The Launch Site and the Aerodrome
Paladin found a suitable launch site, although it was two hundred miles from the San Antonio factory. In a sheltered valley was a vast barn compound. And the valley was hidden from public view.
Five-Rivers was chosen because of the abundance of the airship’s lifting gas. The area was the methane capital of the world. It was due to the many feedlots and valleys that funneled the gas into one smelly swamp. It was so bad that mosquitos couldn’t live there. Local people would not travel to that valley either, ensuring the secrecy of the airship. Luckily, the air quality was OK inside the aerodrome where the workers were.
After Paladin further enlarged the barn, it was unofficially the largest barn in the U.S. It would be a hangar for the dirigible, the aerodrome. The plan was to finish construction of the airship in the hanger and then pull it out into the valley for pre-flight tests.
The next step was receiving the dirigible, piece by piece, from the horse-drawn freight wagons that traveled the roads at night from San Antonio.
Methane ValleyPecos Comstock, a local cowboyPerdido, project weathermanThe Move
Freight wagons taxied the airship parts from the San Antonio factory to the launch site near Five Rivers, Texas. The whole journey was during the night and took weeks to complete.
Paladin designed the airship in modules. It was built in a cavern under San Antonio, dismantled, crated for shipping on wagons, freighted 200 miles north, and reassembled in a giant barn, the Aerodrone.
It was quite a challenge, and they kept it secret. Luckily, it was the 1880’s, and communications and social media were minimal back then.
But they had contingency plans for the curious people along the route. A slight-of-hand, and mass hypnosis. More on the diversion plan later. Our Small-Team is researching that now.