Kenneth Arnold's famous attempt to describe how the objects he had seen MOVED " like a saucer skipping across water" turned into , "flyer sees flying saucer."! It stuck and the long years of confused and confusing descriptions began.
I have, in examining many records, observed a fluidity between what the witness (A) said and the investigator (B) wrote down. (B) was attempting to make what (A) reported fit neatly into a set of presumed explanations: Aircraft, weather balloon, astronomical objects, natural phenomena, miss identifications of common and normal objects, mass hysteria, war nerves, and hoaxes.
Much was made of the fact that often witnesses of the same event saw different shapes. For the AF and debunkers this was proof of their suspicious natures. Yet, little attention was paid in all the fact gathering to issues of perspective and viewpoint differences to the same basic shape. The common terms were less uniformly understood as well creating another issue. The same basic shape could be called by several different names: good for muddying the waters of investigations.
The Shapes
The DISC - a flat, circular, thin object
The HEMISPHERE - a half s sphere. Associated terms include "The HALF-MOON" or "MUSHROOM"
The SPHERE -a round, solid figure
The FLATTENED SPHERE - a round shape squashed down. Associated terms include "The FOOTBALL"
The ELLIPTICAL -an oval shape. Associated terms include "The FOOTBALL" or "The EGG SHAPE"
The TRIANGLE - a three sided form of three angles. Associated terms include 'The DELTA'.
The CYLINDRICAL - a form of two straight parallel lines and a circular or oval cross-section. Associated terms include 'The Cigar Shape'.
The RECTANGLE - a shape of four sides, two longer than the other two.
The SQUARE - a shape of four equal sides
The CHEVRON - a "V" or an upside down "V"; although it might be assumed to be a form of a triangle, witnesses sometimes noted an opened ended aspect and the Chevron term applied.
The DOMED DISC - as opposed to a flat or normal disc shape; most often associated with sightings of a dome, protrusion, "hat" or similar features on the top of an object. Associated terms include "The Saucer with a HAT" or the "WW1 HELMET"
The SATURN DISC - an apparent ring around the object. Sub-categories were the elliptical or winged oval and the fat diamond.
The LIGHT SOURCE ONLY - star like or planet like. Associated terms include "STREETLIGHT" or "HEADLIGHT" look.
The Size
A given in the data of the UFO files is a common parlance measurement tool. "XXX held at arm's length." Even when the rest of the phrase is not included it is assumed. All the early forms and reports include the verbiage of object was like {what thing} held at arm's length? Mid-way through the project an attempt was made to switch to using the head of wooden match as the sizing tool. it clarified some measurement issues but made vague many others. Here are the common reference items used and understood:
PEA held at arm's length
DIME held at arm's length
NICKEL held at arm's length
QUARTER held at arm's length
HALF-DOLLAR held at arm's length
GOLF BALL held at arm's length
TENNIS BALL held at arm's length
ORANGE held at arm's length
BASEBALL held at arm's length
GRAPEFRUIT held at arm's length
BASKETBALL held at arm's length
The problem with these was they address perspective related to distance. The same object seen at many miles may, if it is closer, may require a different object to describe its size related to nearness to witness. Thus the importance of recording stationary landmarks in relation to a sighting to bring greater clarity to the description of size versus distance. If the object was seen by the water tower and both of those things were the size of a pea held at arm's length the answer was more precise.
The do, however, provide good "apparent" size values to take into consideration. It should be more difficult to assign an object the apparent size of a a BASEBALL as an aircraft that made no noise and sharp 90 degree angle turns. Such a mundane craft seen that size would have made noise and been unable to perform that maneuver.
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