scientists received a flurry of "saucer" reports.
Soon after the balloons were sent aloft yesterday, sure enough, authorities started receiving reports of "flying saucers" just as the scientists predicted.