“It is nonsense, ridiculous,” insisted Leblance, over and over again. “They are inviting sure death if they venture a hundred miles away from land.”
“All the same, they are going to try it,” proclaimed Hiram, a week later, holding up a newspaper. “Here is a great account of the machine and the plans, and Davidson and Jerry Dawson, who are going to fly the Dictator.”
These two latter individuals did not trouble the Albatross people any further. A constant guard, however, was kept on duty in the aerodrome. There were a great many curious and interested visitors. Day by day the giant airship approached completion. Now, as Hiram had announced, it was practically ready to essay its initial flight.
Professor Leblance smiled indulgently at them, as with considerable professional pride he walked around the mammoth structure his skill and efficiency had devised. Dave never tired of surveying the splendid machine. To him it was a marvel how Leblance had assembled the parts of the airship so speedily. There were three engines, and from the wooden ribs and metal bracing, socketed to withstand collisions, to the passenger cabin almost as sumptuously furnished as a Pullman palace car, every detail fitted into a mammoth scheme never before attempted in aeronautics.
“The Albatross will do what no aeroplane could accomplish,” said Leblance to his companions, who were admiringly regarding the great machine.
“What is that, Mr. Leblance?” inquired the young aviator.
“It can be perfectly handled in a storm exceeding thirty-five miles an hour velocity. It is as much of a ship as any that can travel the ocean. An iron ship is sustained on the water by the air inside of her hull, air being eight hundred times lighter than water. The Albatross will be sustained in the air by hydrogen gas, which is sixteen times lighter than air.”
“And sixteen to one is as good as unlimited to one,” remarked Dave, who had been studying aeronautics.
“That’s it. The Albatross is a ship sustained by displacing more than its own weight on the air. Its gas chambers are inflated to about three-fourths of their capacity, to allow for the full expansion of gas after the ship has been driven up dynamically by the action of the engines and propellers, the flat top and under surface of the hull acting as an aeroplane.”
The Albatross was a flexible gas bag, just like the ordinary drifting balloon, except that in shape it was long and pointed, instead of round. Otherwise, Leblance explained, it could not be driven through the air. The gas was contained in twenty-two separate chambers inside of the rigid hull, which performed the same functions as the air-tight compartments inside an ocean liner.