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very seriously by the nation’s press. Although all of the known airplanes of the period were tiny open biplanes, Mr. Tillinghast described his invention as being a monoplane weighing 1,550 pounds, with a wing- spread of 72 feet and an engine of 120 horsepower. It could take off in a small area of about 75 feet, he said, and could travel at the unheard-of speed of 120 miles an hour — 2 miles per minute. Sage scientists were then mumbling behind their Ph.D.s that no man could ever travel faster than 60 miles an hour without suffering tremendous pressures and getting his brains scrambled. Racing car driver Barney Oldfield was taking that chance, however. The fighter planes of World War I eventually managed to hit speeds of 125-150 miles an hour. As for the 72-foot wingspan, American bombers of the 1950s, such as the Douglas B-66, had spans ranging from 75 feet to 185 feet (the B-52). Most modern fighters have a span of 30-50 feet. The Douglas DC-9 transport plane (two-engined) has a wingspan of 87 feet 6 inches. In short, Mr. Tillinghast’s machine was larger than anything that could have been successfully flown in 1909. It would have probably required much more than 120 horsepower to lift it, and a craft of this size could hardly have taken off in the space of 25 yards. Nor is it likely that any plane, then or now, could have glided for forty-six minutes at the low altitude of 4,000 feet while mechanics tinkered with a recalcitrant engine. These facts brand Mr. Tillinghast a liar from the outset. But why? More important, why did he choose to issue this lie at the very moment when a massive UFO flap was about to inundate the New England states? He declared that he had made ‘‘over 100 successful trips, of which 18 have been in his perfected machine. His latest airplane is so perfect and adjusted so correctly that upon being taken from the shop it immediately made uninterrupted trips covering 56 miles” (Portland, Oregon, Journal, December 23, 1909). The same day that William Leech told his story to the New York press and Mr. Tillinghast made his revelations to reporters in Massachusetts, a man near Little Rock, Arkansas, many hundreds of miles to the southwest of New England, reported seeing an unusual light in the sky. According to the Arkansas Gazette (December 15, 1909): A. W. Norris of Mabelvale, road overseer of District No. 8, is of the opinion that an airship passed over his residence at about 10 o’clock Monday night [December 12]. Mr. Norris states that he was standing in his doorway when a strange light appeared, apparently about 300 feet above him, traveling south at a rapid rate of speed and disappearing a moment or two later in the darkness. He said that the light had the Flexible Phantoms of the Sky / 101