LEBAUDY’S MORNING POST.
The Lebaudy, with these various improvements, gave much satisfaction to her owners, and received favorable recognition from the French War Department. During the thirty ascensions and voyages of her first year’s service, she proved herself a swift vessel, easy to control, very stable, and safe to land on solid ground. The Minister of War, who had followed her developments with much interest, appointed a commission to test her value for military service, with a view to her adoption by the government. The test required that the balloon remain in active service three months, always being anchored in the open, and that it perform certain prescribed maneuvers and voyages. In one of these it sailed with three persons on July 3, 1905, from Moisson to Meaux, an air-line distance of 57 miles in two hours and thirty-five minutes, at an average speed of 22 miles an hour, thence to Chalons, 61 miles in three hours and twenty minutes. Here it was anchored to some trees, but presently was caught in a strong wind, lifted high in the air, then dashed violently against other trees, with the complete destruction of its envelope. Within eleven weeks it was repaired in the military riding school at Toul, nearby; then, after some evolutions, returned to its harbor at Moisson. Other maneuvers were made subsequently, in which five officers were carried at one time, and interesting experiments were tried, such as dropping a sand bag upon a given spot, photographing fortifications, etc. The Minister of War, accompanied by two officers and other passengers, made a trip on October 24th, which was the seventy-sixth voyage of this stanch vessel. On November 10th, the hard-worked and successful air ship went into winter quarters, being now the property of the French government, and the first of her modern aërial cruisers.
The Patrie and the République, planned on the general lines of the Lebaudy, but in ascending scale of magnitude, were built expressly for the French government, and experienced brilliant if ill-fated careers. Both vessels had whale-shaped hulls, with rather sharp-pointed noses and rounding sterns. The original volume of the Patrie was 111,250 cubic feet, which was later increased to 128,910, by the insertion of a cylindrical section at the major diameter of the hull. The République had a volume of 2,000 cubic feet more than the Patrie, and a length of 200 feet, or a little less than the enlarged Patrie. She also had a diameter of 35½ feet as against 33¾ in the sister vessel. As the technical reader may like more complete details of these two noted air ships, a fuller account is given in [Appendix III].
The Patrie was a swift and graceful ship which, during its brief activities in 1906–7, made many remarkable trips at an altitude of about half a mile, and frequently maneuvered with the troops. She sailed with excellent stability, had a speed of about 28 miles an hour, and, with four men, had a radius of action of 280 miles. In November, 1907, carrying four passengers, she voyaged from Paris to Verdun, on the German frontier, where she was to be stationed. In spite of a quartering wind, the total distance of 175 miles was traversed in seven hours and three quarters, or at an average overground speed of 25 miles an hour. But while at Verdun, after some maneuvers, she was too insecurely anchored to the ground by means of iron stakes. A strong wind came, tore out the pickets, and overpowered the soldiers, some two hundred in number, who were trying to hold the vessel. As she was pulling them along the ground, they were ordered to let go. The huge ship bounded high into the air, soared across France, England, Wales, and part of Ireland, then far out over the Atlantic where she vanished, leaving no trace behind.
The République also had a brilliant but ephemeral career, from July, 1908, to September, 1909. She surpassed the Patrie not only in bulk and buoyancy, but also in power and speed. She had an 80-horse-power motor as against the Patrie’s motor of 60 to 70 horse power. She could carry eight to nine men, had a speed of about thirty miles an hour, and a radius of action of 500 miles. She made a number of long flights and manifested satisfactory steadiness and stability. But on September 25, 1909, while maneuvering near Paris, one of her propellers broke and tore a great gash in her envelope. At once, with outrushing gas and collapsing hull, the great ship fell 500 feet crashing to the earth, a total wreck, and killing her crew of four officers. This disaster illustrated forcibly the advantage of the cellular system of balloon construction, and drew more favorable attention to the rigid type of air ship cultivated in Germany.
The famous firm that produced the République brought forth, in 1909, two other fine vessels patterned after it, the Russie and La Liberté, built respectively for Russia and France. The Russie made her first voyage on May 29th, ascending 600 feet with eight passengers, and maneuvering under perfect control. After her official trial, in June, she was sent to St. Petersburg, being the first dirigible furnished to a foreign government by a private concern. The Liberté was launched the last week in August and, after various practice and official tests, was accepted by the French government two months later. On a notable voyage, made on September 20th, she sailed ten hours with her Panhard motor constantly working.
The escape of the Patrie was a loss keenly felt by the French people, but soon compensated by the generosity of M. Deutsch de la Meurthe. This liberal patron of aëronautics had a dirigible of excellent design, whose hull, based on the plans of Colonel Renard, was contrived and built by E. Surcouf, director of the Astra aëronautic establishment, along with H. Kapferer, while its other parts were built by Voisin, both of Billancourt. In September preceding the accident to the Patrie, he had offered the use of his air ship, the Ville de Paris, to his government, which accepted the gift with the understanding that it was not to be delivered except in case of war or emergency. When, therefore, in November, 1907, the disaster occurred to the Patrie, M. Deutsch at once placed his dirigible in the hands of the military authorities.
Fig. 21.—La Ville de Paris.