These mysterious balloonists defeated the gravity of the Earth with the help of pink gas unknown to science. Who are they: people or aliens from other worlds? What were their aircraft made of? And why are the amazing phenomena and facts that thousands of people witnessed in their time, are now forgotten? But let's talk about everything in order.
At first, those who heard incredible stories from eyewitnesses simply laughed at the witnesses and dismissed their stories. They explained everything simply: people have read books by Jules Verne and are inventing some kind of air ships. But everything turned out to be not so simple. After all, there were so many observers who saw mysterious objects in the air in the late 19th - early 20th centuries that it was already impossible to ignore their messages.
In England, the United States of America and other countries at that time incomprehensible ships plowed the sky - not hot air balloons, not airships and, of course, not airplanes. They were strange flying machines - bulky, often irregularly egg-shaped. They glowed at night. During the day, some could see the propeller.
Shepherds and lumberjacks, Indians and cowboys, who had not read not only Jules Verne, but not a single book in general, agreed on the description of the ships. People far from fantasies have left us thousands of testimonials about the mysterious balloonists at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, in California, unknown objects often flew low above the ground. Perhaps it was difficult for the crews to manage them? On the other hand, people on the ground often heard conversations, laughter, singing coming from aircrafts … It turns out that there were not aliens, but ordinary people?
One of the most famous sightings was recorded in the United States, in the city of Oakland, on November 22, 1896. The local newspaper Tribune wrote that "a winged object, like a cigar" appeared over the city. He surprised hundreds of people with his appearance. Passers-by claimed that he emitted a bright light and moved strangely: he swayed from side to side. Soon the ship turned around and quickly disappeared. Interestingly, a week later, he appeared over the city again. This time, the object did not glow. Onlookers made out only a silhouette. Local engineers estimated its dimensions at 30 meters, and its speed at about 20 kilometers per hour. After 30 minutes after appearing, the object rose vertically into the sky and disappeared.
The observation of the ship on March 27, 1897 is characteristic. Then an aerial object emitting red light flew over the city of Topeka in Kansas. For an hour about two hundred residents could see it, including the governor of the state, who told the local press about this: "I don't know what it is, but such aircraft could solve our railway problems!"
Promotional video:
Over the next month, residents of twenty states saw such unidentified flying objects. Air ships appeared over Kansas City, Dallas, Omaha. In April 1897, two objects circled Chicago in front of thousands of residents for six hours straight. Reporters managed to take two photographs, which modern forensic scientists recognized as genuine.
What are you dreaming about, city of Aurora?
Imagine: 1897, April 19, 6 a.m. The sleepy American town of Aurora. It was on that day and hour that one of the described air ships crashed in it … This event was reported in the local newspaper The Morning News. Reporter Eric Haydon wrote:
“The inhabitants of Aurora, who got up early in the morning, were unspeakably surprised by the sudden appearance in the sky above the city of a strange silver ship without sails. He moved north, but much closer to the ground than the same boats that appeared earlier over other US cities. Apparently, some mechanisms were out of order, for the ship was gradually decreasing.
He swam over the town square and, reaching the north end of town, collided with a windmill tower belonging to the town judge Procter. There was a terrible explosion, and the ship shattered into small pieces, and with it the mill itself and the water tank. Apparently, there was only one flyer on the ship, since the mutilated remains of the only creature were discovered, which, in the opinion of most of the townspeople, was not an inhabitant of this world. In particular, US Army officer Thomas Weems from nearby Fort Worth has suggested that the flyer is a native of the planet Mars.
The papers found on the creature were written in an unknown language with strange hieroglyphs. Almost nothing remained of the vessel itself. Therefore, it was not possible to draw any conclusion about what it was built from and with the help of what it flew through the air. The only thing that we managed to find out from several small wrecks is that the ship was built from an unknown metal, resembling a mixture of aluminum and silver, and should weigh several tons. The flyer's funeral will take place tomorrow."
Surprisingly, this news did not interest anyone. And nowadays, when ufologists wanted to investigate the creature's grave, the authorities of the city of Aurora refused to give permission. The authorities explained it this way: the dead from typhus are buried nearby, and the virus can again come out "free" if the burial is disturbed … The mystery of the incident in Aurora has not yet been revealed.
And each propeller breathes the mystery of NB gas
Nowadays, a new version of the appearance in the late 19th - early 20th centuries in the skies over Europe and America of many mysterious air ships has been put forward. This version is associated with the so-called Sonora flying club, located in the Californian town of Sonora. True, there is no direct evidence that in at least one of the cases described above, eyewitnesses saw aircraft built by this club.
We learned about the mysterious society of aeronauts, founded in the 19th century in the United States, from the notes of a certain Charles Dellshaw. He left a posthumous manuscript describing the mysterious aircrafts, which he called "aero". They had wheels for overland travel, oars for water travel, and motors for air travel. Dellshaw left the manuscript - notes about the flying club, encrypted and provided with fanciful illustrations.
Dellshaw talks about a certain secret society that existed in the city of Sonora - a group of wealthy people who were involved in the development, construction and flying of aircrafts. This secret scientific and technical organization was headed by a certain Peter Mennis. He was the author of the technology that was used in the construction of ships. According to Dellshaw, Mennis only allowed the balloonists to use her, but did not disclose the details, which caused the discontent of the rest of the club members. As a result, Mennis was killed. In general, at different times, according to Dellshaw, club members who became too talkative with strangers died. The society carefully guarded its secrets.
The Sonoran Aeronautics Club's plans for aeronautics were worked out to the smallest detail and included equipping with such advanced devices as searchlights, parachutes and retractable landing gear.
The manuscript says that the club had about sixty members. The community has made efforts to keep its activities secret. Even Dellshaw's manuscript was partially encrypted. The Sonora Club received its money from an even more mysterious source in the eastern United States, which was called NIZ-MA. What was hidden behind this abbreviation is still unknown. Some researchers put forward a fantastic idea about extraterrestrial intelligence, which "shared" with the members of the Sonora Club their extraterrestrial knowledge.
Dellshaw wrote that it was possible to set strange machines in motion thanks to some kind of gas called "NB" or "sup", which had the ability to neutralize gravity. Club members got their "supe" from a certain green liquid that mixed with air and some other substances, resulting in a pink gas used in the work of ships' mechanisms.
Several aircraft, according to Dellshaw, were built and used for a long time for their intended purpose, and then they were disassembled, and so that the principle of operation of the vehicles remained secret.
This happened after some of the members of the society began to “talk too much” or simply try to use the knowledge of their organization for their own benefit. Having destroyed the "traitors" physically, the remaining members of the club at the beginning of the 20th century made a decision to disband themselves, and since then nothing is known about their further fate.
Jean LEMAN
"Secrets of the XX century" November 2012
More pictures from Dellshaw's book can be found here