Kenneth Albert Arnold (May 15, 1915 – January 16, 1984) was an American aviator and businessman best known for his 1947 sighting of unidentified flying objects near Mount Rainier, Washington, an event that sparked widespread public interest in UFOs and contributed to the coining of the term “flying saucers.”
Early life and education
Arnold was born in Leland, Iowa, and grew up in a farming family. He attended the University of Puget Sound, where he studied aeronautical engineering, though he did not complete a degree. He obtained his private pilot’s license in the late 1930s and later earned a commercial pilot’s rating.
Aviation career
During World II, Arnold served as a flight instructor for the United States Army Air Forces, training pilots for combat operations. After the war, he worked as a commercial pilot and owned a small aviation business in Seattle, Washington, providing charter flights and aerial surveying services.
1947 UFO sighting
On June 24, 1947, while flying a small Cessna aircraft near Mount Rainier, Arnold reported observing nine high‑speed objects moving in a formation. He described them as “...like a saucer if you skipped it across the water,” a phrase that journalists later shortened to “flying saucer.” The sighting was widely reported in the press and is commonly regarded as the first major UFO incident in the United States, prompting investigations by the U.S. Army Air Forces’ Project Sign and later influencing popular culture and governmental interest in unidentified aerial phenomena.
Later life
Arnold continued his aviation business and occasionally gave interviews about the 1947 incident. He maintained that the objects he witnessed were not conventional aircraft, but he did not claim any extraterrestrial origin. In the 1950s and 1960s, he participated in public discussions on aerial phenomena and testified before congressional committees investigating UFO reports.
Death
Kenneth Arnold died of a heart attack on January 16, 1984, in Seattle, Washington, at the age of 68. He is interred in Seattle’s Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park.
Legacy
Arnold’s 1947 observation is cited in numerous historical works on UFOs as a pivotal moment that shaped modern ufology. The event contributed to the establishment of official U.S. government projects—including Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book—dedicated to investigating unidentified aerial sightings. Arnold’s personal accounts remain part of the primary source material for researchers studying mid‑20th‑century UFO reports.
