ufo, etc.

[Mullins, Bill]

>From the Project Blue Book archives, online, and elsewhere.

UFO -- OED has Oct 9, 1953


[Air Force memorandum, dated 3 Nov 1952, online at:
http://bluebookarchive.org/page.aspx?PageCode=MAXW-PBB7-938 ]

"After the briefing Col Bower and Capt Ruppelt met with seven people
from the lab who were interested in the subject of UFOs."

The subject document is a trip report from Col Bower and Capt. Ruppelt
to a group of scientists at Los Alamos.  Immediately preceding this
memo/trip report in the microfilm roll which has been archived is a
poorer-quality copy of the same memo.  Immediately preceding that,
however, is a letter from Ruppelt (who, being junior officer, probably
wrote the trip report), to one of the scientists at Los Alamos:
http://bluebookarchive.org/page.aspx?PageCode=MAXW-PBB7-936

In this letter, written to a civilian, Ruppelt doesn't use the acronym
"UFO"; he uses "UAF", meaning unidentified aerial phenomena.  Does this
possibly indicate that "UFO" was primarily a military acronym at this
point in time, and didn't get out into the civilian world for another
year? (note the phrase "unidentified flying object" appears in the LA
Times in Dec, 1949 (quoted from an Air Force press release) (OED has
1950 for the long phrase), but the acronym "UFO" doesn't show up in
civilian sources til much later.

"unidentified flying object"
>From U.S. Air Force report "Unidentified Aerial Objects Project "Sign"
", dated Feb 1949, Technical Report no. F-TR-2274-IA, L. H. Truettner
and A. B. Deyarmond, p. iii
online at: http://bluebookarchive.org/page.aspx?PageCode=NARA-PBB85-8

"However, the report will furnish information on the  present state of
the investigation to staff personnel in this headquarters and in higher
echelons, and to others who are required to assess the possibility of a
threat to national security presented by the sighting of such large
number of unidentified flying objects."

flying saucer -- OED has 8 July 1947.  ADS Archives have, I believe, 30
June 1947, for quotes direct from sources, and 27 June for second-hand
quotes.

Wisconsin | Sheboygan | The Sheboygan Press | 1947-06-28 p. 1 col 1.
"Skygazers Still Insist They Saw 'Flying Saucers'; Army Skeptical"
United Press wire article
"An army rocket expert ventured the opinion today that Kenneth Arnold's
flying saucers were merely jet planes but almost a dozen persons sprang
up about the country to say they had seen the mysterious shiny discs
also."