What is in a Name? Discs, Saucers, UFOs, UAPs

FOO-FIGHTERS 

In 1945 - red, glowing, mysterious objects dancing around the clouds and aloft bombers were called "Foo-Fighters."  Feared to be a secret weapon of the Japanese or Nazi's it was kept pretty hush-hush but were encountered over Europe and the Pacific theaters. Post WW2 it was learned the Russians and Germans had seen them as well as the Chinese and Japanese.

No one knew what they were but the theories will sound familiar: static electricity or St. Elmo's Fire or ball lightening or pilot stress....

FLYING DISCS< FLYING DISKC< FLYING SAUCERS

In 1947 - from early in the year people were seeing shiny, disc shaped objects (disc, heel, oval, round, cigar), mostly silver or cream, with a speed and maneuverability unrecognized by witnesses (police, military, etc.).

No one knew what they were, but a reporter dredged up an old term and slapped it on the object reported by one witness in June that made national headlines. Thus, "flying saucers" was coined but most still used the earlier term of "flying disc" or "flying disks." Some merely used the terms of whatever it reminded them of (a flying washtub, a large platter, etc.) as well as "contraption", "whizz-bang", "Whirly-gig" and "what-not." 

FLYING SAUCER. FLYING OBJECT, UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (UFO)

1947 - 1957 the US Air Force used the term "object" more than anything else but by 1953 they were referring to it as an unidentified flying object. They produced a training booklet on hoe to report a "FLYGOBT" and other forms of the term. "Flying saucer" was in the parlance, but the more it became popular lingo, the more the term was used by people to convey nuanced meanings. Just as the term "pink elephant" conveyed without the words the idea of someone seeing things due to excess of alcohol, saying "flying saucer", in the right settings, did the same thing. Here, it said, was a nut-job, low intellect, over-excited, nervous, hysterical, or highly suggestible person who needed a strait jacket.  There were other terms played with for a time but slowly the "U.F.O." became "UFO."  These included forms of "Unidentified Aerial Objects and "Unidentified Phenomena." 

In 1957, it was noticed that the Air Force introduced a new term with "unconventional aircraft", a term the Army also began to use.  This was discussed in the July 1957 issue of "UFO Investigator", the newsletter of NICAP. 

UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENA (UAO)

1962 - The term "UAP" was floated as a preferred term in the military. According to the UFO INVESTIGATOR (NICAP newsletter) of October-November 1962 (pg 3) : "AFR 200 repeatedly uses the term UFO and the AF is trying to replace this in the public mind with "UAP - Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" -- Major C.R. Hart, UFO spokesman, explains in a letter to NY -NICAP Affiliate President Muriel Brookman. The term, it was said, did not, inadvertently, give the ability to "Fly" or even suggest "solidity."

UFO

The "UFO" was the term of choice by the time Project Blue Book closed in 1969 (paperwork and "mop-up" did not conclude until the next year).

UAP (AGAIN OR STILL?)

2021 - The Official - people were told - was a term used by the U.S. government for objects to be studied was "UAP" - Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. 

To this day, the term "flying saucer" found in many debunkers writings and early UFO books and reports, lingers on. It is linked to the far-side element, the 'space-brothers" crowd, the fantastic trips to Venus or Mars crowd, and to those who (it is assumed) are off their meds or had too much to drink. 

"UFO" was born from an attempt to place an unknown within a respectable category. Just as with "flying Saucers" , UFO users realized that sometimes the things people observed were not flying.