2-358-691 - Keystone Archives/Heritage Images

Pennington's airship, 1891. Edward Joel Pennington (1858-1911) was an American inventor and entrepreneur who gained a reputation for making grandiose and spurious claims for his inventions and business schemes. He claimed that this airship, powered by a gas engine driving a large four-bladed propeller, could carry 40 passengers at speeds of up to 250 miles per hour. In reality, only a 30 foot long electrically powered model was ever built, exhibited in Chicago and flown tethered in a circle at a speed of just 6 miles per hour.