On the morning of April 19, 1897 the Dallas Morning News, reported a UFO crashed with a spectacular explosion into a farmer's windmill near Aurora, Texas. Upon viewing the wreckage, a U.S. Army Signal Corps officer claimed the charred body of the airship's lone pilot was not of this Earth and likely a "Martian" invader. But this amazing story was not an isolated account. Numerous sightings of cigar-shaped "Mystery Airships" that same year stirred a public frenzy all across the United States. Were these stories the invention of unscrupulous newspaper reporters? Or, more than a century ago, was secret flying-machine research covered-up by the Untied States War Department.