Flying Saucers: The Small Sporty Models

 

Human beings have always been fascinated with flight, but in 1947, flying saucers gave us something new to think about. UFOs have inspired us to imagine and invent.

Who was the first inventor to attempt to build and fly their own saucer? The Weekly Town Talk, July 19, 1947, featured a photo of Jimmy Webb of Little Rock, Arkansas, and the homemade “Flying Saucer,” he entered in a local model airplane competition.

In 1950, Charles Hoberg of Chicago built a small “jet-powered” saucer “after studying reports of the space ships.”

Sunday News, March 26, 1950

In Sept. 1950, a warning was issued that Detroit, the Plymouth Motor Corporation’s International Model Plane Contest would feature flying saucers, and that they might cause alarm and be reported to authorities by the public.

Mansfield Advertiser Sept. 6, 1950

Plymouth Press release

“Pilot your own Flying Saucer” was the title of an article in Boy’s Life Jan. 1953, that instructed readers how to construct an unpowered flying saucer out of balsa wood.

Boy’s Life Jan. 1953

Boy Scout Ray White built such a saucer and demonstrated it on television for NBC’s Today Show.

Boy’s Life Nov. 1953

The above are just a few examples of the early attempts to copy flying saucers on a small scale, but in the 1960s, a company set out to mass produce them.

 

Cox’s Sky Saucer

The Star-News, (Chula Vista, CA) June 23, 1966

“Would you believe saucer for $9.98? Better yet, would you BUY a flying saucer for $9.98?  That's the million-dollar question as far as C. R. Stuard is concerned… Stuard is the co-owner and marketer of the "X-1 Sky Saucer," a flying saucer toy invented recently by a Solar engineer, [currently in] a test-market] in the Chula Vista Penney store. …

“Idea for the toy came from [Leonard] Mueller’s invention of a flying saucer-type crop duster. | “But it would have cost us $250,000 to produce our first duster,” says Stuard, “so we put our heads together and decided to come out with a model of the crop duster and sell it as a toy ‘flying saucer. We attached a gasoline engine to the saucer… and our model and it took off and flew…’

Does Stuard believe in real-life flying saucers? Like from Mars? “Yes, frankly, I do,” he says. “I have a very good friend who says he saw one. I believe him. He’s not the sort of person who’d make something like this up. Also, too many of the saucer sightings are unexplained. You know, expert scientists have told us that the obvious ‘best design’ for space vehicles of the future is the saucer. It’s shaped perfectly for space travel. If this is true, then maybe it figures that men from other planets would use saucers to investigate things on and about earth.”

 

The saucer’s package stated:

"Your X-1 sky saucer is practically indestructible and made of rugged polyethylene plastic to withstand the shock of Earth reentry...it can take it and fly again immediately!"

“Our X-1 Sky Saucer is powered by world famous special 18,000 RPM Cox .049 engine. Over 16" in diameter. Reaches heights of 300 feet & more.”

The X-1 was marketed in the 1970s as the “Star Cruiser UFO,” but a version was still on sale into the 1990s, and a similar “Nomad” saucer was produced in 1998.

 

Back to the Garage

Mass produced copies like the Cox Sky Saucer have their place, but there’s nothing like the efforts of the early saucer inventors. They took inspiration from flying saucers, thought for themselves, and got to work. Ufology might benefit from getting back to basics, and that’s a good model to follow.

The First Flying Saucer Invasion Movie

The public’s fascination with the flying saucer mystery began with the media coverage of Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of nine UFOs on June 24, 1947. At the time, the notion taken most seriously was that flying saucers were technologically advanced aircraft, either developed by the USA in secret or from an enemy nation. The super-aircraft idea was not so far-fetched, and it had already been done in the movies.

Three World War II movie serials from Republic Pictures paved the way for the saucer invasion movie. Spy Smasher was released in April 1942 and featured an exotic Nazi aircraft in chapter 4, “Stratosphere Invaders.” (Link to synopsis.)

The special effects for Republic were made by Howard and Theodore Lydecker, and they built a life-sized prop and miniature for the villain’s aircraft. The Bat Plane was a silver blunt manta-shaped flying wing capable of near vertical takeoff and landings, but it was strictly of terrestrial origin.

Spy Smasher lived up to his name and managed to destroy the weapon by the chapter’s end, and the story moved on to other fights.

But the Bat Plane would fly again.

According to Republic serial historians, the full-size prop was remodeled for another serial released later the same year, King of the Mounties. Chapter one was titled, “Phantom Invaders,” with Canada under siege from unexplained explosions, soon revealed to come from bombs dropped by a silent silvery unidentified aircraft.

King of the Mounties, “Phantom Invaders” on YouTube

We learned it was the “Falcon,” a technologically advanced boomerang-shaped plane from Japan. It took 12 chapters, but Sgt. Dave King defeated the enemy spies. The Bat Plane would be seen again, but before that, there was an alien invasion.

The Purple Monster Strikes was a 1945 Republic movie serial, and it started with a UFO crash. It happened near where a scientist was developing an interplanetary “jet plane.” He rushed to investigate the crash and found the pilot had survived. It was a man from Mars who revealed, “We've watched the progress of your work and I've come to you for help... I’m very anxious to see the plans for your jet plane.”

On YouTube: The Purple Monster Strikes

The friendly act was dropped and “The Purple Monster" soon revealed he came to conquer Earth: “The invasion is only being delayed because of our inability to build ships who could land safely and return to Mars. Your plans have supplied that mean.” The Martian had the alien ability to kill then inhabit a body, and he used the scientist’s corpse as disguise to complete the spaceship plans. However, he’s discovered along the way. When he launched the ship for Mars our hero managed to use Mars’ technology against him to shoot it down. (Link to synopsis.)

That was the end of the Martian invasion – until…

 

The Coming of the Saucers

The notion that flying saucers were secret advanced aircraft was popular from the outset in 1947. As months and years went by without it being proven, the man-made idea began to lose some luster. Another early idea, primarily promoted by cranks, was that saucers were from Mars or another planet. In the meantime, the first few appearances of flying saucers in low budget movies depicted them as man-made secret weapons. Donald Keyhoe’s 1950 article and later book, The Flying Saucers Are Real, sold well enough to prove that the public would buy the idea of UFOs as spaceships from other planets.

Republic went to work, retooling some footage and gear from previous films. The Purple Monster’s costume was used for another Martian invader. An old prop was recycled for the first flying saucer from outer space in the motion pictures. It was a “semi-disc,” a bat-like wing like one Kenneth Arnold reported, or the one seen in the William Rhodes photos from 1947.

Menace from Mars

In Oct. 1950, Republic released Flying Disc Man from Mars, the first alien invasion "flying saucer" movie.

In chapter one, “Menace from Mars,” a UFO had been seen around the factory where scientist Dr. Bryant was working on an atomic-powered weapon, a “radar ray gun.” He told his security man, Kent Fowler, that someone was spying on the project.

“I know all this talk about flying saucers and discs sounds like hysterical illusions, yet every night I pick up that image at from 60 to 80,000 feet elevation then it descends vertically to 30,000 thousand feet and stays in the same place for an hour or more. Do you know of any plane that can do that?”

The heroic Kent Fowler took the gun on his plane and shot down the intruder. Dr. Bryant rushed to where the UFO crashed and he made contact with a survivor. Mota from Mars told him:

“Ever since you people started working with atomic power and explosives, we have been watching you closely. We keep large atomic-powered patrol ships permanently stationed just outside your field of gravity and we make our closer inspection in small flying discs such as the one I was flying when you had me shot down.”

The small saucer was a semi-disc, portrayed by the Bat Plane prop last seen in King of the Mounties.

Mars was worried by what we savages were doing. Mota said,

“With unlimited atomic weapons your people might easily end by destroying this world which would be fatal to the whole solar system including our own planet. So I am here to see that your world is put under the control of a supreme dictator of the universe.”

Dr. Bryant (who’d been a Nazi sympathizer) kept the secret and went along with the plan. He hired two henchmen and their little gang put things in motion for a management change for our planet. Mota built a replacement “semi-disc” craft and they relocated to an abandoned Martian base in a volcano.

Mota and the semi-disc

Chapter 3 ends with a scene reminiscent of the 1948 Thomas Mantell incident. Kent Fowler took his plane to chase Mota’s disc high into the air, but he lost consciousness from lack of oxygen. His engine failed and the plane crashed. This being a movie serial cliffhanger, he revived and bailed out just in time. Fowler went on to defeat the enemies in their volcanic lair, save the girl and even capture the Martian saucer. Unfortunately, it was damaged, but before it exploded, Kent and Helen bailed out just in time.

In the discussion afterwards, Kent mourned that all details on the Martian technology perished in the volcano. Helen said, “Well, it’s just as well. Those weapons were too dangerous anyway.” (Link to synopsis by Todd Gault)

There wasn’t much of an alien nature in the serial other than Mota’s Martian clothing and saucer. Mota never called for reinforcements from the large Martian “patrol ships permanently stationed” above the earth. We were never shown those, so maybe that was a bluff, not a plot hole. Story wise, things would have worked as well if Mota was a foreign conqueror with a super plane. Like a lot of movies, the most exciting part was the theatrical poster with its imaginative depiction of the Martian flying saucer invasion that never happened in the film.

Flying Disc Man from Mars on YouTube

The next year, feature-length motion pictures got into the UFO business, but Mota eventually flew again in a rerelease. In 1958, was edited down to a 75-minute movie, Missile Monsters to be a double-feature with Satan’s Satellites.

The trailer for Missile Monsters advertised a UFO dogfight:

"For the first time on the screen, men battle a disc plane in the clouds. You'll be thrilled by this amazing, incredible prediction of things to come."

False advertising, by 1958 it was old hat. But in 1950, Flying Disc Man from Mars was ahead of all the rest in bringing aliens and UFOs together in the movies.

. . .

For a look at how the first popular depiction of aliens coming to prevent Earth’s atomic self-destruction, see our 5-part examination of the influential 1948 short story, “The Outer Limit” by Graham Doar:

Flying Saucers, the Atomic Bomb and Doomsday: The Outer Limit (Part 1 of 5)

 

 

 

Engineering Flying Saucers

 

There were circular winged aircraft before the sighting of flying saucers in 1947. At least two of them were later the cause of some confusion. 

Jonathan E. Caldwell invented the Roto-Plane around 1937, but after the crash of a test flight he abandoned the project. Later the prototypes were found in a barn and mistaken for flying saucers.

In 1942, Charles H. Zimmerman built a single-wing circular airfoil, the Chance Vought V-173, nicknamed the Flying Flapjack (or Pancake). This propeller driven disk-shaped plane was tested in 190 flights up until March 1947. 

The Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1947

Daily News, July 5, 1947

After the reports from Kenneth Arnold and others of disc-shaped unidentified flying objects, many inventors were inspired, challenged to build their own flying saucers. Here’s some notable examples from our files. 

Engineering Flying Saucers: The First Ten Years

Dr. Kay’s Revolutionary Disc

Dr. Eugene W. Kay was a Russian-born inventor and aeronautical engineer who lived in Glendale, California. He and a partner applied for a helicopter patent in 1946. https://patents.google.com/patent/US2521012A/en?inventor=Eugene+W+Kay 

Saturday Night Uforia included Dr. Kay’s press coverage extensively in the 2015 article, Saucer Summer Reading Fest (part five), but below are some of the highlights.

https://www.saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/saucsum5.html

A nationally syndicated photo in January 1950 debuted Dr. Kay’s invention:

“… a flying saucer that he built himself and that he believes will revolutionize aviation. His 41-inch, 20- pound test model rises from the ground and spins in a 36-foot circle... U.S. Air Force officials recently watched a test flight of Dr. Kay's revolutionary disk.”

The Orlando Sentinel Jan. 16, 1950 

More press followed. Parade magazine, April 9, 1950, ran a pictorial feature on his invention and reported: “The Kay ‘saucer’ is actually a 41-inch circular aluminum disk with eight slotted vanes like fan blades. A midget motor spins the vanes and also powers a propeller for forward motion.”

Then in May, Flying magazine and Popular Mechanics.

Flying magazine, May 1950 

Popular Mechanics, May 1950 

That was the end of the press for the invention, partly due to the research being cut short. Dr. Kay died on Oct. 8, 1951, at the age of 66. The last we could find of Dr. Kay’s saucer was in Billboard magazine, Dec. 5, 1953. William Shilling was a booker in New York supplying talent and exhibits (like Hitler’s limousine) for sportsmen's shows. Kay’s flying saucer was added to his collection of attractions, but Shilling died of a heart attack in 1956. Its final fate is unknown.

The Flying Saucer Air Bus

A stunning color illustration of a flying saucer was published in October 1950, for Science and Mechanics magazine, Dec. 1950, painted by Arthur C. Bade. It was for the cover story, a three-page article written by George F. Miller, “Will ‘Flying Saucer’ Buses Lick Traffic Congestion?” The article began:

"Designed as a practical approach to some of tomorrow's transportation problems - especially through crowded cities and suburbs - the Air Bus, shown on the cover of this issue and the accompanying photos, incorporates a number of features regarded by aviation authorities as highly desirable. For commuting by air, it offers many advantages."

Miller briefly discussed the reality of UFOs:

“At first glance, today's skeptic would say, perhaps, “Oh that's just another wild dream resulting from too much talk about ‘flying saucers!’ That is untrue. Many authorities still do not admit the existence of flying saucers, even where good descriptions have been supplied by persons who have claimed to see the strange craft. But no one can deny that the reported shape of a flying saucer would be airworthy if properly designed. We believe the air bus design, on which patents are pending, would be flyable and qualified aeronautical engineers who have checked our calculations agree.”

The Air Bus was designed to be 65 feet in diameter and 10 1/2 feet high, and weigh from 80,000 to 110,000 pounds. It would fly passengers at 90 to 175 miles an hour, lifted by three counter-rotating pairs of 14-foot diameter rotors. Each rotor pair would be driven by a pancake-type 2,400 horsepower engine. 

Newspapers picked up on the story and widely printed a black and copy of Arthur C. Bade’s painting with a summary of Miller’s article. 

CITY "SAUCER" The "flying saucer" will come into its own one day as the solution to traffic congestion in most U.S. cities, thinks designer George F. Miller of Chicago. Above is Miller's conception of a saucer-shaped, 100 passenger air bus that would carry city commuters at 90 to 175 miles an hour. Miller's idea was presented in Science and Mechanics magazine.

We had no luck find a patent for the Air Bus, but George Francis Miller did file a copyright for his article.

The First Sports Model

In November 1950, U.S. newspapers carried an exciting photo of a dynamic disc-shaped object built by aviation engineer, Nick Stasinos.

“Non-Flying ‘Flying Saucer’ - This model ‘flying saucer’ was built by Nick Stasinos of Inglewood, Calif., on order for a New York museum. The craft, called the ‘Experimental NS-97,’ shows two main jet installations in the center section and eight turbo-jet ports on the outer revolving disc. Considered aerodynamically practical, the saucer is not scheduled for production now"

The unnamed customer was Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in New York City. Like many others, the final fate of Stasino’s saucer is unknown.

Flying Further into the Fifties

In Frankfurt Germany, a propeller-driven flying saucer was designed by Walter Otto Galonska, as shown below in this 1951 news photo.

The Press and Sun-Bulletin, Jan. 2, 1951 - via Acme Telephoto

Engineers and artists had some high-flying expectation for man-made saucers, but the product never quite lived up to their dreams. Alexander Leydenfrost was an illustrator for pulp science fiction magazines before going to work for Life magazine. His work there rarely gave him the opportunity to revisit spaceships and such until Life magazine, May 31, 1954.

“The U.S. is seriously considering building a flying saucer… designed by a shy, 35-year-old English-born engineer named John C. M. Frost… It is the outgrowth of a saucerlike craft called ‘Project Y’ which Frost designed for his employers, A. V. Roe Canada Ltd.”

Life magazine, May 31, 1954

At Fort Hood, Texas, the U.S. Army's private Larry G. Anderson was building and launching his own flying saucers.

Chrysler’s Saucer Spaceship

Lovell Lawrence Jr, an assistant chief engineer at Chrysler Missiles Operations, publicized his concept for a nuclear-powered “flying saucer.” It was featured in an Associated Press story carried in The Bridgeport Post, Dec. 30, 1956. Lawrence was confident the spaceship could be built and said, “Space travel is inevitable, and the only question is when.” 

San Bernardino Sun,  March 1957

Check the links below for further information on Lawrence's concepts.

The Bridgeport Post, Dec. 30, 1956: …Space Ships May Make it Possible

Aerospace Projects Review Blog: The Chrysler Saucer

That concludes this look at plans and attempts to build man-made flying saucers. Be sure to check our past articles for more disc engineering attempts, and keep watching the skies.

Flying Saucers from Montana: The Leonard Grayson Story

 

On Feb. 22, 1966, a call alerted authorities to the discovery of a flying saucer in a wooded area near Shelton, Washington. The “Thing” was left in place, but photographed and examined. Guesses ran wild as to what it was, where it came from, and why it was there. 

The object was a strange craft, about as tall as a person, with a diameter of over 12 feet. Reserve Sheriff Deputy Chuck Shelton examined the object and reported that it sat on a pair of steel rails and was powered by a Ranger aircraft engine, equipped with two acts of rotor blades, 12 to a set. “In paint partly obliterated are the words Grayland (or Grayson) Aircraft Manufacturing Company.” The saucer was apparently made in the U.S.A. The Daily Olympian, Feb. 23, 1966, playfully asked:

“How did the Thing get where it is in the woodlot of A. D. Hunter who lives part of the time in California and the rest of the year on his Matlock Ranch? Did it fly? Was the pilot a man – or a jolly green giant?” The story went on to say that there was a shortage of information; the Sheriff and his deputy were both out of town, and Mr. Hunter hadn’t been heard from. “So there it sits. A Thing from Detroit, or Disneyland - or Outer Space.”

Three days later, A. D. Hunter returned and discovered there was a fuss over the discovery on his property. It turned out the flying saucer speculation was right. He was able to identify the Thing as a flying disc prototype built a few years prior by inventor Leonard. W. Grayson. Hunter was quoted as saying, “I really don’t want the hovercraft, but since it was a pilot model, my brother-in law didn’t want to scrap it, so he hauled it to my place about three years ago.” He said Grayson had moved to Montana and was manufacturing an improved version of the aircraft.

That wasn’t quite the end of the Thing, though. Or the career of its inventor. Leonard W. Grayson’s career is like many others, in that we have only bits here and there of what the media printed about him. No doubt, there’s more to the story than we’ll ever know. It’s not recorded what Grayson thought about UFOs and aliens, but it’s well-documented that he built and flew flying saucers.

A Wheel in the Middle of a Wheel

Leonard William Grayson was born on July 21, 1918. He didn’t have a degree or attend college, but he had served as a corporal in the US Army during World War II as an instrument technician. Afterwards, he returned to civilian life as a working family man in Cascade, Montana. 

While employed as a railroad agent telegrapher in 1954, he had a “Eureka’ moment:

“All at once those wheels were going around me. Just floating around me. I hadn't been consciously designing a vertical lift machine and it was amazing how the whole thing fell into place… within a few minutes… the whole design was formulated, and I drew a sketch of it.”

Working in his spare time in his garage, Grayson designed and constructed several flying disc models, assisted by his wife Lucy, their two sons, Richard, and Tom. Meanwhile, in his day job, he was employed over the next few years as a carpenter, and a civil engineer technician.

Grayson’s design featured two non-axial, counter-rotating rings, to which blades for propulsion were attached. It generated a vertical lift that acted both as a rotor craft and a jet. His first successful working model was completed in 1956, a 30-inch diameter model, powered by a 3/8 horsepower electric motor. He filed a patent for his “Disc Shaped aircraft” on Oct. 10, 1955, saying the vehicle “may be employed with equal facility as an aircraft or as a land vehicle for traveling on the highways.” The patent was granted on May 3, 1960.

Disc Shaped Aircraft (link to patent.)

While waiting for the patent, Grayson began construction of a manned 21-foot, 1,600-pound test model powered by a 165-horsepower aircraft engine he’d bought for fifty dollars. He and the family briefly lived in Shelton, Washington, and that’s where he completed the disc and conducted test flights. It flew, but only a few feet off the ground, enough to satisfy him that with the proper facilities and financial backing it could be built and even scaled up for passenger flight.

Caption for 1965 article:

“21-Footer – This 21-foot model Grace-N-Air was built by Grayson in a garage at his home in Cascade. He began building the machine in March, 1959, and had it ready to get off the ground by July, 1960. Here the vehicle is shown as it was beginning to rise off the ground in a test. The outside duet, or framework is made of aluminum. Grayson was operating this machine which was powered by a 165-horsepower airplane engine. This picture was taken in Cascade [probably Shelton, WA] in the summer of 1960. This model since has been dismantled and is stored in a Seattle garage.”

(That caption was off, as we know the location was actually a heavily wooded field, where it was discovered as the Thing.)

Around 1963, the Graysons moved back to Montana and set up house in Bozeman. By 1965, Grayson was satisfied with the performance of his smaller models and began aggressively campaigning for his invention to be noticed by private industry and the US military. 

The Billings Gazette, May 24, 1965, ran a story on the first Montana Inventors Congress. The second-most popular invention:

“…was a flying saucer built by Leonard Grayson of Dillon. Grayson said his Grace-N-Air Flying Saucer could be built with a 500-foot diameter and could carry 500 passengers. The one Grayson had on display is three feet in diameter and is powered by a five-horsepower electric motor… He said it will travel 60 miles per hour and that a larger model could go at least 300 mph.”

More publicity followed. The Great Fall Tribune Sunday magazine, Montana Parade, June 5, 1965, cover story was “Dillon Inventor’s Disc-Type Aircraft New Flying Concept,” story and photos by Clyde Reichelt.

Grayson’s invention was not built for space travel, and he didn’t bill it as a flying saucer. In March 1966, press about the UFO sightings in Dexter, Michigan, got the flying saucer fever going again. If the press was short on UFOs stories, they could run pictures and stories of Grayson’s discs. Apparently, he didn’t discourage them. 

The Exponent, May 13, 1966

In June 1966, Montana State University film students, Tom Gordon and Don Tone made a short 16 mm color movie documenting Grayson’s aerodynamic concepts and inventions. The film included an animated sequence to illustrate the potential of the invention at a larger scale for applications such as those of conventional aircraft, including commercial transportation. The movie was granted a copyright in 1967, and Grayson exhibited the film at his public appearances and in meetings with prospective customers.

GRACE-N-AIR. Leonard W. Grayson;. 22 min., color, 16 mm.
© Leonard W. Grayson;; 8Jun67; MU7837. 

Grayson was seeking a contract with the U.S. government, but figuratively speaking, when the phone rang, it was the flying saucer people.

Saucer Clubs and Conventions

We don’t know exactly when Leonard Grayson had his first contact with UFO buffs, but he was approached by Wayne. S. Aho, director of the New Age Foundation of Seattle, Washington. Aho had been lecturing on UFOs for years and claimed to have had contact with aliens. He had become a perennial guest at Contactee conventions, first an advocate for UFO “Disclosure,” then transitioning to a more spiritual and religious figure, promoting peace and harmony through alien teachings or whatnot. Aho had been involved with some shady characters, and narrowly avoided prosecution for the sale of bogus stock in the Otis T. Carr spaceship business. 

The New Age Foundation held a UFO convention near Mt Rainier each year. Aho must have seen the February news about the “Thing” in the woods, and obtained permission from Grayson to have the prototype moved to Eatonville and the Flying M Ranch, the site of the convention. It was held July 15-17, 1966. The Associated Press published with some inaccurate details about Grayson and his work:

“Flying saucer fans gathered here for the fifth annual Interplanetary Age Convention... The fans also peered at a machine that once rose 15 feet… The machine, now a jumble of twisted metal and pipes was built by a Montana State University professor. Its counterrotating blades provided the lift. Wayne Aho, a retired major, believes the object will someday be enshrined in a museum.”

Instead, after the convention, thieves stole the Grayson saucer’s 165-horsepower engine. What happened to the Thing after that is lost to history.

The Billings Gazette, Aug. 20,1966

Space Research Inc. hosted a “Space Age conclave” on UFOs on Aug. 20-21, 1966, in Spokane, Washington. About 15 speakers were presented, Wayne. S. Aho, Lenora Croft, and Leonard Grayson gave a “demonstration of an earth-type flying saucer principle.”

The “Big Sky Research Group” club led by Mrs. Dorothy Hankins in Billings, Montana, invited Grayson to lecture for them and present his film as soon as it was completed.

Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph Colorado Springs, May 6, 1967

Grayson demonstrated his invention and won a 1967 inventor's prize.

"Leonard W. Grayson, Bozeman inventor of the ‘flying saucer’ which won him the sweepstakes award of the Inventors’ and Manufacturers’ exposition at Missoula Saturday. The affair opened Friday. Grayson, formerly of Antelope, now working for the railroad at Cascade."

Saucer Scoop, June 1967, reprinted a news item on Grayson’s entry into the Inventors Congress.

The Missoulian, July 17, 1968

In 1968, Leonard Grayson was billed as the main speaker for the seventh annual Northwest UFO-Space Convention held in Eatonville, WA, by Wayne Aho’s New Age Foundation. He demonstrated his saucer model and flight and showed the movie, “Grace-N-Air.”

As far as we can tell, that was Grayson's final UFO conference. 

Growing Pains

At some point, Grayson stopped using his electric motor-powered saucer and began exhibiting a 34-inch model, its blades powered by air piped in from an external air compressor. The photo below is from a demonstration on Aug. 23, 1969 in Denver, Colorado.

Where the press is concerned, 1969 to 1973 were fairly quiet years for Grayson. Perhaps coincidentally, those were bad years for the UFO business in general.) In 1970, the Graysons moved to Hamilton MT, where they ran the Town Pump service station. 

While developing a commercial model airplane version of the saucer to promote the project and raise funds, “… he sold stock to friends and formed a closed corporation.  According to Grayson, when the friends became directors, they decided the idea was too big for one man and tried to wrest his patents away from him. The directors complained to the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) and an injunction was placed against further work on the Grace-N-Air. Grayson was cleared of charges by the SEC in 1975 but his work was held up for five years.”

U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,670; Issued Nov. 5, 1974

Grayson continued to promote the Grace-N-Air concept and film in public, for local officials, the Ravalli County Fair in Montana, wherever he could. 

The_Missoulian, Feb. 24, 1974

The Ravalli Republic, Aug. 27, 1974

The Ravalli Republic, July 30, 1976

In 1975 he began working on a 20-foot manned fiberglass model that he hoped would eventually be mass-produced for commercial vehicle sale. The Grayson Research Institute, incorporated March 1, 1976

Things picked up for the UFO biz in late 1973 with the Pascagoula abduction story, and newspapers needed saucer stories again. Grayson was featured in The Missoulian, Oct. 16, 1977, updating his business efforts, and he received some prime time television exposure.

The Montana Kaimin, May 24, 1978 (University of Montana student newspaper) reported in “Leonard Grayson’s inventions are getting off the ground” by Judy Casanova:

“Grayson is an independent inventor and he and his wife have made four trips to Washington, D.C., at their own expense, to get the military interested in the concept of the Grace-N-Air. In February, Grayson was invited to the Defense Department in Washington, D.C. to make a presentation of the Grace-N-Air. … the Grace-N-Air has received national news coverage by NBC. Grayson said, "This may open some more doors to us."

The Final Flight

Richard L. Weir also lived in Montana and was friends with Grayson. They shared similar backgrounds and interests, and Weir devised a “Rotary Foil Type Aircraft” and applied for a patent in 1957, granted in 1964. Weir owned a Cessna 182 plane and was an experienced pilot, often accompanied on flights by his wife Mary. 

On Feb. 19, 1980, Mr. and Mrs. Weir were joined by Leonard and Lucy Grayson on a fight to Mesa, Arizona to visit relatives. When they failed to arrive, their plane was reported missing. Severe winter weather delayed the search, but on Feb. 27, Civil Air Patrol and National Park Service searchers found the Cessna below the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The plane had crashed after hitting a tree, and all four aboard were killed.

Here's a link to the Richard and Mary Weir Memorial article. Below are the obituaries for Leonard and Lucy Grayson.

The Missoulian, March 5, 1980

We were unable to locate any information on what became of Grayson's film, "Grace-N-Air" or if copies still exist. Leonard Grayson is seldom mentioned in UFO literature and history. A rare exception was in the Journal of UFO History, Vol. 2 No. 1, March-April 2005, “US Patents for Disc Aircraft.”

We have to wonder, what might have happened if the U.S. government or industry had ever made an attempt to produce a fully realized Grayson aircraft. With the advances in material construction and aviation technology in the decades since Leonard Grayson’s passing, how high might the Grace-N-Air fly today?

. . .

Thanks to STTF co-founder Claude Falkstrom for the primary research on this report. Also, thanks to researchers Roger Glassel and Jeff Knox for providing supplementary material.

P.S.  Other Flying Saucer Discoveries

Most discoveries purported flying saucers turn out to be phonies or junk that never flew. Some of them have been from balloon-borne packages, intended for anything from weather study to espionage platforms. Besides Grayson’s Thing, there was one other discovery of a real disc-shaped aircraft. It was found in an old tobacco barn near Baltimore, Maryland in 1949.