On her trials the ship became practically a free balloon, an independent velocity of about six miles per hour being achieved and deviation from the direction of the wind of ten degrees.
At the close of the nineteenth century Santos-Dumont turned his attention to airships. The experiments which he carried out marked a new epoch and there arose the nucleus of the airship as we know it to-day. Between the years 1898 and 1905 he had in all built fourteen airships, and they were continually improved as each succeeding one made its appearance. In the last one he made a circular flight; starting from the aerodrome of the aero club, he flew round the Eiffel Tower and back to the starting point in thirty-one minutes on October 19th, 1902. For this feat the Deutsch prize was awarded to him.
The envelopes he used were in design much nearer approach to a streamline form than those previously adopted, but tapered to an extremely fine point both at the both and stem. For rigging he employed a long nacelle, in the centre of which was supported the car, and unusually long suspensions distributed the weight throughout practically the entire length of the envelope. To the name of Santos-Dumont much credit is due. He may be regarded as the originator of the airship for pleasure purposes, and by his success did much to popularize them. He also was responsible to a large extent for the development and expansion of the airship industry in Paris.
At a little later date, in 1902 to be precise, the Lebaudy brothers, in conjunction with Julliot, an engineer, and Surcoup, an aeronaut, commenced building an airship of a new type. This ship was a semirigid and was of a new shape, the envelope resembling in external appearance a cigar. In length it was 178 feet with a diameter of 30 feet and the total capacity was 64,800 cubic feet. This envelope was attached to a rigid elliptical keel-shaped girder made of steel tubes, which was about a third of the length of the ship. The girder was covered with a shirting and intended to prevent the ship pitching and rolling while in flight. A horizontal rudder was attached to the under side of this girder, while right aft a large vertical rudder was fixed.
A small car was suspended by steel rods at a distance of 17 feet 9 inches from the girder, with a framework built up underneath to absorb the shock on landing.
A 35 horse-power Daimler-Mercedes motor, weighing some 800 lb. without cooling water and fuel, drove two twin-bladed propellers on either side of the car.
In the year 1903 a number of experimental flights were made with this ship and various details in the construction were continually introduced. The longest flight was 2 hours 46 minutes. Towards the end of that year, while a voyage was being made from Paris to Chalais Meudon, the airship came in contact with a tree and the envelope was badly torn.
In the following year it was rebuilt, and the volume was slightly increased with fixed and movable planes added to increase the stability. After several trips had been made, the airship again on landing came in contact with a tree and was burst.
The ship was rebuilt and after carrying out trials was purchased by the French Army. The Lebaudy airship had at that time been a distinct success, and in 1910 one was purchased for the British Government by the readers of the Morning Post.
In the ten-ton Lebaudy the length of the keel framework was greatly extended, and ran for very nearly the full length of the envelope. The disadvantage of this ship was its slowness, considering its size and power, and was due to the enormous resistance offered by the framework and rigging.