srgalahad
Charter Member 2022
Whilst doing some oddball research I came across a couple of items that show UFO's and conspiracy theories are not new.
We're talking pre-WW1 western North America...
"Mystery of Didsbury Explained by Bleriot Who Tested His Machine There 1910
Calgary, Oct. 6. -- The Daily News says : That the first of the Bleriot monoplanes, the inventor of which was the first man to cross the English channel from France to England in his flying machine, was quietly tested and tried out on a huge piece of Alberta prairie, sixty miles west of Didsbury, is a story which has just come to light."
We're talking pre-WW1 western North America...
"Mystery of Didsbury Explained by Bleriot Who Tested His Machine There 1910
Calgary, Oct. 6. -- The Daily News says : That the first of the Bleriot monoplanes, the inventor of which was the first man to cross the English channel from France to England in his flying machine, was quietly tested and tried out on a huge piece of Alberta prairie, sixty miles west of Didsbury, is a story which has just come to light."
http://rr0.org/data/1/9/1/0/10/07/FlyingMachineTriedInAlberta/index.html
Further, from an article found in TheFree Library:
"In 1903, after the Wright brothers had made their successful heavier-than-air flight at Kittyhawk, North Carolina, world attention shifted from balloons to aeroplanes. Newspapers featured the exploits of men such as Louis Bleriot, Glen Curtiss, Henri Farman, and other aviators of the United States and Europe. Canada saw its first flight in 1909 when John McCurdy flew the Silver Dart at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, and the first aeroplane darkened the skies of Alberta in April 1911, when Hugh Robinson made a short flight in Edmonton.
By this time, seldom a week passed without Alberta's daily newspapers carrying a front page story about aviation. And, just as Manitobans had looked skyward during the search for Andree, so did Albertans become conscious of the fact that the skies were no longer restricted to birds. And it was inevitable that something would be seen.
It began innocently enough with a newspaper report that "a mysterious flying machine or airship ... had been seen around Stettler and Didsbury" late in 1909.(10) No one could explain it until someone remembered that the brother of Louis Bleriot, the famous French aviator, had a ranch near the Red Deer River. Speculation arose that Louis was in Alberta and experimenting with a new aircraft. However, Andre Bleriot assured the public that his brother had never been to Alberta.(11) And so the mystery was unsolved."
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Mysteries+in+the+skies.-a030479042
This second article is worth reading in it's entirety!
For those who may be skeptical of the slightest Bleriot connection, there really was Andre, brother of Louis, who owned a ranch north of Calgary and who also ran a river-crossing ferry which is still in use today.
http://anothersideofthislife.blogspot.ca/2012/03/cr2011-dinosaur-trail-and-royal-tyrrell.html
Further, from an article found in TheFree Library:
"In 1903, after the Wright brothers had made their successful heavier-than-air flight at Kittyhawk, North Carolina, world attention shifted from balloons to aeroplanes. Newspapers featured the exploits of men such as Louis Bleriot, Glen Curtiss, Henri Farman, and other aviators of the United States and Europe. Canada saw its first flight in 1909 when John McCurdy flew the Silver Dart at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, and the first aeroplane darkened the skies of Alberta in April 1911, when Hugh Robinson made a short flight in Edmonton.
By this time, seldom a week passed without Alberta's daily newspapers carrying a front page story about aviation. And, just as Manitobans had looked skyward during the search for Andree, so did Albertans become conscious of the fact that the skies were no longer restricted to birds. And it was inevitable that something would be seen.
It began innocently enough with a newspaper report that "a mysterious flying machine or airship ... had been seen around Stettler and Didsbury" late in 1909.(10) No one could explain it until someone remembered that the brother of Louis Bleriot, the famous French aviator, had a ranch near the Red Deer River. Speculation arose that Louis was in Alberta and experimenting with a new aircraft. However, Andre Bleriot assured the public that his brother had never been to Alberta.(11) And so the mystery was unsolved."
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Mysteries+in+the+skies.-a030479042
This second article is worth reading in it's entirety!
For those who may be skeptical of the slightest Bleriot connection, there really was Andre, brother of Louis, who owned a ranch north of Calgary and who also ran a river-crossing ferry which is still in use today.
http://anothersideofthislife.blogspot.ca/2012/03/cr2011-dinosaur-trail-and-royal-tyrrell.html