An aircraft disappeared in 1889 – and was never seen

136 years ago, bold aircraft Edward Hogan climbed his gondola, suspended in an inflated hot air balloon, and departed from Brooklyn for another demonstration ride. However, the balloon rose to several thousand meters high, headed for the Atlantic-and was never seen again.

On the morning of July 18, 1889, the teacher Edward D. Hogan He went up aboard what, at the time, could only be described as a futuristic play of aeronautical technology, which departed from Brooklyn in New York.

Born in Moremown, Canada in 1852, Hogan had spent his previous twenty years to work on flying machines, during which he claimed to have made hundreds of ascens.

But this fateful summer day was actually last time someone saw himtells the.

Hogan showed a great fascination from the flight early on. Your older brother, William Hoganhe was a well -known aircraft, and Edward made his first rise at a teenager balloon after traveling to Jackson, Michigan. Dedicated life to aeronautics and the construction of the most Various and Arrojacked DRUBMIES.

Newspapers of the time report that in 1870 one of his balloons was dragged on Lake Michigan and was disappeared for two days. Friends of Hogan would eventually find him sleeping in a barn of a farmer, according to the nineteenth-century press.

It was not long before it won the reputation of “bold aircraft”.

Hogan’s voos They were full of spectacleand he clearly had a taste for impress the public.

The edition of July 20, 1889 of the Evening Star was said: “In August last year he went ascenses twice a week from one of the music pavilions in Rockaway Beach and, from an altitude of 1,500 meters, was starting to the ground through a parachute. Both the balloon and the parachute had been built by himself. The balloon was inflated with hot air”.

The newspaper also detailed the Drawing of the 1888 airshipdescribing Hogan as a agile figure, medium stature, dark hairbrown eyes and about 78 pounds – and “Although it seemed much lighter, a good athlete”.

In 1888, Hogan performed twenty -nine climbs on his aircraft, always attracting large crowds. All this sounded spectacular and exciting, but was not free of danger, as skilled as the aircraft was.

The article reported how, Sometimes it fell into the sea during the demonstrationsnarrowly escaping drowning. On one occasion, the year before its disappearance, it fell into a mud puddle of a height of about 30 meters, vigorously surviving. He recovered only after a long convalescence.

The airship he last used, released in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was described as an oblong balloon, with 15 meters in length and 7 in diameter. According to the Evening Star, it had a capacity of 500 m³ and was made of varnished silk.

The gondola carrying Hogan was suspended by an iron bar, had a propeller at the bottom and could even support four men.

The device, which had been designed by Peter Campbellhad received the name of Campbell Dirigicycleand an illustration in Scientific American showed its appearance from a distance.

The total cost of the airship was $ 3,000 – The equivalent of over $ 100,000 adjusted by inflation. Scientific American even mentioned that the airship had previously been tested on Coney Island and seemed to work perfectly.

Scientific American then reported what happened that day, July 18, 1889: “Hogan entered the gondola and gave the order ‘release it’, when the strings were cut and the airship rose quickly, between the applause of a crowd that had come together in the immediate vicinity. The match took place southeast due to a strong wind from the northwest, although the aircraft was vigorously spinning a crank that kept the rudder and the driving wheels running quickly, in an attempt to force the device to face the wind. About a mile away, the Large lower wheel, intended to climb and descend the airship, was detached and fell to the floor”.

Clearly, it was not a good sign. The article continued, reporting that the airship was seen to go to the Atlanticseveral thousand meters of altitude. And although it was difficult to confirm, some observers present at the site feared that Hogan was clinging to the balloon net.

A few hours after launch, the device disappeared from sight.

What happened to Hogan? No one knows for sure. But Captain Eades, from the Steam Hogarth, who arrived in New York from Rio de Janeiro that same day, said that around 11:30 am, off Egg Harbor, north of Cape Henlopen, spotted what could be wreckage of the Hogan airship.

And although neither the captain nor the crew found that it was worth approaching, Eades stated in an interview during the routine quarantine that “had no doubt that the object that turned into the water was the Campbell airship.”

And so it ended apparently Edward D. Hogan’s last adventure “Without anyone being sure what happened to you.”