The article below was published in the newspaper Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Hawaii, USA, page 1, on July 9, 1947.
![]() |
Air Field's 'Flying Disc' Only a Weather BalloonCHICAGO, July 9 (U.P.) -- Reports of flying discs whizzing through the sky fell off sharply today as the army and navy began a concentrated campaign to stop the rumors. * * * One by one, persons who thought they had their hands on the $3000 offered for a genuine flying saucer found their hands full of nothing. Headquarters of the 8th army air force at Fort Worth, Tex., announced that the wreckage of a tin-foil covered object found on a New Mexico ranch was nothing more than remnants od a weather observation balloon. * * * AAF headquarters in Washington reportedly delivered a "blistering" rebuke to officers at the Roswell N. M. base for suggesting that it was a "flying disc." * * * The devices, composed of a 50-inch synthetic rubber balloon and a star-like device that looks like a box kite, can atteign a height of 60.000 to 70.000 feet. Foreign newspapers were having a good time kidding the "flying disks." A cartoon in El Universal, Mexico City, showed a farm couple watching disks in the clouds with the husband saying, "don't be alarmed, they're just tortillas (round flat-like Mexican bread). You know their price is sky high." OAHU's 'FLYING SAUCER' IDENTIFIED AS A P-47Honolulu's "flying saucer" sighted last Tuesday afternoon by several navy men, has turned out to be a prosaic army P-47, Pacific headquarters announced today. * * * The P-47 is the well-known Thunderbolt army fighter plane, single-engined airplane. A full scale investigation due to reports of five navy enlisted men that they sighted "flying discs" over Pearl Harbor about 5:30 Tuesday evening has unearthed the fact that a group of P-47 fighters were in the area at the same time. * * * The silver or aluminum colored P-47s were erroneously taken to be "flying discs" by the observers, the navy spokesmen said. |