184] John W. Warner IV engineering draftsman named Charles A.A. Dellschau were in charge; it was publicly known as the Sonora Aero Club, but there were other groups elsewhere we think An unknown Prussian military officer was pressuring this group of aerial misfits into producing military versions, but no one in the club was interested by the time the ships took flight. The secret Prussian group, including the financial backers, was called NYMZA, an acronym. The ONI and myself think it stands for Nationalist Prussian Aerial Exploration Club, or something akin to that. Someone murdered Mennis and all the airships disappeared, but thats all we know. As for how they were built and flew, all we have to go on are odd color drawings that Dellschau left to a mysterious widow. She died in strange circumstances, an unsolved case, and the book of notes and drawings somehow ended up at an antique junk shop in Galveston, Texas, an interesting strip of land thats favored by the wealthy for vacations. Who knows? Maybe the drawings were left there by Dellshau on his way to Mexico or elsewhere by airship, a parting gift to someone, a lover perhaps. Prussians all the way in California? asked Bea. Dellschau? Poppy mentioned that odd bloke once with Uncle WinnI mean Prime Minister. She looked over a couple of the hand-colored illustrations. The mans insane, but a decent artist. These craft make no aeronautic or aerodynamic engineering sense to me whatsoever. Big chains, hoists, odd wheels, discs, wild stripes, whirling spheres, Chinese hand fan wings, a mess. Gwafa looked at them with Alice. Bizarre, mused Gwafa. This airship was big enough to have a chef and kitchen. Incroyable. Alice added: Long flights, one supposes. Good weather for airshipping in California too. This one…this airship thingy looks like something from a 19th-century circus or carnival, or something gaudy one would see at an international worlds fair or exhibition. Good points, since perhaps they were intending to show them off to the world in style at the Universal Exhibition in France in 1861, but they didnt, and no one knows why said Bernie, revealing another etching. This gets better. In 1863 during the American Civil War, an inventor by the name of Solomon Andrews showed President Lincoln and some top Union Army brass a three-tube airship that maneuvered surprisingly well and could attain 125 mph, and did it without airscrews or any visible means of propulsion. Gee whiz, now isnt that.just a bit odd? Now where might he get