Adding intrigue to Arnold's story, the U.S. military denied having any planes at all in the area of Mount Rainier at the time of his sighting. Likewise, on July 6, speculation arose in newspaper articles that the objects being sighted were due to either the flying wing or flying flapjack, a disc-shaped aircraft, both experimental planes under development by the U.S. military at the time. The military repeated that neither aircraft could account for the sightings, which is also borne out by historical records.