Dellschau drew the 'Sonora Aero Club' airships; the notebooks were found in a junk shop and decoded as 'NYMZA' by Navarro
Documented · occurred What these labels mean →Charles Dellschau (1830-1923) drew airships attributed to a 'Sonora Aero Club.' After his death the notebooks went to the Washington Street dump in Houston, were bought by junk dealer Fred Washington, and Dominique de Menil bought four of them in 1969; in 1972 Pete Navarro bought one for $65 and then the remaining seven, and he reads the code 'DM=X' as 'NYMZA', a secret society. The club's story comes from Dellschau's own notebooks; whether it was real is unresolved.
Evidence
| Relation | Record | Note |
|---|---|---|
| documents | houstonpress.com | Houston Press: 1830 birth document, death 1923; 'At the Washington Street dump... sold the notebooks to junk man Fred Washington for $100'; de Menil 'paid Washington $1,500 for four of the earliest notebooks' (1969); 'In 1972... Navarro gave the dealer $65 for one book... offered $500 more for the remaining seven'; 'To Navarro, it stands for NYMZA'; 'whether the Sonora club was a dream or real stopped mattering to Navarro'. |
| corroborates | houstonpress.com | Houston Press |
| corroborates | en.wikipedia.org | Wikipedia |
Sources
| Source | Relation | At |
|---|---|---|
| Bosley on Danny Jones - airships, Paperclip, breakaway (2026) | reports |
Claim
Charles Dellschau (1830-1923) drew airships attributed to a 'Sonora Aero Club.' After his death the notebooks went to the Washington Street dump in Houston, were bought by junk dealer Fred Washington, and Dominique de Menil bought four of them in 1969; in 1972 Pete Navarro bought one for $65 and then the remaining seven, and he reads the code 'DM=X' as 'NYMZA', a secret society. The club's story comes from Dellschau's own notebooks; whether it was real is unresolved.