Holy crap ! This guy was brilliant. That would've taken out the entire Yankee military in a matter of minutes.
Posted on 09/14/2011 11:54:56 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
While Rebel and Union soldiers still fought it out with bayonets and cannons, a Confederate designer had the foresight to imagine flying machines attacking Northern armies. He couldn't implement his vision during the war, and the plans disappeared into history, until resurfacing at a rare book dealer's shop 150 years later. Now those rediscovered designs have found their way to the auction block, providing a glimpse at how Victorian-era technology could have beat the Wright Brothers to the punch. The papers of R. Finley Hunt, a dentist with a passion for flight, describe scenarios where flying machines bombed Federal troops across Civil War battlefields. Hunt's papers are set to go up for sale at the Space and Aviation Artifacts auction during the week of Sept. 15-22...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Somebody should try building one of these machines to see how they fly.
Neato.
A little late there Finley...
“”What if planes had appeared above the wilderness when [Union general Ulysses S.] Grant began his campaign in the Shenandoah Valley?”
He would have bombed those damn yankee bluecoats back to the stone age?
Holy crap ! This guy was brilliant. That would've taken out the entire Yankee military in a matter of minutes.
The hot-air balloon existed at that time but was not used. I know the Confederates attempted to use submarines. Kind of gives a new twist to “the South shall rise again” doesn’t it?
It was used, tethered, to observe for artillery and to keep track of troop movements.
I know the Confederates attempted to use submarines.
Not only attempted, but sank the first enemy vessel sunk in battle with one. That the Hunley sank on the way home only kept them from doing it again.
Kind of gives a new twist to “the South shall rise again” doesn’t it?
Yep!
That would’ve taken out the entire Yankee military in a matter of minutes.
True, but it would have meant the extermination of the
whales. It was a tough call but someone had to make it.
Grapeshot and elevated cannons?
Mythbusters should see if they can get one of these to fly...
I heartily agree. Some of Leonardo's machines have been built although, to my knowledge, not a flying machine. This Confederate flying machine might look like the time machine in the movie by the same name.
Balloons were used and aerial imagery was recorded.
They doubled as barrage baloons as well. In fact, they were so effective that no strafing aircraft were used for the next 45 years. ;-)
The US maintained air superiority in Vietnam, but still lost thanks to the media and politicians.
I have a friend that was there during tet. Thanks for your service.
My grandfather was in the 7th ID during WWI and my dad was in the Navy during the Korean War.
One of my favorite books is “The Mysterious Island” by Jules Verne. It all started with a bunch of prisoners of war escaping in a balloon during the seige of Richmond. A storm blows them all the way to the pacific.
BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!! If there is a Red X above go to http://www.fisaviation.com/images/pa/bbp10.jpg
With the industrial superiority of the North over the South the introduction of flying machines would have turned out much the same as the introduction of ironclads during the war. The South had the first, but it didn’t do them any good, and they were overwhelmed in short order.
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