Case file · Sighting
Tillinghast 'aeroplane' and the 1909 airship scare
In December 1909 Worcester businessman Wallace Tillinghast claimed he had secretly flown a 'marvelous aeroplane' to New York and back, and New England newspapers filled with night sightings of his craft.
1909 CE · 42.26, -71.80 · status: hoax
The account
Tillinghast said he had made over 100 night flights, including a trip around the Statue of Liberty at 4,000 feet. From 12 December 1909 into February 1910 people across New England reported a lighted airship; a sighting over Worcester on 22 December made national news.
The sceptical view
Tillinghast never showed the machine to anyone. The press came to blame fire balloons and the planet Venus, and Popular Mechanics put the later sightings down to pranksters releasing owls with lanterns tied to them.