The mystery airship or phantom airship was a phenomenon that thousands of people across the United States claimed to have observed from late 1896 through mid 1897. Typical airship reports involved nocturnal sightings of unidentified flying lights, but more detailed accounts reported actual airborne craft comparable to an airship or dirigible.

Mystery airship reports are seen as a cultural predecessor to modern claims of extraterrestrial-piloted UFO’s or flying saucers.

Reports of the alleged airship crewmen and pilots usually described them as humanoid, although sometimes the crew claimed to be from Mars. It was popularly believed that the mystery airships were the product of some inventor or genius who was not ready to make knowledge of his creation public.

Initially, most journalists of the period did not seem to take the airship reports very seriously. As the sightings continued, several newspapers covered the story with genuine wonder and interest, while others were more skeptical and even hostile. Some openly mocked and ridiculed the believers and witnesses, dismissing them as fools, liars or drunkards. After the major 1896-97 wave ended, the entire airship story quickly fell from public consciousness and was all but forgotten for nearly seventy years.