Peter Excho is better known for his oddities and curiosities at Augusta’s Pexcho American Dime Museum, but his next project highlights a lesser-known figure in the history of American flight.
“About a year ago, the New Orleans history museum asked me to build a model of the airship,” said Excho, who replicated a small model of Charles Page’s 1903 airship. That prompted the request that he build a full-size replica of Page’s design for the Black Inventor’s Hall of Fame.
Page, an African American inventor living in Jim Crow-era Louisiana, received a patent for his airship design in April 1906 a month before the Wright Brothers received their patent. Both Page and the Wright Brothers had filed their applications in 1903; Page filed his first.
Excho’s initial small model was for the Louisiana State Museum and the Louisiana Civil Rights Museum Advisory Board’s exhibition, Pioneer Skies: From Freedom to Flight, the History of Charles Frederick Page, which was at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport from July 3- Sept. 30, 2024.
Page’s design features a boat with two large balloons attached to it.
Page built his airship and in 1904, he loaded it onto a train bound for the Louisiana Purchase World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, presumably to enter it into a competition that awarded $100,000 to the winner.
It never arrived. His daughter, Eva Page, was quoted in a 1974 article in the newspaper The Alexandria (Louisiana) Town Talk as saying the airship was stolen.
A historical marker was placed in his memory at the site of his homestead where he built the airship.
The full-scale rendering that Excho has been commissioned to do will be constructed out from ash trees like the ones that would’ve grown near Page’s Pineville, Louisiana home. He also plans to build the airship with historically accurate elements such as wooden pegs instead of modern metal nails or screws.
Excho said he plans to build it in the Augusta area, but it’s too big of a project for his downtown space. The process will be filmed for a documentary before it makes it’s way to the museum.
Excho said the project deadline is November 2027.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named Augusta Magazine’s best local writer in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
