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California ‘“‘mystery inventor’ ploy and therefore decided to use the same gimmick again on a somewhat more sophisticated level. Here is my theory. Sometime in the fall of 1909, Mr. Wallace E. Tillinghast, one of the most prominent and reputable members of his community with a track record as an inventor, was approached by a man or a group of men who offered to take him for a ride in a marvelous new “secret” aircraft. Mr. Tillinghast was a man of science, and he was far too curious to reject such an opportunity. He went to an isolated field and climbed aboard the machine he found there. His hosts kept their promise and flew him around the countryside, perhaps even to Boston and back. When they landed again, the pilots of the machine offered a proposi- tion to Mr. Tillinghast. They struck a bargain (which they had no intention of keeping), and perhaps they offered him a large interest in the profits from their flying machine, provided he did exactly as they ordered during the next few months. They explained that they needed a responsible, respectable man to front for them while they ironed the bugs out of their invention. They appealed to his ego, saying that they were interested only in giving their airship to the world, and they didn’t care if he took full credit for it. After the machine was fully tested, they promised, they would turn it over to him, and he could make all the arrangements for manufacturing more of them. He could also claim full credit for inventing it. They, the real inventors, would happily remain behind the scenes. Mr. Tillinghast accepted the proposition, visions of glory dancing in his brain. The machine had been proven to him. He was convinced of the reality of the trip he had taken. When reports of mystery airplanes started to filter into the press in early December, his mysterious friends called upon him and told him that it was time to disclose the existence of the invention. Tillinghast dutifully appeared before the reporters, revealed that he had already made a number of flights, and that the invention would be fully unveiled at an appropriate time in the near future. We can only guess at the contents of the shed on the Gough estate. Perhaps it was completely unrelated to the whole business. Or perhaps it housed special communications equipment supplied by the Morgan Tele- phone Company for the real “‘airship inventors.”” Mr. Morgan also had a known interest in aviation. He might have also been approached by “them’’ and was involved in the same deal as Tillinghast. Whatever the case, thousands of people throughout New England observed UFO-type phenomena that Christmas week, and most believed that they were watching the wonderful invention of a local man. The objects flew orderly patterns over specific geographic points and per- 106 / Operation Trojan Horse