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The World of
Flying Saucers
A SCIENTIFIC EXAMINATION OF A
MAJOR MYTH OF THE SPACE AGE
Donald H. Menzel
AND
Lyle G. Boyd
DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC., GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 63-12989
Copyright © 1963 by Donald H. Menzel and Lyle G. Boyd
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America
vii
To Fred L. Whipple, whose studies have added much to ourknowledge of meteors—which have furnished more than theirshare of UFOs.
| PREFACE | xiii |
| I. THE SAUCER WORLDS | 1 |
| UFO Reports and the Air Force—The Scientist’s View—The Question of “Evidence”—Various Types of UFO—Descriptions of UFOs—A “Baedeker’s Guide” to Saucerdom | |
| II. LO! | 13 |
| Arnold’s Nine Disks—The Great Shaver Mystery—The Maury Island Fragments—Science Fiction Adopts the Saucers—Mirage or Wave Clouds? | |
| III. AIR-BORNE UFOS: BALLOONS TO BUBBLES | 31 |
| The Mantell Tragedy—A Probable Solution of the Mantell Case—A Radiosonde over Virginia—Skyhook and Pibal UFOs—The Guantánamo “Dogfight”—The Wallops Island UFO—Weather Balloons and Saucers—Plastic UFOs and the “Stack of Coins”—Jets and Contrails—The Killian Case— ... And Kites and Soap Bubbles | |
| IV. THE SPANGLED HEAV’NS: STARS AND PLANETS | 60 |
| A Mirage of Sirius—Earth’s Distorting Atmosphere—The “Whipping Girl” of Saucerdom—The Ryan Case—Venus as a Morning Star—Venus as an Evening Star—The Rotating Lights of Japan—UFOs and the Opposition of Mars—The Gorman “Dogfight”—Only a Balloon?—Jupiter through a Jet Trailviii | |
| V. OUT OF THE SKY: METEORS AND FIREBALLS | 88 |
| Stones from Heaven—Meteor Streams and Showers—The Green Fireballs—Meteors in the Records—Fallacies about Meteors—Facts about Meteors—Unusual Fireballs—Great Meteor Processions—The Chiles-Whitted Sighting—Other Flaming UFOs | |