Ezekiel Airship
| Ezekiel Airship | |
|---|---|
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| Ezekiel Airship replica on museum display | |
| Role | Experimental, pioneer aircraft |
| National origin | United States |
| Designer | Burrell Cannon |
| First flight | 1902 (claimed) |
| Number built | 1 |
| Career | |
| Fate | Destroyed in a storm near Texarkana, circa 1904 |
| Preserved at | Replica on display at the Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Center and Museum |
The Ezekiel Airship was an early experimental aircraft conceived, designed, and built by the Baptist minister Burrell Cannon, an experienced sawmill operator born in 1848 in Coffeeville, Mississippi. Inspired by and named after the Book of Ezekiel, the craft's design featured four "wheel within a wheel" paddle wheels powered by a four-cylinder gasoline engine. There are unverified claims that it was flown in 1902 in Pittsburg, Texas, a year before the Wright Flyer flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
On an unspecified Sunday in 1902, the aircraft is alleged to have flown approximately 160 feet (49 m) at a height of between 10 feet (3.0 m) and 12 feet (3.7 m) in the presence of only a handful of witnesses; there is, however, no physical evidence that such a flight ever took place. Historians have generally discounted claims that the airship ever flew, although some believe that it may have achieved uncontrolled flight.
The original aircraft was destroyed in a storm near Texarkana, en route to St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair, while in 1922 Cannon's original plans were destroyed in a fire. In the 1980s, a full-size replica of the Ezekiel Airship was built and initially displayed in the Pittsburg Hot Links Restaurant until 2001, when it was moved to its present location in the city's Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Center and Museum.
The Ezekiel Airship was the brainchild of Baptist minister Burrell Cannon, who was born in Coffeeville, Mississippi, in April 1848. A sawmiller by trade, he migrated to East Texas in search of the opportunities presented by its relatively plentiful hardwood forests. Described as a "Renaissance man in an industrial age", Cannon had a strong command of engineering principles and held patents for six different inventions, including designs ranging from marine propellers to windmills to cameras. Claimed by some to have spoken eight different languages, Cannon preached "on the side" in a number of small East Texas towns before turning his attention to human-powered flight in the late 1890s.
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