TransGlobal Gallery

Travel art fueled by human imagination, original photography and AI creativity. Surreal journeys, improbable stories and vintage visions from an award-winning travel writer. See more on Instagram. 

From the TransGlobal files of 
Improbable Moments in Travel

Doomed Ascension: The Strange History of Catholic Air Transport is a one-minute descent into ambition, faith and tragic aviation hubris.

In the 1930s, passenger blimps promised a radiant future in the skies. But the Catholic Church’s venture was disastrous.

The idea originated in the troubled mind of Father Eusebio Cruz, whose manic devotion to airships as a unifying force for the Catholic world produced frantic sketches and grand designs that were largely ignored, dismissed left to rot — along with his sanity. Few in the church even knew about the man tucked into the far reaches of a remote Catholic insane asylum in Europe.

But Sister Maria Grazia knew. Brilliant, ruthless and hungry to grow her influence, she recognized Cruz’s ideas not as madness, but as leverage — and an opportunity to control distance, devotion and power from above.

She seized his plans. Banished to a remote asylum. And never looked back.

I'm Mark Chesnut, an award-winning travel writer. TransGlobal Gallery is an ongoing initiative to experiment with the possibilities of blending AI creativity, original photography, varied artistic techniques and lots of imagination to tell stories and delight the eye.