[T-Head]

I warned you earlier all about our unique airplane, well here she is along with the mad inventor.

In the first photo John F. Cooley, the inventor of the plane, stands to the left, in front of the airship along his manager Jacob Goldenson.

On December 4, 1910, the Rochester Herald announced in a lengthy article and page of photographs that the Cooley "airship" was nearly ready for trial flight. This "airship" was under construction in Rochester by New York City inventor John F. Cooley, reputedly with the financial backing of wealthy Rochester men. The gigantic aircraft measured 81 feet overall and 42 feet in width and was to be equipped with two six-cylinder, ninety-horsepower engines. Canvas stretched over wooden ribs covered the "hull" or cabin area. Four "planes" of "naiad aeronautical Irish linen" ran horizontally, two on each side, along the hull to give lifting power.

Construction continued through the winter of 1910/11. In April of 1911, Mr. Cooley disappeared from Rochester and was reported to be selling stock in a New York City airship enterprise; workmen, left to finish the project, abandoned the aircraft. Finally, Mrs. Anna S. Burns, a grocer to whom Cooley owed $92, obtained a writ of attachment on the machine. The final fate of the Cooley airship is unknown. Photo RMSC