The first Lebaudy air ship, called the Yellow, because of its color, had an envelope constructed of a rubber-treated cotton fabric, made in Hanover and covered with a yellow coating of lead chromate, to ward off the sun’s actinic rays from the rubber, and thus prevent deterioration. Her hull, which was cigar shaped and inflated with hydrogen, measured 183 feet in length, 32 feet in diameter, and 80,000 cubic feet in volume. She was propelled by a 40-horse-power Daimler motor actuating twin screws, and attained a maximum speed of twenty-six miles an hour. During her first year’s service she made many ascensions, returning to her starting point twenty-eight times out of twenty-nine. Her longest voyage, made at Moisson, June 24, 1904, was sixty-two miles in two hours and three quarters, with an average speed of twenty-two miles an hours. But in November, 1902, while landing in a high wind at the end of her voyage from Paris to Chalais-Meudon, she was wrecked by colliding with a tree. Her motor, however, was uninjured, and a new envelope was at once prepared.
The second vessel, called the Lebaudy, and brought out in 1904, though resembling her predecessor, had a number of improvements in detail. Her hull was somewhat larger than the Jaune, and no longer pointed at the stern, but rounded off to an ellipsoidal shape, and provided, like the rear of an arrow, with guiding, or steadying planes. It measured 190 feet in length and 94,000 cubic feet in volume. It was provided with two windows for internal inspection, and had an air bag of 17,650 cubic feet, divided into three parts. This air bag was inflated by a rotary fan near the main body, driven by the motor during flight, and by a storage battery when at rest. Suitable horizontal and vertical sails were used to steady and guide the vessel; also a guide-rope and anchor were carried. The car, suspended by steel ropes, ten feet below the hull, carried the passengers and supplies; also the motor actuating twin propellers, one on either side. At night an abundance of light was available, each passenger carrying a small lamp fastened to his clothes, the car itself bearing a powerful acetylene projector in its front, and two other lamps of 100 candle power each, to illumine the vessel. It was an elaborate affair, costing fifty to sixty thousand dollars, and was the outcome of experiments costing ten times that sum.
PLATE III.
THE LEBAUDY.
Photo E. Levick, N. Y.
LA PATRIE.
(Courtesy E. L. Jones.)