Before all the "drone" sightings, there was a flurry of airship sightings - in 1897 [View all]

[Liberal In Texas]

After all the stories about "drone" sightings I remembered I had this book. I dusted off "The Great Texas Airship Mystery" purchased back in the 90s when I was amused reading about weird paranormal subjects. This was a similar "flap" of aerial reports that occurred not only in Texas (where that author lives) but the West Coast and the Midwest.

Many of the sightings echoed some of the popular culture of the era. Like Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg or Captain Nemo. The airships were sometimes thought to be the invention of a mysterious scientist.

All these reports occurred years before the Wright Brothers first flight but only a few years after the first lighter than air airships were being developed in Europe. The first Zeppelin made its debut in 1895. The public was well aware of this from reading newspaper reports.

Years later, starting sometime around the 1940s airships sightings are replaced with UFO and flying disc reports.

There seems to be a not uncommon phenonium among us to share fears and beliefs of the unknown and to spread stories and rumors - and maybe to misidentify common objects or to greatly exaggerate. Or to simply fabricate.