Hey, Kids! Hoax UFOs!

Real UFO sightings in 1947 inspired flying saucer hoaxes and the exploitation of the topic for sales and marketing. It took a while for hoaxing to be commercialized for the retail market, but by the early 1960s, kids were being encouraged to buy and fly their own phony saucers.

"Out of this world (it even looks like a flying saucer when inflated!)... The neighbors will run screaming!"  Versions of the ad below ran in Warren magazines such as Spaceman, Famous Monsters, and Creepy from the 1960s into the 1970s.

The Space Age Distributing Company began manufacturing and advertising a 9-foot hot-air balloon in 1964.

Within two years, the company offered a similar product in the shape of a flying saucer. The ad below is from Boys' Life July 1966. "Are these what people are seeing?"

Similar advertisements ran in other magazines and comic books, like this one from the Johnson Smith Co. circa 1968, featuring two pesky UFO suspects. 

Both the balloon and saucer required considerable assembly, probably a disappointment for most buyers. Wire, sting and tissue paper were included, but the builder supplied his own glue. The saucer model was included white tissue paper for the body, red to be used to paste on "portholes."

Unlike most hot-air balloons, these were not self-propelled by candles or any internal flame. The balloons were made to be filled with indirect hot air from a flame, rise for a relatively short flight, and then fall to be recovered for the next launch.

The product was advertised by by Edmund Scientific Co. as, "Hot Air Flying Saucer Kit." This ad ran in Popular Science throughout 1970. The version pictured below also included an ad for "Giant Weather Balloons."

UFO Cases

There's at least one instance of a similar balloon being reported as a UFO.

UFO Photographs: Portraits of a Myth? by Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos
(page 41 of the PDF)

"MESA, ARIZONA:  On November 11, 1972, a group of children in Mesa, Arizona, were playing in the garden when they saw a strange object hovering in the sky. One neighbour, Mr. Lee Elders came out and took several photographs during the long period the object stayed there, so much that witnesses preferred to went home to watch a football match on TV! Here, a couple of the photos. 

This object was later on identified as a tethered, helium balloon sold by Edmund Scientific Co."

There was another Arizona case where such a balloon was a suspect. Ufologist Raymond E. Fowler wondered if there was some hot air involved in the 1975 Travis Walton UFO abduction case. He thought it could have been staged by... 

"Planting an accomplice(s) behind the pile of slash with a flash-gun and a tethered glowing (from candles within) 'flying saucer model' such as sold by Edmund Science. (See attachment). If one allows for some misconception, by the innocent observers and exaggerations by the hoaxers, the model (powered by hot air) would look similar to the sketch made by the witnesses. The 'ribs' for example, which are not usually reported by other legitimate observers, would be reported if such a model were employed."

Raymond E. Fowler letter to J. Allen Hynek,  Feb. 11, 1976 (page 39 of PDF)

Later versions of the saucer product were called, "The Original Space Age U.F.O." The pictures below are from an old eBay auction listing.

The hot-air saucer product was sold throughout the 1970s. The last ad we spotted for it was in the Johnson Smith's Fun Catalog in 1979, rechristened "9-Ft. flying U.F.O." 

Were these big hot air balloons responsible for UFO sightings in the 1960s and 1970s? Unless modified with an internal heat source, for or self-propulsion, these couldn't fly very high or far. The flimsy paper construction would billow in motion, not providing the illusion of a solid metallic craft. It's possible, a few people might have been taken in, but unlikely that anyone who got a good look was fooled. 

Hot air balloons with internal heat sources can fly high and long enough to be seen at great distances, and have been responsible for many UFO sightings over the years. Back around the 1960s most youthful hoaxers preferred to build rather than buy balloons or sky lanterns, making them from plastic bags and candles. See our earlier article, The U.S. Air Force vs Man-made UFOs for several documented cases.