My dad was a scientist and a rationalist and did not believe in god, ghosts, fairies or anything not of this earth… except he once saw something in the sky which he could not identify… so for him it literally was an unidentified flying object.
He was a country boy and knew the night sky well; he knew the constellations, the planets, the stars. He was interested in all things celestial, observed partial eclipses, the Northern Lights (in Cambridge) meteors, comets, astronomy programmes… he was knowledgeable and well-informed.
One night in the 1950’s he and mum and the neighbours were outside chatting as it grew dark late on one summer evening. There was very little light pollution, yes there were street lights on the other side of the house, but the back garden was next to an allotment, and there was very little housing beyond that.
Suddenly they saw something bright in an unusual place in the sky. The object moved quickly in a very straight line across the sky and then stopped; it remained stationary for a minute or so and then shot off in another completely different direction, moving more quickly than an aircraft.
Dad had been in the army for seven years during the war; he knew what military aircraft looked like as he was a paratrooper. he knew the sky almost as well as he knew the land… and he had no explanation for the curious thing the four of them had observed. he always said he had seen a UFO.
Lois Elsden 
I had an experience like that years ago.
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What branch of science was your father involved in?
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He was an analyst working on proteins and lipids – in he 50’s he was involved with low temperature research, and then moved into meat research
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We had a strange fellow in our town that loved to fly kites down by the river. One of his huge kites attained such a great height that it disappeared from view. The Americans scrambled fighter jets to intercept what they thought was a UFO and he was forbidden from kiting again. I sorta liked him. We need more nuts like him!!!
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Good heavens! How extraordinary – how big was it? I know some are big enough to carry the weight of a man!
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I’m guessing about 10 ft because I helped him to launch it.
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Good thing it didn’t lift you off the ground!
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Could have ended up at the Dolphin on quiz night! Didn’t that happen to Mary Poppins?
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I think it may have done!! 😉 Quiz night tonight!
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