This isn't your typical UFO conspiracy theory. While I don't intend to diminish the importance of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, especially with regards to the explanation of the UFO phenomenon, for now we're going to concern ourselves with another possible explanation for many early UFO sightings, a very human explanation...

That being said, records of UFO sightings go back thousands of years.

When Alexander the Great began to attack the city of Tyre, five “flying shields” were recorded by both the attacking and defending forces. One of the “shields” shot a “lightning bolt” and brought down the walls, and Alexander's army stormed and captured the city.

Jacques Vallée, a well-known ufologist, has come across many unusual incidents in the distant past, including a cigar-shaped UFO that was observed to change course in Europe in 1034 and again in Japan in 1235 when General Yoritsume and others observed a dazzling display of objects in the sky, performing incredible maneuvers.

As a result of this sighting in Japan, Yoritsume initiated one of the first recorded scientific investigations of the UFO phenomenon, predating the US Air Force's own Project Blue Book by more than 700 years.

The following is from Covert Wars and Breakaway Civilizations by Joseph P. Farrell, from which much of this research is derived:

From 1347-1350, Western Europe experienced the Black Death, the massive epidemic of bubonic plague that was, according to some, brought from the Orient by the trading ships of Venice and Genoa, which has fueled speculations and conspiracy theories by some that this was the deliberate act of a corrupt financial oligarchy already touting the idea that the world was over-populated.

However, certain accounts suggest an even more sinister scenario, and I quote from UFOs in Wartime by Mack Maloney:

There were persistent reports from the time of strange flying objects moving low through the sky, leaving a trail of suspicious waving vapor in their wake. Wherever and whenever these objects were seen, the plague would soon break out in that area.

There was also the 1561 phenomenon over Nuremberg which has been suggested by many to have been a well-documented UFO sighting.

By the time of the industrial revolution and the invention of the telegraph and then telephone, not only did it become possible to instantaneously transmit information, but it also created the potential of the technological emulation of these sightings. According to Farrell:

Nothing so signaled this shift as the outbreak in the USA and Europe of the great “airship” mystery of the post-Civil War period of the second half of the 19th century.

Most people tend to dismiss the nineteenth century airship mystery as being related to the question and culture of a “breakaway civilization,” but as will now be seen, it is deeply related to the question of its historical origins and the possible motivations behind it. The sightings that broke out in the USA, especially during the 1890s, raised the public awareness of the UFO for the first time, even though these sightings were not at that time called UFOs.

Much more importantly, the sightings impressed upon the public mind the implications of two things: technology and its secret development.

The 1897 Airship Mystery

For an indispensable study of the airship mystery, I recommend Michael Busby's Solving the 1897 Airship Mystery.

Among his various sources, Busby examined over 1200 newspaper reports, and even though there was “ample debate concerning the flying machines' origins in 1897 (the year of the most concentrated and numerous sightings), including the supposition that the machines were of extraterrestrial design, all of the 1896-97 newspaper accounts referred to the flying objects as airships.”

There were other consistencies, as Busby determined that the sightings begin to follow “an easily identifiable path beginning in California, proceeding east to the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan), then changing to a southerly course and traversing Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma before arriving in Texas and Louisiana in April 1897.” Busby continues:

People saw the airship, or airships, at night, sometimes following a straight line, sometimes stopping then starting again then changing course before disappearing over the horizon. The descriptions of the size, shape, and sounds associate with the airships are similar, regardless of the location and date of the sighting.

These newspaper accounts were remarkably specific, as most referred to the following:

Swishing sounds, searchlights and flashes of light coming from the airships, and the obvious ability to maneuver independently and under apparent intelligent direction, sudden accelerations and a cigar-shape or Zeppelin-like appearance, descriptions of sparks and electrical motors, descriptions of “sails” and “fans” projecting from cigar shapes, flapping wings, estimations of their dimensions, and speculations upon their mode of propulsions and potentials for military application.

This leads us to the 1897 UFO incident in Aurora, Texas. Busby speculates:

Were the appearances of these strange flying vessels and the purported crash of an airship at Aurora, Texas, a prelude to the alleged events that occurred fifty years later near Roswell? Or did an epidemic of mass hysteria sweep a good proportion of the country? Were the stories the product of newspaper writers' imaginations? Were the flying machines a secret government project (and was there a subsequent government cover-up)?

It's often claimed that black-ops and fringe research, whether conducted by private corporations, governments or individuals, may be many years ahead of what is released for public consumption. As the Wright brothers would make their historic flight in 1903, it seems not unreasonable that someone, somewhere, might have been just six years ahead of the game, as indicated by the spate of sightings in 1897 which reached a climax in Aurora.

If the Aurora sighting and crash occurred in the absence of any other airship sighting in the area then it would be much easier to consign the account to the heap of known hoaxes. However, there were numerous airship sightings—more than thirty were reported in the North Texas region—the evening before the crash.

Two airship sightings were made at 3:00 AM on the morning of the crash, one in Dallas and one in Ladonia. Also, another sighting of an airship said to be experiencing mechanical difficulties, occurred in Stephenville at some early, indeterminate hour before the crash. With so many reported sightings nearby, one cannot summarily dismiss the Aurora account.

The Stephenville sighting is of particular interest:

An airship was seen near Stephenville early on the morning, but before 6:00 AM, of the crash. The airship was observed on the ground experiencing mechanical problems by many distinguished citizens shortly prior to the Aurora crash. The airship was previously observed on the ground only when it was experiencing mechanical difficulties or the crew needed to replenish their water supply.

The only daytime sightings occurred when an airship was on the ground being repaired. Farrell expands upon this observation:

It is this aspect of the airship mystery—sightings of grounded ships undergoing repairs, and even actual contact with their crews by witnesses—that begins to put us in touch with what may have been the first phase in the development of a breakaway civilization.

Human Crews

On April 10th, 1897, a week before the Aurora incident, the Dallas Morning News ran the following story:

For several days The News has contained specials from different points stating that parties had an airship in the night. A man named McKnight has been working on an airship at US Marshal Williams' ranch for some time and it is claimed he has been traveling around by night in his ship. While McKnight will not corroborate the statement, many who are in a position to know say his aerial navigation has at last become a success.

Note the possible connection to personnel of the US government. Also, on April 13th in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, two former soldiers heard an explosion of “heavy ordnance”:

Later investigation turned up debris which appeared to be “part of some electric appliance” and a “propeller blade of some very light material,” which might have been aluminum.

In another sighting near Dallas, the day after the Aurora crash, witnesses reported an airship at a mere 200 feet altitude. One man saw three men on board, along with “something he took for a large Newfoundland dog,” and heard speech “but could not understand what they said.” From the tone of voice he took them to be Spaniards or Mexicans.

Hardly extraterrestrial! The April, 1897 sightings continue:

On April 16th, one witness spotted a grounded airship in a remote clearing, and a crewman making repairs with a hammer and chisel. And on the day of the Aurora crash, yet another Texan saw a grounded cigar-shaped airship, and three men of its crew, two of whom went to work on its “rigging,” which the third called to the witness and asked him to mail some letters for him!

When the witness began to take notes of the encounter, he was told not to report about it, and that the crew was doing “experiments” and hoped to “revolutionize travel and transportation.” This is a significant sighting and report, because it tends again to confirm the view that airships represented a secret experimental project of some sort.

A story that ran in the Dallas Morning News on April 19th not only named some of the witnesses but also some of the crew/inventors! According to a number of “prominent” citizens:

The airship consists of a cigar shaped body about sixty feet in length, to which is attached two immense aeroplanes, and the motive power is an immense wheel at each end, in appearance much like a metallic windmill. It is driven by an immense electric engine, which derives its power from storage batteries.

The crew consisted, as stated, of two men who gave their names as S.E. Tillman and A.E. Dolbar. They report they have been making an experimental trip to comply with a contract with certain capitalists of New York, who are backing them.

The observation about electrical components is an important one, for many of the airships were sighted near railroad tracks, as Farrell expands:

The propulsion appeared to be via electrically powered propellers, which would be one reason so many sightings exist of people having contact with the crew of the airships, who request water, presumably for recharging the ships' batteries. This would be a crucial reason for why so many airships appeared to follow railroad lines, for water towers to replenish their steam engines would be spaced at regular intervals.

Electrically powered airships—and let it be recalled that within this time frame, Tesla was making similar claims—would not require petroleum. Tesla would perform his famous Colorado Springs experiments a year later, and upon his return to New York City, would begin his proposal for the wireless transmission of power, which, as he himself indicated, could power flight.

Finally, it is clearly and explicitly stated in the article itself that the airships were a private and semi-secret development by certain capitalists of New York.