It wasn’t enough that reporters and the powers-that-be ridiculed people for seeing flying saucers, but when a large number of people spotted a cigar-shaped UFO, they coined it “the flying banana.”
This 1950 article is an excellent example of how people were criticized for seeing unusual things in the sky, and it is the main reason why, even today, people are too often scared to report a sighting.
Yes, We Have No Bananas Today; They’re Flying!
Avast! Stop right where you are. This thing has gotten out of bounds. First it was flying saucers – saucers of such maneuverability that defied the comprehension of the intellects. And now, it is a flying banana.
People weren’t content to have their saucers fly around like birds; a flying saucer was becoming quaint and common. To give the affair variety, they gave the ability to bananas.
That’s the story that originated from Helena, Montana. Either mass insanity has invaded the States or some scientist is far advanced of his willey-eyed watchful public.
The flying banana incident was reported by a substantial number of spectators who swear they actually saw the thing. And the promoters of the story should, technically, know what they are talking about. All of them are experienced in the identification of aircraft. They were personnel of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the Air Force and commercial airlines.
Control tower operators James Seeking and Paul Hopkins were the first to report the story. They said “a long yellow object” headed for the control tower at the Spokane, Washington, Air Force base. “Scared the devil out of me for a minute,” Hopkins said.
The banana-shaped craft was potted minutes later by Jack Davis, a CAA communicator, who said the orange-yellow object sped toward Great Falls, Mont., 140 miles away.
That it reached Great Falls was established by subsequent reports by a weather observer and by a CAA Communicator, who said the banana traversed the city at such terrific speed that rendered it almost imperceptible to the unaided eye.
All reports coincide in one respect: The object was shaped like a banana and traveled at a terrific speed.
A flying banana is quite a novelty, but not its big brother, the flying saucer. The still dubious flying saucer has lead an interesting and itinerant life since its parental father, private pilot Kenneth Arnold, first viewed it from his small craft as it raced ahead of him toward Yakima, Washington, in June, 1947.
Source: The Nome nugget. (Nome, Alaska), 09 Aug. 1950.
