Frank Warren has written a rebuttal challenging this article from The Star.

http://www.theufochronicles.com/2008/09/picture-and-thousand-words-rebuttal.html#comments

#Jerry none of the test flights listed by Warren seem to have been controlled flights. The phantom airship reports mention the airship flying from California all the way to Michigan and none of the known dirigibles including the ones listed seem to have been capable of such a long distance flight.

However I heard that the Fate magazine July 2007 issue had an article about an Airship that traveled East from California and crashed in some lake in Michigan. I have not read that entire article so I have no idea what Airship it is talking about.

I just finished reading Chariton's book "The Great Texas Airship Mystery" and in the final chapter he brings up an interesting point which I will quote here.

Another balloon consideration is that in 1897 most of the stogies were not shaped like a perfect cylinder as are most modern smokes. In the 1890s cigars were often hand rolled and usually were shaped like an elongated oval with pointed ends rather than a tube with blunt or round ends. When witnesses saw the dark object described as cigar-shaped, it was not shaped like a long, round tube but rather was an object which was larger in the middle and tapered on the ends to points. One man even described the object as looking like a Mexican cigar, which was even more pointed than domestic brands. Dirigibles were shaped like long large tubes, the airships were not.

Why the big deal over cigar shapes? It may mean nothing at all. Or it may be critical because sooner or later anyone trying to decide what the airship really was eventually comes to the possibility that the answer might have been far too sophisticated for most 19th century Texans to comprehend. What if that dark, mysterious airship in 1897 was not a man made object or myth but rather was a visiting neighbor from another galaxy far, far away.

In 1897 there was no such thing as a flying object so anything seen patrolling the heavens was technically unidentified a UFO. Eventually, when all other explanations seem to have been eliminated or discounted, the possibility that the mystery airship was of an extraterrestrial origin has to be explored. Doing that exploration is precisely where the importance of cigar shape comes into play.

UFOs have been reported for many years at various spots around the world. Most of the sightings, it seems, are of a flying saucer-type vehicle which may explain why so many UFO enthusiasts have largely discounted the 1897 cigar-shape tales. Not one person in 1897 ever said anything at all about the airship being shaped like a saucer. But then in 1897 there wasn't even a frisbee, so anyone claiming they saw a saucer flying through the air would have undoubtedly been ridiculed mercilessly. But that may very well be what they saw and they didn't realize it.

Almost 100 percent of the "dark object with light" sightings were at night. Most witnesses said they could make out little of the design except that is was cigar-shaped, more precisely, 1897 cigar-shaped. If you pick up any modern UFO book and examine the purported pictures of side views of flying saucers, it is not hard to imagine that if you saw such an object far up in the sky at night, it would simply look like an elongated oval, large in the middle that tapered to sharp ends. It would look like an 1897 cigar.

Such a theory is speculation in its wildest, most unsubstantiated form. So are most UFO theories. The fact is that we'll probably never resolve the UFO issue until one of those little green (or whatever color they really are) creatures brings his craft in for a landing and decides to tell us lowly earthlings the whole story of the universe. Until then, all we have is speculation, and in the case of the 1897 high flyer, there is almost as much information to ponder as there is in any modern sighting.

Many 1897 witnesses said they heard a peculiar whirring or whizzing sound that could not be identified. There were several reports that the flying machine hovered in one spot for some time then quickly disappeared traveling at a high rate of speed. There was always at least one light that was frequently described as being the brightest light the witnesses had ever seen and was often said to be considerably more powerful than any incandescent light, which was the only kind they had in 1897. Some witnesses said they saw a bright, fluorescent glow about the ship and many others claimed there were multicolored lights along the sides. If you do any research into reported modern UFO sightings you will find that similar statements occur frequently.

One point that has the potential to substantiate the UFO theory is that the mysterious 1897 airship was seen in so many places over such a wide area at about the same moment. Even at the time, that coincidence was often noted in the newspaper accounts as being strange. Ironically, even some of the fakes made reference to the multiple sightings. Many hoaxers claimed they were told by the crew that the ship was part of a fleet of between three and ten ships. Since we are now sure those stories were false, the eyewitnesses obviously were aware of the other sightings. Thus to achieve the optimum degree of believability they had to say there was a fleet. Without such a reference, they would have no way to explain how they saw an airship in Texas at the same time one was being seen in Kansas or Illinois.

What those early pranksters did not know was that generations into the future, people would often report seeing multiple UFOs at the same time, often flying in formation. There are also numerous reports of UFOs being seen in widely separated areas at about the same time. The logical conclusion is that if the reports are true, then there must be more than one UFO.

If there is more than one today, there could have been more than one in 1897. As provocative as that may seem, it is actually the only solution which would explain the diversity of the sightings.

So what was it, a UFO, a hoax, a planet, or a lot of bad whiskey? The answer, from this vantage point, is yes, it was a UFO, a hoax, a planet, and some bad whiskey. A lot of people will quickly accept three of the four and laugh at the UFO. That prerogative is a God given right, or at least it's in the constitution somewhere. If you have a better answer to explain the high flying, fast moving, dark, cigar-shaped object with the light brighter than four locomotive headlights, then I'd like to hear it. In the interest of fair play, I will be happy to make available a complete transcript of all airship reports that relate to Texas. You can read the evidence and draw your own conclusions.

As for me, I will stand on the William B. Travis theory of believability. Texas legend has it that Travis drew his famous line in the dirt at the Alamo and invited all who would stand and die with him to cross. All but one man did. Some historians refuse to believe it happened because there is no real proof. The rest of us will continue to believe it did happen until someone proves it did not. As for the 1897 mystery flyer, I choose to believe that a UFO was involved until someone proves that theory wrong.