The term “UFO” (or “UFOB”) was coined in 1953 by the us Air Force (USAF) to function a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a “UFOB” was “any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, doesn’t conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which can’t be positively identified as a well-known object”. Accordingly, the term was initially restricted thereto fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, because the USAF was curious about potential national security reasons and “technical aspects”
1940 – 150
During the late 1940s and thru the 1950s, UFOs were often mentioned popularly as “flying saucers” or “flying discs”. The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, initially in technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered considerable interest during the conflict , an era related to a heightened concerns about national security, and, more recently, within the 2010s, for unexplained reasons.Nevertheless, various studies have concluded that the phenomenon doesn’t represent a threat, and nor does it contain anything deserve scientific pursuit .
(e.g., 1951 unidentified flying object working group , 1953 CIA Robertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).
The English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as “An unidentified flying object; a ‘flying saucer'”. the primary published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe.
As an acronym, “UFO” was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF’s official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, “Obviously the term ‘flying saucer’ is misleading when applied to things of each conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced yoo-foe) for brief . Other phrases that were used officially which predate the UFO acronym include “flying flapjack”, “flying disc”, “unexplained flying discs”, and “unidentifiable object”.
The phrase “flying saucer” gained widespread attention after the hemisphere summer of 1947. On Midsummer Day , a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier within the us . Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph (1,931 km/h). At the time, he claimed he described the objects flying during a saucer-like fashion, resulting in newspaper accounts of “flying saucers” and “flying discs”. UFOs were commonly mentioned colloquially, as a “Bogey” by Western military personnel and pilots during the conflict . The term “bogey” was originally wont to report anomalies in radar blips, to point possible hostile forces which may be roaming within the area.
Media ridicule
In popular usage, the term UFO came to be wont to ask claims of alien spacecraft, and since of the general public and media ridicule related to the subject .
some ufologists and investigators like better to use terms like “unidentified aerial phenomenon” (UAP) or “anomalous phenomena”, as within the title of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).
“Anomalous aerial vehicle” (AAV) or “unidentified aerial system” (UAS) also are sometimes utilized in a military aviation context to explain unidentified targets.
