[HN Gopher] The Mysterious Airships of 1896-97 (2014)
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       The Mysterious Airships of 1896-97 (2014)
        
       Author : samclemens
       Score  : 51 points
       Date   : 2023-07-02 15:46 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.readex.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.readex.com)
        
       | qwertyuiop_ wrote:
       | They have been reported in Europe at during that period. Here are
       | some reports from all over the country.
       | 
       | https://www.americanghostwalks.com/articles/1897-milwaukee-a...
       | 
       | https://www.wildquincy.com/blog/1897-quincy-mystery-airship-...
       | 
       | https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/dark-histories-49725/phantom...
        
       | rintakumpu wrote:
       | Chums of Chance.
        
       | kencausey wrote:
       | I'm not sure why this was posted. Perhaps it was due to recent
       | blogging by Nick Pelling on the subject at
       | https://www.ciphermysteries.com/ ? There are quite a few entries
       | now over a period of months that started from a reported cipher
       | at Roswell.
        
         | zgluck wrote:
         | _On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting.
         | That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to
         | reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that
         | gratifies one 's intellectual curiosity._
        
           | kencausey wrote:
           | I didn't mean that it shouldn't have been posted. I really
           | meant to say something like 'why this was posted now.'
        
         | Magi604 wrote:
         | I'm seeing an uptick of public interest in UFOs in my channels.
         | I'm guessing it was sparked by Tucker Carlson talking about UFO
         | coverups during one of his recent Twitter shows.
        
           | Loughla wrote:
           | Why is the cynic in me absolutely sure all the UFO coverage
           | and news and Senate things are just a way to get more funding
           | for the space force?
        
             | kjkjadksj wrote:
             | DOD has no issue securing funds no matter what they are
             | squawking about in congress. For example, they ran a secret
             | war in Cambodia during the Vietnam war that only came to
             | light after a leak. I imagine there are probably hundreds
             | or thousands of such campaigns we will never learn of.
        
       | hindsightbias wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | lloydatkinson wrote:
       | Such a weird phenomenon. Hard to say if they were UFOs seen
       | through the eyes of the 1800s.
       | 
       | Then on the other hand I find the classic "they wouldn't have
       | been able to understand what they saw" theory unlikely because an
       | airship made of shiny metal or something else would have been
       | distinguishable.
        
         | photonerd wrote:
         | Honestly sounds like it was a hydrogen airship & some flights
         | of fancy by the--not known for their intellectual rigor--local
         | writers
        
           | Tanoc wrote:
           | The "flapping fins" and "two great mugs thrust out from each
           | side" certainly seem like ailerons and ballast. And the
           | mentions of it going at "a great rate of speed" sound like
           | what happens to dirigibles when they get caught broadside in
           | side drafts. What's interesting is the mention of a metal
           | prow. Later dirigibles had docking tips and lightning rods on
           | their noses, but a metal prow seems like it would cause a lot
           | of issues with center of lift. My only guess is it was some
           | kind of lifting surface and the entire craft was an aerostat
           | and not a true lighter-than-air craft.
        
             | kjkjadksj wrote:
             | The great speed referred to for some in this article was
             | estimated at 250mph. For someone in 1897 that might have
             | just been shorthand for incomprehensibly fast. These
             | accounts feel a lot more similar to the navy pilot accounts
             | of the pill/cigar shaped craft they've been tracking, which
             | are also capable of a rapid change in speed along a new
             | vector.
        
           | gunapologist99 wrote:
           | Or a bunch of hot air... in an enclosed space..
        
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       (page generated 2023-07-02 23:01 UTC)