The Aurora, Texas UFO

[BIAD]

I think it was a real incident, very well documented at the time and it should be noted, this was a
time before the Wright Brothers flew.

I would agree with you in principle, I have no definite evidence that the occurrence was concocted
for personal or communal gain. But the airship phenomena isn't as mysterious as some would lead
people to believe.

Dirigibles or LTAs (lighter than air) craft had been around -probably before, but certainly by 1783 and
that was what these craft being seen in the western states were, gas-filled balloons.
The inventiveness of propelling them forward made their designs look strange, but all-in-all, they were
inflatables.

I believe the key to these strange shapes seen in Texas and elsewhere was the possibility that if airships
could be seen as a viable vehicle, the US Army would certainly be interested. Just as they were interested
in the Baldwin dirigible of 1908.

Constructing these things for a Government-funded military is a lucrative goal!

The Wright Brothers had a different approach to flight, where the propulsion and air-flow over a wing
would be the way to stay in the air. Speed could be then improved and controlled by the dynamics of
propulsion and the volume of the craft. A balloon is always going to be a large bag of gas that impacts
its speed and of course, makes an easier target.

Standard history has always been been a bit vague when discussing these particular vehicles.
Most mention the Montgolfier brothers in France and the German Zeppelin. But information regarding the
pioneers of the airship in the western regions of the US tends to only be displayed as some 'mysterious'
crafts with pilots who speak an unknown language.

I'd suggest that the language was actually German, but that's a far-more mysterious story!
If the reports are to be believed, the rates of speed of some these craft would certainly place them in the
category of a vehicle far-beyond a publicly-assumed velocity of what was current at the time.

The whole aspect of what happened at Aurora -Texas may not have been secret, more like sensitive and
the account was merely added to for editorial reasons. Until the body of the alleged pilot is exhumed, well
never know if it was a foreign-looking/sounding human or an actual alien!

This is from an airship incident of November 17th, 1896.

"That same night the "airship" also appeared above San Francisco some 90 miles away.
There it was observed by hundreds, including the mayor. It cruised as far as the Pacific Ocean, above the
famous Cliff House, where its searchlight, a beam that stretched out over 500 feet, reportedly frightened
the seals on Seal Rock sending them plunging into the safety of the sea.

Over the next few days airship sightings were made not just in California, but from as far away as Washington
State and Canada. The newspapers went wild, some supporting the idea of an airship, some ridiculing it.

Stories began to suggest that the airship was the work of a mysterious inventor who was testing his device
at night lest his ideas be stolen. This didn't seem outrageous to most people. Balloons capable of carrying
people had been around for almost a hundred years and it seemed that the key to powered flight might soon
be discovered.

One San Francisco attorney, nicknamed "Airship" Collins, claimed that he was representing the eccentric
and wealthy inventor who had constructed the thing at a secret location in Oroville, just sixty miles north of
Sacramento.

According to Collins the airship was 150 feet long, and could carry 15 passengers. "It was built on the aeroplane
system and has two canvas wings 18 feet wide and a rudder shaped like a bird's tail," he told people, "I saw the
thing ascend about 90 feet under perfect control."

When the mysterious inventor never appeared Collins found himself the object of ridicule and he backed off his
earlier claims..."

SOURCE:

I honestly believe that there were innovative people attempting to improve the idea of dirigible balloons and
via exploitative Journalism, many of the sightings were 'sexed-up'.

This left the subject open for conspiracy-theorists to imply that somehow, aliens had discarded the craft that had
brought them here and used gas-filled, steam-powered vehicles to get themselves around the US countryside!

But I could be wrong.