Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-07-19
NOVEL AIRSHIP
CLIMBS CLOUDS
GOES UP TWELVE FEET ON ITS
VIRGIN VOYAGE
CALIFORNIA QUEEN SAILS FROM
THE cHuTES
Woman Weighs Too Much-one of the
Men Looks Back, Like Lots
Wife, with Bad
Results

The California Queen, an airship
which the inventor says will make the
Wright brothers sit up and scratch
their heads, dropped it's nose into the
afternoon breeze in its virgin flight at
Chutes park yesterday.
While the highest flight Of the Queen
was about twelve feet from the ground
1t did not appear to be the airship's
fault, for as Mrs. d. j. Johnson, wife
of the inventor, who was the sole pas
senger, remarked naively: II think 1t
would go higher If did not weigh so
much"
In the absence of the unfinished
steam boiler which is to furnish the
power to revolve the propeliers twelve
husky young men volunteered to fly
the machine as they would a kite. Ten
while two took hold of the guide ropes
on either side to prevent the rocking
of the machine and possibly consequent
"mal d'air" of the passenger.
Mrs. johnson took her place in the
arrangement beneath the main plane
or foil which very much resembles a
tricycle.. She was told to sit and
hold on.
Au revoirs were said and hands waved
as the inventor gave the signal. Every
body drew deep breath and the twelve
men started on a run up stage.
For few seconds the machine ran
gracefully along the ground on its
bicycle wheels, and the American flag
at the top futtered In the wind. Then
grandly, like great white eagle, it rose
slowly in the air. The earth fell away
from the airship just as aeronauts al
ways say 1t does.
When Mrs. Johnson's aneroid barom-
eter registered an altitude of eleven
feet one of the twelve men who were
running as fast as they could across
the baseball field-like Lots wife
looked back.
She's flying, boys" he cried. and
they all stopped running and looked
back, too.
Just as a kite will tumble into the
telegraph wires when you let go of the
string, the airship dropped to the
ground, scraping the tire from one OF
the wheels as 1t did so. Mrs. johnson
climbed out without assistance, none
the worse for the ascension.
B. J. Johnson, the inventor, who re-
sides at 448 Johnson street, has been al
work on the problem Of aerial naviga-
ton for seventeen years By profession
he is shoemaker, but all Of his spare
time has been spent In making models
of airships.
The California Queen, which is built
on the principle of the aeroplane and
therefore belongs to the heavier thar
air" class, measures twenty-eight feet
in width and is designed for one pas
| senger. 1t will be run by a steam
boiler with a pressure of 200 pounds. Il
differs from all other airships in the
principle of It's propeller, which slide.
| back and forth on its axis at grea
speed, always presenting the thin edg
of the blade to the air in its outwar'
movement and the full face on the re
verse. thus drawing the ship onward
The propeller is in front as on mos
machines, and a broad tail at the rea
can be raised or lowered and the ma
chine thus directed upward or down
ward The weight of the whole fabric
| is 225 pounds.
| Further tests of the machine will bt
| made as soon as the boiler is ready
| Mr.. Johnson has made application fol
a patent, which he expects to obtain
soon. He also has conducted many ex-
periments with wireless telegraphy and
with a new sound motor.