SHIPS IN THE AIR?

TEXAS - A general belief is that  interest in UFO’s began with an incident in 1940’s when aviator Kenneth A. Arnold spotted nine flying disc like objects near Mount Rainier, Washington. That theory is a misconception. While the crash of a UFO in Roswell, New Mexico, and earlier sightings during World War II generated much speculation and circulated new phrases such as "Flying Saucer," and "UFO" into mass consciousness the roots of the mysteries are far older than you would think. Christopher Columbus while standing on the deck of the Santa Maira at night spotted unknown objects in 1492. Beginning in November 1896 and ending in May 1897 a strange, unidentified object was spotted by literally thousands of people from the West Coast, to the Great Lakes, and even the Gulf of Mexico. Deepening the mystery is the fact that air travel would not be revolutionized until 1904 at Kitty Hawk. The Airplane, commonly put forth as an explanation for mysterious sightings in the sky, had not even been thought of in the 1890’s. The craft first reported in California was slow paced, and cigar shaped. This airship moved silently through the night as dazed witness on the ground marveled at the sight. For them this ship must have indeed been a wonder, although Airships had been tried in France between 1852 and 1884, no study of such craft would be seen in American until 1914. (See http://inventors.about.com)

Cigar Shaped UFO (from the website Lights in the Texas Sky)

In Denton, Texas on the night of April 13, 1897 two independent witnesses reported sightings of the Airship. One witness described the ship as being about fifty feet long, with two great "mugs" thrust out on each side, a broad tail or steering sail behind, and a long beak or blade resembling a cut-water on a ship in front. The long craft had a powerful searchlight as well as smaller lights that seemed to shine out of windows on the side. The detail in this report can be explained as the observer had been standing in his yard watching the stars through a pair of marine field glasses. While the second witness was not able to provide the same amount of detail as the first their accounts strongly resembled each other’s and it was not long before the story began to circulate across the state. Soon their stories were matched again and again, as across Texas the Airship was spotted by huge numbers of people. Newspapers ran stories on the Airship including the Dallas Times Herald, and The Austin Daily Statesman as well as smaller papers such as The Bastrop Advisor. The last sighting was in Forth Worth on May 12, 1897. While opinions and speculation on the mystery were put forth at the time no one has ever offered any proof or a solution.

TEXAS - FIRST IN FLIGHT!

North Carolina license plates reads "First in Flight" because of the Wright Brothers first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C. on December 17, 1903. School children throughout the world read in history books that this event was the first powered airplane flight ever. But is that correct? Some in Texas say: "Not True".

December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, NC
Flew 120 feet. Time, 12 seconds. Orville Wright at the controls
Photo LC-USZ62-6166-A - Library of Congress

 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

Jacob Brodbeck, a German settler who established himself in Fredericksburg in 1847 as the second teacher at the Vereins Kirche could be the first person to have flown a powered air-ship in America. Jacob moved to San Antonio in 1863 and became a school inspector. There he worked on his plan to create a flying "air-ship". Soon he had a working model of his invention that had a rudder, wings, and a propeller powered by coiled springs. After showing his working model at local fairs he was encouraged to build a full-sized version of his craft that could carry a man.  His funding came from local men, including Dr. Ferdinand Herff of San Antonio, H. Guenther of New Braunfels and A. W. Engel of Cranes Mill, who bought shares in his project. Jacob promised to repay them within six months of selling the patent rights to his machine.

His full-sized airship, which featured an enclosed space for the "aeronaut," a water propeller in case of accidental landings on water, a compass, and a barometer, and for which Brodbeck had predicted speeds between 30 and 100 miles per hour.  The flight took place in San Pedro Park, in San Antonio and was said to have risen twelve feet in the air and traveled about 100 feet before the springs unwound completely and the machine crashed to the ground, although the inventor escaped serious injury.  A bust of Brodbeck was later placed in San Pedro Park.

After this setback, his shareholders refused to put up the money for a second attempt, so he traveled across the US on a fund-raising tour. His proposals failed to persuade his audiences to invest in his plan after his papers were stolen in Michigan. Brodbeck returned to Texas and lived on a ranch near Luckenbach until his death, on January 8, 1910, six years after the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk. No drawings or blueprints of Brodbeck's craft have survived. He was buried on his property near Luckenbach.

This brings us to the end of this article with a question of what to believe. Do we trust the facts in history books? Or do we search for more information and come to our on conclusions?  Does Texas deserve a commemoration in history for being first in flight? These questions I leave with you to decide.