The article below was published in the daily newspaper Norfolk News, U-K., page 13, May 22, 1909.
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SUGGESTED SOLUTION OF THE MYSTERY.
SEEN ON WEDNESDAY IN NORWICH DISTRICT.
INDEPENDENT WITNESSES.
Mr. Percival Spencer, the aeronaut of the firm of Spencer Brother, states: -- "These mysterious airships can only be accounted to in two ways. The first and most probable explanation is that they are model balloons, of which are large number are being sold, and which range in length from 25 to 10 ft. Occasionally petrol is used to supply the lifting power of these balloons, and this might give a luminous flame, which would light up the country for miles around, and would have the appearance, at all events to be the unsophisticated rustic of a searchlight. Reports of the throbbing of a motor in the airship can only be explained by the assumption that these model airship have been sent up by motoring parties who have been near at hand and within hearing when their vessels were seen. The other theory might be that the aerial vessels which have been seen are two or three of the men-carrying airships which have been supplied by this firm, and which the owners have been using. We have supplied no less than five during the past season, and of these two have found their way, one in the Eastern Counties and one to Cardiff. I entirely doubt that a foreign aerial vessel has crossed the North Sea, knowing as I do the conditions which have prevailed during the past few days."
