Airborne Writer Winds Up Disc-Gusted After Fast Sky Search for Flying Discs

The Oregonian

5 juillet 1947

This blank piece of low-quality paper, 23 1/2 by 36 inches, held by Sherman Cook, 2000 N. E. 65th Ave., fluttered down from a great height Friday afternoon to a landing on the Rose City golf course, where Cook retrieved it. During the paper’s descent, it was reported by numerous observers as a “flying saucer,” hovering. Earlier, a flurry of “saucer” reports had coincided with a flight of army jet planes over Portland.

Par PAUL F. EWING, Staff Writer, The Oregonian

A 10 500 pieds au-dessus de Portland avec l'expédition de chasse à la "soucoupe volante" de l'Oregonian. 4 juillet (Spécial) — Il n'y a personne là-haut d'autre que nous et les oiseaux. On second thought, there are no birds, either.

Persistent and widespread reports of scads of “flying saucers” over the city — the Vancouver, Wash., sheriff’s office reported 20 in a line “going like hell toward the west” — sent our scientific party scrambling aloft.

Lonely Up There

Armed with a camera in the trembling (but eager) hands of Harold Gazin and the airplane in the hands of Bryce Piper, instructor at Oregon City’s Sky Park airport, we circled upward over Oaks Amusement park where the flitting phenomena first were sighted.

No balloons, no “flying saucers,” no other planes were in sight.

We leveled out at 10 500 pieds et avons volé vers l'ouest sur la traînée des 20 soucoupes, peering eagerly for the first sight of the sun-reflecting, weaving discs.

Over the crest of the Coast range hung a scanty fringe of clouds. We joined the clouds and looked westward. Ahead of us was Tillamook backed by a sizable chunk of Pacific ocean, but no discs. The only interesting sight was a lone plane, flitting toward Astoria in the distance.

Lots of Scenery Seen

Turning back over the Willamette valley, the expedition checked visibility. To the south we could see Salem and Albany. To the east were the Three Sisters, Mt. Jefferson, and Mt. Hood with few intervening clouds.

Northward across the Columbia were Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams and the base of cloud-shrouded Mt. Rainier. But no saucers.

The expedition returned to Portland, where it suddenly occurred to a scientific mind that the discs might be a modern version of the flying rugs popular in Arabian Nights days — if they had days with their nights.

Real Planes Sighted

That might mean a silver foil rug too thin to be seen from the same altitude. The expedition plane dipped down 8000 feet, still circling for a glimpse of the elusive saucer.

No soap. Our scientific eager beavers spotted two or three light planes going about their business at an altitude of 1500 feet, but no discs.

At that altitude there was nothing else for it. We landed satisfied there were no discs. And immediately reports of a new saucer infestation began to flood The Oregonian’s city desk.