CLAIM: 1950 McMinnville (OR) photo by the Trents is a 25' flying saucer

[Todd Feinman]

I'd go with a US Army metal plate. I'm sure there were plenty of these around in 1950, used for collecting oil or holding small screws

It does look very similar!

 

[JMartJr]

The plate is certainly a possibility, the advantage of the truck mirror is that it comes with the post jutting out at an angle pre-existing, no drilling or gluing required.. The lazyology principle, or some corollary thereof, would suggest that for a given hoax picture, where two or more explanations for how the hoax was done cover the existing facts equally well, the option that requires the least effort from a hoaxer is at least somewhat more likely to be correct.

Note that the slanted "antenna" sticking out the top is not a feature common to a lot of other UFO pics -- this is another example of how (as far as I have seen) no two UFO pics that are clear enough to see something of the structure of the object seem to show the same "make and model" of ship -- they're all slightly different. It seems unlikely that fleets of ships flown by visiting aliens would be nothing but custom one-offs (though not impossible, who knows what aliens might do!) but seems very likely for a series of hoaxers taking advantage of whatever came to hand that looked a it like a flying saucer and tossing it in the air or hanging it from a string.

 

[Andreas]

The plate is certainly a possibility, the advantage of the truck mirror is that it comes with the post jutting out at an angle pre-existing, no drilling or gluing required.. The lazyology principle

I agree. It's just that I haven't found a single mirror with the right silhouette. The flat top of the "ufo" is quite apparent in Trent's photo, but it's not typical of this kind of mirror.

 

[Andreas]

Off-topic a bit,, but a tin or aluminium plate would be light, cheap and easy to punch a hole through for a suspension point. They were very common in the 20th century.

Indeed, a metal plate is a very good match. They also described the object as silvery. If they knew it was an aluminum plate, describing it that way would make perfect sense.

There's an interesting aspect of the case that is often overlooked by those who are more inclined to believe than to search for the truth. It concerns the Trents as witnesses and whether they might have had a motive to hoax the photographs. In the Oregonian of June 10, 1950, Evelyn Trent is reported to have "seen similar objects on the coast three different times, but no one would believe me".

In other words, Evelyn was already a repeat UFO observer when she and her husband allegedly saw the object come zooming toward their small farm. Paul also appears to have been well aware of the "flying saucer mystery" long before he took the photographs. Quoted in the Pasadena Independent of June 11, 1950, he said: "I was kinda scared of it. You know, you hear so much talk about those things, and the government…"

To summarize, we have Evelyn, who believed she had seen flying saucers on several occasions, but whose friends did not believe her, and Paul, who had discussed the phenomenon and had heard a great deal about it. Witnesses like these must be considered in their proper context.

Evelyn may have seen "things" that she believed were flying saucers. It is obviously impossible to know what she actually saw, but the experience may have affected her deeply. If so, she would have carried that prior experience with her when the events of May 11 occurred.