PLATE V.
ZODIAC III.
ZODIAC IV.
The Zodiac I was quickly followed by vessels II and III, cubing respectively 1,200 and 1,400 meters. The No. II had a speed of twenty, or more, miles per hour, and carried two passengers when inflated with coal gas, three with hydrogen. The No. III, of torpedo form, measured 133 feet long, 28 feet in major diameter, carried four persons, and sailed 25 miles an hour with her 40-horse-power Ballot engine. On August 29th, piloted by Count de la Vaulx, she competed with the Colonel Renard, at Rheims, for the Prix des Aëronats, making five rounds of the ten kilometer course in one hour and twenty-five minutes, this being at the average speed of 22 miles an hour. On October 30th, again piloted by the same renowned aëronaut, she sailed from Brussels to Anvers, rounded the lofty Cathedral spire, and returned to her aërodrome, traversing a distance of sixty kilometers in one hour and twelve minutes, or with an average speed of 31 miles an hour, a good showing for so small an air ship.
A very handsome dirigible, named the Belgique, was constructed early in 1909, by the skillful aëronautical engineer, Louis Godard, of Paris, in collaboration with the prominent Belgian engineer and sportsman, Robert Goldschmidt. It was a flexible balloon of elegant torpedo form, measuring 175 feet long, 30 feet in major diameter, and 106,000 cubic feet in volume. It was propelled by two 60-horse-power Vivinus engines actuating two screws, made of fabric stretched over radial sticks, and placed at either end of the spindle-shaped car. The control was provided for by ample keel surface, an elevating plane in front, and ingeniously designed fins on the rear of the hull to steady the motion. The entire structure showed much originality and skill. When the dirigible was tested near Brussels, on June 28th, it was piloted by Louis Godard, the famous expert in sphericals, accompanied by Goldschmidt. Godard’s début in this capacity was reported as excellent.
The Italian government brought forth, in the summer of 1909, a swift and elegant auto balloon showing considerable originality of design. It has a porpoise-shaped hull of 2,500 cubic meters capacity, divided into seven compartments, so as to obviate the accident which wrecked the République. An ample keel along the rear bottom, and large aëroplane surfaces at the stern, serve to guide and steady the vessel. Propelled by twin screws well above a short car, she readily attained thirty miles an hour, carrying four persons. On October 31st, starting on her seventeenth voyage, she cruised from the aëronautic park, Vigna de Vale, near Rome, to Naples and back to Rome by ten o’clock at night, having sailed over the edge of the Mediterranean Sea and over the French squadron in the bay, remaining fourteen hours in the air and traversing 520 kilometers, or 323 miles. It was one of the finest voyages of the year. Further details of this Italian military dirigible No. I bis, together with illustrations, are given in Aërophile for January 15, 1910, together with its prototype the dirigible No. I, which maneuvered so successfully in 1908.
England and America all along had pursued an oriental, or semicivilized, policy toward the auto balloon, languidly watching the progress elsewhere, and hoping some time to enjoy the fruition, if not the glory, of the costly and successful experiments made in other countries. In 1909, however, the British government appropriated nearly $400,000 for aëronautics, and the United States House of Representatives voted $500,000, but promptly reversed its action, and gave nothing, though it may be said that even then there was a growing sentiment in favor of a more liberal policy. The movement to secure the beginning of an aërial fleet in England is summarized in the following paragraph.[16]