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.

Montana's Dubious UFO Landing of 1964

Late April 1964: The USA was abuzz with the news of a dramatic sighting in Socorro, New Mexico, that has since gone down in history as one of the most famous and credible UFO events of all time, the close encounter of police officer Lonnie Zamora. Before the month was over, possible corroboration came, a multi-witness report from Montana of a similar object landing and also leaving traces on the ground. 

The professionals responding to the scene, police officers, journalists and Air Force investigators, were impressed, but unfavorably. They thought the trace evidence pointed to a copycat hoax, not a UFO. Nevertheless, the five children who were the sole witnesses to the saucer landing stood by their story.

The Canyon Ferry Five

The events of April 29, 1964, as reconstructed below from witness testimony, media accounts and Project Blue Book documents. 

The place: Canyon Ferry Village, about 20 miles east of Helena, Montana.

The witnesses: Linda Davis, 11, Tom Davis, 15, Pete Rust, 13, Diane Flittner, 15, Linda Flittner, 16. Bill Bahny, 17, was not a witness, but became involved after the sighting.

The Canyon Ferry Five

The date: April 29, 1964, Wednesday evening around 9:30 P.M.

G.D. “Bert” Davis was the supervisor of the Bureau of Reclamation’s project at Canyon Ferry Reservoir. Davis and his wife Louise were out for the evening, and Linda and Tom, their two children were home, but not alone. With them were friends Diane and Linda Flittner and Pete Rust. The kids said they were playing hide and seek when the UFO appeared. 

Linda Davis, was inside the house and first spotted a glow through the curtains from her bedroom window. She rushed outside to tell her brother Tom and the other kids, ran to the fence where they saw a car-sized glowing oval-shaped object descending from a height of about 20 feet. It was about 150 feet away from them and it landed for less than a minute, then rose back into the air and whooshed off like a rocket. They found a patch of scorched grass and a singed cactus surrounded by an imperfect square formed by four holes in the ground, as if left by the UFO’s landing gear.

Project Blue Book evidence photo.

The kids recruited an older friend, Bill Bahny, 17, to call the sheriff’s office about the sighting, but he was told an adult should be involved in making the report. After this, apparently Bahny or the others called local radio stations about the sighting. About an hour later, Mr. and Mrs. Davis got home. The kids showed them the site, and Mrs. Davis said, “There was a funny smell around the holes, not like grass burning, sort of like diesel fuel.” An adult (probably one of Davis parents) called the sheriff, and two deputies were sent out to investigate. To preserve the scene, Bert Davis staked off the area with string and used white wooden frameworks from their rose garden to protect each of the four holes. 

Witness Linda Davis poses at the landing site. The Montana Standard Butte, May 1, 1964 

April 30, Thursday

The next day was a flurry of activity. Area newspapers printed the first articles on the story, and curious neighbors, newsmen, police and Air Force investigators swarmed over the scene. Sheriff Dave Middlemas said that they were initially doubtful of the report because it was so close to Vigilante Day, a popular time for kids to play pranks, but nevertheless, he had notified the Air Force. 

When newsmen asked the kids if they’d heard about the Socorro, New Mexico, UFO reported by police officer Lonnie Zamora, one replied, “Oh, yes. We heard all about it last night on the radio.”

Mrs. Cyril Taylor and her evidence kit.

Neighbor Peg Taylor was a saucer buff, and she tried to help the investigation. "She showed Linda Davis a picture from the book Flying Saucer from Mars, and asked, “Did it look like this?” Linda said, “Yes, it did.” Taylor replied, “Well, you probably saw a flying saucer.”

The Great Falls Tribune, May 1, 1964

The Billings Gazette reported Thursday that some skeptics believed the UFO story was a prank to set up a saucer-themed float in the Vigilante Day parade that Friday in Helena. The next day they reported that “Sheriff’s officers are skeptical. …the holes… could have been dug with a shovel. Loose dirt had been dumped in several spots within 50 feet of the holes.”

The Billings Gazette, May 1, 1964

On Thursday, five Air Force investigators arrived from Malmstrom AFB. They examined the “landing site” and interviewed the kids for three hours. Some news stories reported that some other people in the area had seen a bright light in the sky that night, and UPI story of May 1 reported that “Residents in the area reported there was a black out or snowy reception on their television at the time and reported sighting.”

The Billings Gazette, May 3, 1964

The Daily Inter Lake (Kalispell, MT), May 1, 1964

May 1, Friday 

The press continued, but the newspapers were not the only ones to cash in on  the saucer fever.

 The Independent Record, May 1, 1964

The Missoulian, May 1, 1964

The Canyon Ferry saucer was often mentioned in the press on the Socorro sighting, and chiefly interesting because of the landing site similarities.

El Paso Times, May 2, 1964

The Air Force "Leak"

On May 5,  it was reported that an Air Force spokesman said the case “was determined to be a hoax perpetrated on a younger sister and the show got out of control.”

The Billings Gazette, May 5, 1964

The hoax allegation didn't go over well with the children's parents.

The Independent Record, May 5, 1964

Apparently the “Air Force spokesman” had not been authorized to make the hoax statement, and they issued a denial.

The Billings Gazette, May 6, 1964

(NICAP’s) The UFO Investigator, July-Aug. 1964 carried a report on the Socorro case and briefly covered Canyon Ferry, stating: 

"The NICAP investigation has turned up conflicting information on the validity of the sighting, some of it backing up the Air Force conclusion of ‘a hoax..., a child's prank.’” The report concluded by saying, “A NICAP member spoke with two of the parents, getting a firm denial of any hoax from one, and a statement that he believed it was a hoax from the other. In an editorial on May 12, the Missoula, Mont., Sentinel sa1d that no one seemed to know where the Air Force got the idea the case was a hoax, and suggested the explanation - rather than the sighting - was a fabrication.”

What Project Blue Book Files Reveal

NICAP had suspected the Air Force conclusion of a hoax was itself a hoax, but the documents prove otherwise. The Project Blue Book 26-page file was labeled, “Canyon Ferry Reservoir, Montana, April 30, 1964,” and it includes documents, clippings and 11 photographs of the alleged landing site and burn marks.

View of the site and residences from the Canyon Ferry Reservoir shoreline.

Lt. Col. Harold L. Neufeld of Malmstrom AFB prepared the 5-page report summarizing their Canyon Ferry investigation, which had lasted four hours visiting the area, three of those hours interviewing witnesses. His team included a legal and information officer, as well as a photographer to document the evidence.

View towards the shore.

Neufeld noted that the holes supposedly caused by the UFO landing, “did not appear to have been caused by great weight. Rather the holes appeared to have been crudely dug or scooped out.” Describing the interviews of the children, “The witnesses were often vague and evasive and their respective stories contained such wide divergences to convince the interrogators that the entire event was a fanciful hoax.” 

There were six alleged witnesses, one of whom was not interviewed at his father’s request.” Of the five, “Four witness used the word ‘fluorescent’ to describe the lighting of the object.” Overall, their descriptions of the event were similar, “These consistencies indicated rehearsing by the witnesses.” They also found it suspicious that none of their parents had been told until more than an hour later, but, “The witnesses immediately notified the local radio stations of the alleged sighting.” The PBB record card for the case classifies it as a hoax, and the comments state: “Investigating officials consider case a Hoax with children recreating the marks of the Socorro sighting as carried in the local newspaper.”

The Canyon Ferry case always stood in the shadow of Lonnie Zamora’s Socorro, NM, sighting, but through the years, it is still included in many UFO histories and databases.

The Word of a Witness

The final local coverage of the Canyon ferry story was the editorial from The Missoulian on May 12, 1964, and it defended the witnesses against the allegations of the Air Force.

The Missoulian, May 12, 1964

The APRO Bulletin, July 1964, expressed a similar point of view in, “Kids Called Hoaxers By U.S.A.F,” stating: 

“We must, if we retain our reason and our ethics, believe the Davis and the Rust children and doubt the ‘findings’ of the experts, if indeed the reports of same were honest.  … We cannot believe that the truth and the details are being withheld by authorities to spare feelings - the kids have already felt the full impact of the ridicule as a result of the AF investigation and subsequent public announcement about the ‘prank.’ It is clear that the facts are being withheld at least in this instance and we can only wonder why.”

In 2012, ufologist Joan Bird was researching the Canyon Ferry case for her book, Montana UFOs and Extraterrestrials. She was able to locate two of the original players, Bill Bahny and Tom Davis. Bird wrote that, “When I interviewed Bahny in 2012, he told me he wouldn’t have called [the sheriff] if he’d thought it was a prank. 'They seemed genuinely scared.'” More significantly, she was able to reach one of the primary witnesses, Tom Davis. As an adult, Davis preferred the spelling of his name as Thom. 

Joan Bird spoke with Thom Davis by telephone on June 20, 2012. From chapter 4, "The Canyon Ferry Sighting - or Socorro Copycat?":

“...I was able to find Thom Davis, who still lives in the Helena area. According to Thom, it was a hoax. The 'witnesses' dug the holes, poured a little gas on the ground, and lit it. They colluded in the story of the glowing white object and its take-off over Canyon Ferry. Davis also reiterated what was said in the Blue Book report that the youths had been listening to KOMA radio out of Oklahoma City and heard about a UFO sighting in Socorro, New Mexico.”

So, it seems the Canyon Ferry case ended as it began, with a phone call. Over the decades, unsupervised kids have been responsible for very some interesting UFO reports. Kids of all ages.