The Great Airship of 1897 – Paranormal Podcast 134

great podcast! Makes you wonder if the folks back then were looking at a man-made craft, or something more....out of this....world.

It is actually very likely that the mystery airships were man-made craft, which is what Danelek's book is really all about. Many of the eyewitness descriptions of the airship of 1896-97 match closely the experimental airships that were much more common in Europe for the previous half century. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's rigid airship got the credit for being the first but it was only 3 years in the future. David Schwartz's aluminum craft, though unsuccessful, was built in 1893. Charles Renard's and Arthur Krebs' machine had flown successfully in 1884 and Henri Giffard's airship, though underpowered, had proven the concept a full 40 years before in 1852. It is completely plausible, and may even be likely, that a cutting edge airship was flying over the American west in 1896 and 1897.

Unfortunately, Danelek's book is not terribly convincing because it lacks any sort of depth. He offers few primary sources. He talks about reports in newspapers, mentions a few newspapers by name and occasionally has a quote, but he doesn't provide any clippings or extended quotes. In fact, his book has no bibliography or footnotes, only a short list of recommended reading. I found it hard to give a lot of weight to his presentation when I was able to find more thorough documentation on Wikipedia.

I have just started reading Michael Busby's "Solving the 1897 Airship Mystery" and it seems to have the detail necessary to make a convincing argument. A huge bibliography. Lots on newspaper quotes. Maps and tables. Actual data rather than just mention of events. Where it's all going and whether this data is convincing I haven't gotten to yet, but we shall see.

It seems highly likely that the mysterious airships were man made craft.

You know what I find interesting? Some people say it's too much of a coincidence for an alien to be seen. They're far too smart for that. Yet the government, who is great at keeping secrets, is too dumb not to fly their untested aircraft where no one can see it?

Another thing is these "new air crafts". If this has been going on for decades, how come we've never seen any of these things in action? The U.S. (and other countries) just spend millions of dollars on super futuristic aircraft that never sees the light of day? Doesn't exactly make sense to me.