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In the late 1800s, many had the desire to fly. In Pittsburg, a small town tucked away in East Texas, Reverend Burrell Cannon’s quest for flight began with a revelation. An inventor, machinist, mechanic, and sawmill operator, Reverend Cannon’s idea for a wheel-within-a-wheel flying machine came from passages from the Book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament : “The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of beryl; and they four had one likeness; and their appearance was as it were a wheel within the middle of the wheel.” (Ezekiel 1:16) In August 1901, Reverend Cannon set his plan in motion by founding the Ezekiel Airship Manufacturing Company. He sold stock certificates to locals at $25 per share and raised $20,000. With this money, Cannon built the Ezekiel Airship at the P. W. Thorsell Foundry in Pittsburg, Texas. Completed in 1902, the Airship had large fabric wings and was powered by a 4-cylinder gas engine. It featured four sets of vertical paddles mounted on the wheels driven by the engine. The premise was that the paddles would churn similarly to those of a paddleboat in water. The original Airship weighed a mere 406 pounds.
