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Many phenomena were hoaxes by practical jokers. A woman in Seattle reported excitedly that a flaming disc had landed on her roof. When examined by federal agents and Navy bomb experts, it turned out to be a 28-in. disc of plywood with two radio tubes and a quart oilcan mounted on pieces of plastic. Painted on the wood were a hammer & sickle and the letters, U.S.S.R. Another "flaming saucer" that spun down from overhead gave Shreveport, La. a good scare, turned out to be a joke by a local prankster who wanted to frighten his boss.
Some of the phenomena have not been fully explained, and reports still come in at the rate of about twelve a month; but the National Military Establishment is not worried. Group suggestibility and "vertigo" and the difficulty of judging the speed and distance of an airborne object give plenty of material for the human imagination to work on. In the case of flying saucers, it appears to have worked hard. Since no single bolt or rivet of a mysterious aircraft has yet been found, there is no reason to believe that either Russians or Martians have been tearing off on mysterious cross-country trips over the U.S.