History Main / FlyingSaucer

* The enemy mother ship that attacks Katina in ''VideoGame/StarFox 64'' is a flying saucer. The whole mission is an Film/IndependenceDay shout out, the saucer will destroy the Katina base with a similar WaveMotionGun if you fail to destroy it.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' has miniature flying saucers as somewhat common enemies. Similar "UFO" enemies appear in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', which, in keeping with the game's AlienInvasion plot, has a splash screen at the beginning depicting a 1950s American town being terrorized by flying saucers.

* Subverted in ''Fanfic/SlippingBetweenWorlds'', where the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' goes through its own ''Radio/WarOfTheWorlds'' mass panic and everyone swears blind the aliens have landed from their incredibly advanced flying discs, you know, the ones with the deadly ray gonnes what are just about to blast the Patrician's palace into atoms, just keep watching, squire, sooner or later the mothership is going to pop out of invisibility just over Broad Way, let's see how that wily bugger Vetinari gets out of ''this'' one, and so on.

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': The aliens in "The Spaceship" employ a flying saucer.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' has miniature flying saucers as somewhat common enemies. Similar "UFO" enemies appear in ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', which, in keeping with the game's AlienInvasion plot, has a splash screen at the beginning depicting a 1950s American town being terrorized by flying saucers.

* ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace'', although nonsensically, one of the saucers is described as "cigar-shaped", when it clearly isn't. They clearly have some kind of shape-shifting mode, since the scenes with people entering through its hatch show it with flat sides at 90-degree angles, much like a... shed of some sort!

** Dalek warships from both the old and new series. Their orignal creation as Dalek spacecraft iwas made back in the '60's when this trope was all the rage. It has stuck with the aliens ever since.

* The Martians get around in a standard, house-sized, black saucer in ''WebVideo/WorldsGreatestAdventures''.

* A frozen flying saucer appears in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' when the herd passed an ice cave. In the teaser trailer for ''Ice Age 5: Collision Course'' we see how presumably exactly ''this'' flying saucer gets accidentally activated by Scrat.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Akira encounters a black colored fleet of these on an EscortMission of a BigBadassRig, that are TheRemnant of the Old World NeglectfulPrecursors’ airspace control forces. Their mother ship is obscured by ChameleonCamouflage but still casts a shadow. Said mother ship is a DroneDeployer and fires a huge WaveMotionGun to serve as artillery support. Their smaller vessels fire EnergyWeapons and have blades on the sides for a SpinAttack.

* [[Comicbook/{{Brainiac}} Brainiac's]] original spaceship was a purple flying saucer, which he used until he acquired his now-iconic skull-shaped spaceship in the early 80's.

* When the Comicbook/FantasticFour first encountered the invading alien Skrulls (way back in ''Fantastic Four #2),'' the team hijacked their flying saucer and kept it in storage in the Baxter Building for years. In the early 80's, Comicbook/RomSpaceknight finally used it to return to his home planet Galador.

* {{Superdickery}} showed a cover featuring [[http://www.superdickery.com/fatman-the-human-flying-saucer "Fatman, the human Flying Saucer!"]]
* In scurrilous adult comic ''ComicBook/{{Viz}}'', Johnny Fartpants [[note]]There's always a commotion going on in his pants![[/note]] is used by NASA as the [[{{Fartillery}} propulsion system for an experimental spacecraft]] using the power of his flatulence to drive the vessel at incredible speeds.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: The robotic aliens in #110 fly green saucer space craft.

* Aliens almost always use them in ''ComicStrip/FrankAndErnest''.

* One ''ComicStrip/CarpeDiem'' strip has a flying saucer [[DieselPunk powered by a turbodiesel engine,]] which the LittleGreenMan pilot wants to [[BenevolentAlienInvasion share with the Earthlings]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:RealLife]]

* Every single alien ship in ''VideoGame/Squadron51'' are based on old-timey alien flying saucers, given the game being a loving homage to old black-and-white B-movies.

* In the ''Radio/OurMisBrooks'' episode "Space, Who Needs It?", [[HighSchoolHustler Walter Denton]] makes a model of a flying saucer. He holds it on a stick in front of Mr. Conklin's telescope lens, tricking the [[DeanBitterman principal]] into thinking the Earth's being invaded.

* Naturally, some of the alien ships in the ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'' series fall under this, as does one of the ships you can manifacture in the first game.
** Interestingly, in ''VideoGame/TheBureauXCOMDeclassified'', the only flying saucer is of human design (reminiscent of the Avrocar but much larger). It was in development before the Outsiders even invaded, although it incorporates some elerium-derived technology and is later enhanced with recovered Outsider tech.
*** Technically, Titans are also flying saucers, but they are, basically, this game's version of Cyberdiscs (i.e. flying robots).

*** A very small flying saucer appears behind [[spoiler:the cathedral in the Lunar Kingdom]] where it behaves like a little bird, flying away when Mario approaches. Closer inspection reveals that it is a miniature Torkdrift, with a single lily within it.

In actuality, the most efficient design for a spacecraft would likely be a [[SpheroidDropship sphere]] as this shape encloses the greatest volume with the least amount of material. They just don't look very cool or quite as alien, though they [[SinisterGeometry have their own charms]]. But there can be some merits to this design, as some of them are seen rotating and might therefore use the Centripetal force to create an ArtificialGravity. They also have a smaller radar cross-section compared to some other shapes, like the previous mentioned [[SpheroidDropship sphere]] or ThatsNoMoon

The term comes from Kenneth Arnold's description of a UFO sighting. Arnold described their flight (but not their shape) as "like saucers skipping across water." Nevertheless, the term stuck. Flying Saucers are the most reported type of UFO (and the most commonly hoaxed type as well) though it is unknown if the term was being used by the witness as an interchangeable word for UFO or describing the nature of the UFO. (The term UFO describes any possible aircraft shape, as long as it is Unidentified.) Flying Saucers are still reported today, with a recent one reported over Chicago O'Hare airport in 2006.

* The Music/BlueOysterCult returned to this topic repeatedly. ''[[Music/AgentsOfFortune Extraterrestrial]]'' with its theme of the Men in Black intimidating a witness; ''Take Me Away'', about the desire to be abducted; "''[[Music/CultosaurusErectus Monsters]]'', where humans in their own space rocket are somebody else's UFO....

* The Gerry and Sylvia Anderson 1970s series ''Series/{{UFO}}'' (obviously), though they were more conical than saucer-shaped.
* The Visitor motherships in ''Series/{{V|1983}}'' are saucer-shaped.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': When it Gigantamaxes, Gigantamax Orbeetle resembles a UFO, with it having a dome-shaped form with multiple lights at the bottom with one "tractor beam" light in the middle. Some of its attack animations also have it darting about quickly and randomly like common depictions of flying saucer movements. It even appears to be based [[http://hoaxes.org/photo_database/image/venusian_scoutcraft on a specific hoaxed "Venusian scoutcraft" photo created using a lampshade.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': When it Gigantamaxes, Gigantamax Orbeetle resemblances a UFO, with it having a dome-shaped form with multiple lights at the bottom with one "tractor beam" light in the middle. Some of its attack animations also have it darting about quickly and randomly like common depictions of flying saucer movements. It even appears to be based [[http://hoaxes.org/photo_database/image/venusian_scoutcraft on a specific hoaxed "Venusian scoutcraft" photo created using a lampshade.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': When it Gigantamaxes, Gigantamax Orbeetle resemblances a UFO, with it having a dome-shaped form with multiple lights at the bottom with one "tractor beam" light in the middle. Some of its attack animations also have it darting about quickly and randomly like common depictions of flying saucer movements. It even appears to be based [[http://hoaxes.org/photo_database/image/venusian_scoutcraft on a specific hoaxed "Venusian scoutcraft" photo created using a lampshade.]]