Leopold Goldberger’s Airship – 1904

Leopold Goldberger’s Airship – 1904

     The following newspaper article appeared in The St. Louis Republic, (St. Louis, Mo.), on January 18, 1904. 

EXPECTS TO SAIL IN AIRSHIP FROM BOSTON TO ST. LOUIS

     Republic Special

     Boston, Mass., Jan. 17 – In a 30-foot cigar-shaped airship, the model of which he has just completed, Leopold Goldberger, a 22-year-old Hungarian, who came to Boston three months ago, says he is going to fly from this city to St. Louis and compete for the $100,000 airship prize.

     Goldberger’s ship will be of oiled silk in a meshwork of oiled cord, and will be filled with gas through a tube.  This is to be closed to prevent the escape of the gas, which can be utilized over and over again by the engine, in the center beneath the cabin.  There will be a wheel in the stern like the propeller of a steamer and one on each side like paddle wheels.  Each side wheel is to have half a dozen steel blades, two of which are at right angles, the others at 45-degree angles.

     The engine for the airship, Goldberger says, is being built for him in Budapest, and he expects that this machine will fly sixty-five miles an hour.  

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