The Mystery Airships were a series of UFO sightings in the US between 1896 and 1897, making it the first massive UFO appearance in recorded history. A similar series of events took place in the US between 1909 and 1912.
The UFOs sighted in 1896-97 closely resembled airships but vastly outperformed all airships built to date, including the Zeppelin LZ1 which was launched in 1900. Several individuals claimed to have built these highly advanced airships but no evidence was published after 1897.
In 1909-12, a similar wave of UFOs was seen in the US, only this time they were fixed-wing aircraft instead of airships. Appearing in massive numbers in those years, they very similarly disappeared without a trace after 1912.
Some people argue that the Mystery Airships were, in fact, not of extraterrestrial origin but rather, of the "ultraterrestrial", i.e. built by an very advanced civilization living on Earth alongside humanity.
This episode of ParaReality will take a look at some of the sightings and theories of what these Mystery Airships were. This episode was originally recorded on 4/28/06.