Scarborough, William Harrison (American painter, 1812-1871)

William E. Scarborough is a retired Navy captain who has researched and written about the Batson Aero Yacht project. The Batson Aero Yacht was the inspiration of Matthew A. Batson (1866-1917) of Anna, Illinois, a retired Army captain. In 1912, Batson came up with a design for an aircraft that he envisioned could hold ten men and fuel for several days, fly at a speed of 100 m.p.h., and make transatlantic flights to Liverpool, England. He then formed the Batson Air Navigation Company and relocated to Dutch Island in Savannah, Georgia to begin manufacturing his aircraft. Construction on the first aircraft began in April 1913 by a crew of locally hired workers. The first prototype was completed by November 1913, but technical and mechanical malfunctions took place with every test run and the Batson Aero Yacht never made it out of Savannah. As a result, the Batson Air Navigation Company faced financial troubles and was liquidated and ultimately sold at auction in July 1915.