Here are links to larger images of what Jempie's attached. Dr. Greth's machine is as beautiful as it is classic non-rigid airship design.
http://204.83.160.230/archive/JPL/1903.10....rship.1_jpl.jpg
http://204.83.160.230/archive/JPL/1903.10....rship.2_jpl.jpg
Another annotated with photo of Point Sur Lighthouse.
http://204.83.160.230/archive/airships/190...ornia.Eagle.jpg
I've written that Greth's airship was first to fly
"west of the Mississippi", because I've listed
Stevens' No.1 as first American motorized airship accent on 9 Apr 1902 at Manhattan Beach NY. Not certain but I think it may be a neighbourhood in Brooklyn. I have very little information on this one however, and no spec's on what the motor might have been. Even though the Stevens airship flew a full one and one-half years earlier than Greth and co-pilot(?), I agree as Jempie suggests; California Eagle in 1903 is the best documented "proven" first motorized controlled flight.
http://204.83.160.230/archive/JPL/1902.Stevens.jpl.jpg
http://204.83.160.230/archive/airshi...evens.no.1.jpg
VBR
Rod