The Goldendale Airship Nobody Saw Coming

A successful trial of Inventor Parrott's airship is reported to have been made at Goldendale last Saturday. Mr. Parrott has been working on the machine for weeks, no one being allowed inside of the building, and of course no one knew what progress he had made until Friday, when he announced that he had a small ship capable of carrying from 500 to 600 pounds completed, and that the engines and the new motive force were a success. He appointed an early hour Saturday morning to make the test, and at that time there were present besides Mr. Parrott, Hon. W. R. Dunbar, N. P. Brooks, J. C. Parland, Hugh Gourlay and several others.

The machine appeared small and light for the work expected of it. The body was about 11 feet long, several feet in diameter in the middle and tapering to a point from that. The aeroplanes, like the body of the ship, were made of thin sheets of aluminum, and were each in two folds that enabled them to be extended in length to almost double their apparent length. The machine was driven by two propellers, each of about five feet in diameter. On the bottom of the machine was a self-acting plane, which served to steady the ship, and a thin, flexible rudder, working on a universal joint that permitted its being used to turn the ship either to the side, or up and down, completed the steering apparatus. The engine was a small affair, weighing 80 pounds, but yielding, Mr. Parrott said, four-horse power. Its mechanism and the material used to generate the power are Mr. Parrott's secret.

It took Mr. Parrott just minutes to get his ship ready, and he invited any two persons present to get in and ride with him, but everybody was skeptical and declined the honor in favor of his neighbor. Mr. Parrott did not insist, but climbing into the car, he turned a wheel; the propellers began to revolve, the aeroplanes were run out to their farthest extension, and in a moment the ship lifted from the ground and sailed swiftly along, steadily increasing its distance from the ground until it had attained a height of some feet, when Mr. Parrott, in order to show his control of the machine, maintained it at that height, while he turned it in a large circle, brought it back to the place of starting, and slowed down his engine until it settled to the ground. After this the party was taken two at a time for a short trip.