43/230
[ stop the slideshow ]

Renard’s dirigible, La France, 1884

Renard’s dirigible, La France, 1884.jpg Giffard’s steam dirigible, 1852ThumbnailsLa Ville de ParisGiffard’s steam dirigible, 1852ThumbnailsLa Ville de ParisGiffard’s steam dirigible, 1852ThumbnailsLa Ville de ParisGiffard’s steam dirigible, 1852ThumbnailsLa Ville de ParisGiffard’s steam dirigible, 1852ThumbnailsLa Ville de Paris

Captain Charles Renard proved to be a worthy inheritor of the dreams, experience and inventions of the first century of aëronautical votaries. He did not, indeed, have the picturesque madness displayed by some of his predecessors; he did not project schemes of marvelous originality or boldness; but he manifested uncommonly good judgment and excellent scientific method in combining the researches and contrivances of others with those of himself and his collaborator, Captain Krebs. As a consequence they produced the first man-carrying dirigible that ever returned against the wind to its starting point, and the first aërial vessel whose shape and dynamic adjustment even approximated the requirements of steady and swift navigation in a surrounding medium presenting various conditions of turbulence or calm.