Charles Ya

US History

Lisa Blank

Texas Takes Flight: First

Texas is not just a place full of cowboys, farmers, and outlaws. There are many types of

people that come to Texas. In the mid 1800s there was an influx of German immigrants that

settled in Texas. These German immigrants brought with them ideas, knowledge and dreams and

eventually one of those dreams became a reality even for a brief moment.

The Wright Brother's made a famous flight in North Carolina, but have you ever heard of

an inventor named Jacob Brodbeck flight? Brodbeck was Born in Germany on October 13th,

1821 and migrated to Texas on August 25th, 1846. He would arrive in Fredericksburg and later

became a district school supervisor for the Gillespie county in 1962. He would later move to San

Antonio. Besides being a school supervisor Brodbeck designed and invented things such as a self

winding clock, ice-making machines and flying toys for children. Brodbeck also designed and

built his dream project a flying machine he called an "Airship".

The "Airship" was his most passionate invention spending almost twenty years to make.

Brodbeck's flying machine was made forty years before The Wright Brother's motor powered

flying machine. It was rumored to have rubber band and spring powered propellers, moveable

wings to take advantage of wind, a rudder, and an under ship that was shaped like a boat with

water propeller in case of a water landing. The machine was able to fly off its ramp for a few
minutes and glide safely to the ground but without a device to power the propellers for an

extended amount of time it was nothing more than a toy.

The United states was just ending the Civil War so there was not a lot of money to be

thrown around for inventions that didn't seem to work. Yet he was able to persuade many local men

to buy shares in his project. His first flight took place in a field three miles east of Luckenbach ion

September 20th, 1865. Most accounts of the events all agree that Brodbeck's airship would lift off the

ground about 12 feet and had traveled around 100 feet before the springs in the propeller unwound and

crashed. The "Airship" was destroyed completely but the inventor Brodbeck was unharmed.

After this set back investors refused to invest anymore money and his flying machine, and so he

began his tour around the United States to get investors. While on his tour though, his papers were stolen

or destroyed and he was unable to coax the audiences to invest into his project. It was eventually scrapped

all together.

Brodbeck would later return to Texas and retire on his ranch near Luckenbach. Years later he

would recieve a paper about the Wright Brother's first flight in the 1900s. And a few years later he passed

away on January 8th, 1910.

Just imagine if Brodbeck got his investors and the first successful flight was in Texas? All he needed was

to fit a motor onto the propellers. Maybe people would have planes instead of cars!
Brodbeck

uncomfirmed photo of Brodbeck's Flying Machine

Shares.
 1. Stone, Ron. "OCTOBER 13, 1821." 174. Eakin Press (a.k.a. Sunbelt Media), 1984. Texas

Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 22 Nov. 2010.

2. Martin Donell Kohout, "BRODBECK, JACOB FRIEDRICH", Handbook of Texas

Online, (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbr63), accessed November

18, 2010

3. Anita Tatsch, Jacob Brodbeck “Reached for the Sky” in Texas, memorial edition

(Fredericksburg, Texas: Dietel & Son Printing, 1986), 70.

Photos

Certificates of stock shares, Jacob Brodbeck to Ferdinand Herff, 1865 June 27,

Documents Collection, 1519-1979, DRT 9, The Daughters of The Republic of

Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.

Glass plate negative, [Airplane crash], undated, SC14120, Picture File, The

Daughters of The Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.

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