Ludlow, Kentucky: 1947

Metal Disk Offers Mystery

Workers in the Ludlow yards of the Southern Railroad found what some believed to be a flying saucer Tuesday - an aluminum disk approximately two inches thick and three to four feet in diameter.

An official of the railroad, who declined to be named, said, however, that he believed the disk more likely had fallen from a passing freight car.

Disc 'Tip' is Wing Tip

A big "aluminum disc" found Tuesday in the Ludlow yards of the Southern Railroad prompted neighborhood speculation and a visit from the Ludlow police chief and newspapermen. Officials concluded the disc was an airplane wing tip removed from a freight car and left in the yards as a practical joke.
 
Now Jokers Rig Up Yarn of Disc Here
  • Source: The Kentucky Post
    July 7, 1947 - page 1
A "flying saucer" was chased to its lair or liar Tuesday in Ludlow.

For several hours Tuesday morning rumors flew faster than the reported speed of the saucers which have been seen or reported seen in nearly every state in the country.

Excitement ran high as residents gathered to discuss the probability of one of the winged mysteryies. Rumors that one of the discs was grounded and was being held by employees of the Ludlow Roundhouse of the Southern Railway.

Railroad officials said they had heard the same stories but were inclined to discount their veracity.

So insistent did the stories of a flying saucer grow that Chief Harvey Searp in company with newspaper photographers made an official visit to the roundhouse.

Then it came out that the "saucer" was just a practical joke that got out of hand.

Chief Searp said he learned some of the employees of the night shift had picked up a piece of metal wing from a dismantled plane which had fallen from a carload of scrap.

On the wing tip they chalked "Half a flying saucer." The tale was cloaked in mystery and whispered phrases about a "flying saucer" did the rest.


End of article

PHOTOGRAPH ABOVE: Appeared on PAGE ONE of Kentucky Post, July 8, 1947. Text: Disc-concerting, no? Half of a flying saucer is what jokers first called this airplane wingtip, which was found Monday night in the Southern Railroad's Lulow coach yard. The "disc" rumor spread so rapidly Tuesday that police and press investigated the report. Paul James, Yowel pike, Boone county, a crane operator at the Southern yards, displays the "broken saucer" above.

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