Tolliver Airship

Eight miles southwest of this location, in the spring of 1904, Charles Tolliver built an airship with an aluminum superstructure covered with 6,000 yards of rongee silk. The craft was to be 250 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 44 feet high, powered by four gasoline engines and six propellers, with two on each side, one in the front, and one rear, and it required no rudders with this type of construction. Mrs. Phoebe Hearst was the main financial backer, contributing 72,000 dollars to the project. Its first flight was planned for late February 1907, but after several ground accidents, the craft never flew.

Livermore, California · United States