AERIAL NAVIGATION. 



Stevens, Lebaudy, and Others. Other ex- 

 periments have been made in 1902 by Leo 

 Stevens with a ship that he has christened The 

 Pegasus, 'ihis has a gas-bag, cylindrical with 

 conical ends, 22 feet in diameter and 86 feet long, 

 with an inside air-bag 2U feet long. The frame- 

 work suspended 12 feet below is 28 feet long and 

 weighs with the naphtha motors 350 pounds. 

 The propeller, consisting of 2 blades 7 feet long, 

 is placed at the forward end of the ship. On 

 either side of the gas-holder is what is called an 

 aeroplane parachute 35 feet long, which is sup- 

 posed to open out in descending and steady the 

 ship. 



Several private trials have been made of an air- 

 ship built at Bonnieres, near Nantes, by Pierre 

 and Paul Lebaudy and an engineer named Julliot. 

 On Nov. 13, 1902, it is said to have made a speed 

 of 25 miles an hour against a light wind and to 

 have answered its helm readily and promptly. 

 The following details of its construction have 

 been given to the press: 



" The Lebaudy balloon is similar in appearance 

 to, but twice the size of, those of M. Santos- 

 Dumont. It is 64 yards long and 12 yards in 

 diameter. The car is 5J yards long and can hold 

 3 persons. The propeller is driven by a motor of 

 40 horse-power." 



The only ascents of dirigible balloons so far 

 made in America were those of Leo Stevens's 

 Pegasus and the Santos-Dumont No. 6 at Man- 

 hattan and Brighton Beaches, New York, re- 

 spectively on the afternoon of Sept. 30, 1902. Mr. 

 Edward C. Boice, in the Santos-Dumont, after 

 rising gracefully to a height of 800 feet circled 

 the Brighton Beach Hotel and then took a 

 straight course for Sheepshead Bay, directly 

 .against an 8-mile breeze. He had complete con- 

 trol of his machine, and for about 3 miles kept 

 .a comparatively horizontal course, when a gust 

 of wind blew a suspended rope against the pro- 

 peller, with which it became entangled, and he 

 was forced to descend. Mr. Stevens was less suc- 

 cessful. His ship had previously made two un- 

 successful attempts at flight, and was still un- 

 ruly. After some evolutions he sailed of a 

 mile in the direction of Coney Island. He lost 

 the handle-bar with which he controlled the pro- 

 peller and made a hasty descent, landing with 

 his machine on the cross-bar of a telegraph-pole. 



The managers of the Louisiana Purchase Ex- 

 position, to be held in St. Louis, Mo., in 1904, 

 have offered a grand prize of $100,000 and $50.- 

 000 in minor prizes for competition in air-ship 

 motors, air-ship races, kites, and gliding-ma- 

 x chines, and have announced the following as the 

 official rules for the contests: Speed is to be the 

 sole condition for winning the grand prize. The 

 successful aeronaut must sail his craft over the 

 10-mile course at least three times, at an average 

 speed of not less than 20 miles an hour. Smaller 

 prizes are offered for the next four fastest air- 

 ships in this contest, though the speed must be 

 at least 10 miles an hour to obtain any award. 

 'Time consumed in starting and landing again in 

 the prescribed lines without serious injury to 

 navigator or apparatus will be counted in com- 

 puting speed. No allowance will be made for 

 deviations from the course or for wind. A prize 

 is offered for the flying-machine, not carrying an 

 operator, that makes the quickest straightaway 

 flight of a mile and return. Other prizes are of- 

 fered for the best gliding-machines carrying an 

 operator. Four prizes of $5,000 each are offered 

 for these contests, open to air-ships, flying-ma- 

 chines, balloons, or any other aerial craft, carry- 

 ing at least one person, all starts to be made 



from the exposition grounds: For the greatest 

 altitude attained; for the longest time in air; 

 for landing nearest the Washington Monument, 

 Washington, D. C. ; for the longest distance trav- 

 eled in any direction in one night. M. Santos- 

 Dumont, Sir Hiram Maxim, and many less- 

 known inventors have expressed their intention 

 of entering the contests. 



The ordinary spherical balloon has been used 

 with good effect by the armies both of the Euro- 

 pean countries and of the United States for scout- 

 ing and signaling, and several interesting at- 

 tempts have been made to navigate the air by 

 merely utilizing the prevailing air currents. 

 Notable among these was the fatal attempt of 

 Andree, in 1896, to drift over the north pole. 

 Major Hirschauer of the Balloon Battalion at the 

 camp of Chalons, France, during a heavy fog on 

 Oct. 22, 1901, observed that the direction of the 

 wind for 33(? feet above the surface of the earth 

 was northeast. Above 'this he found a layer, ex- 

 tending nearly to 3,300 feet elevation, in which 

 the wind was from the south, and above this 

 again the clouds were moving from the north- 

 west. These facts induced him to order Lieut. 

 le Comte to make a trial trip. Aften ten o'clock 

 Lieut, le Comte made the ascent, moving at first 

 in the direction of l^pernay, west-southwest from 

 the Chalons camp, thence toward Reims that is, 

 utilizing the south wind, and back to camp on 

 the northwest wind. At three o'clock he came in 

 sight of camp and maneuvered the balloon by 

 means of the drag ropes so as to reach the center 

 of the camp ground, where he was lowered by the 

 same detachment that assisted him in his ascent. 

 Lieut, le Comte thus solved the same problem as 

 Santos-Dumont, only at far greater distances, by 

 utilizing favorable wind currents without a mo- 

 tor, and finally, by means of drag ropes, show- 

 ing that even the spherical balloon, under favor- 

 able guidance, can reach predetermined places. 

 In October, 1901, a Prussian officer, accompa- 

 nied by two assistants, made a similar ascent. 

 He ascended from the Tempelhof field, near Ber- 

 lin, in foggy weather and little wind, and passed 

 over the Stern hunting-lodge (near Drewitz), 

 Potsdam, Doberitz (north of Potsdam), and back 

 to the Tempelhof field. The filled balloon was 

 left overnight in the balloon shed, and next day 

 was again used by the same men, under similar 

 meteorological conditions, the route being over 

 Teltow, Potsdam, Lehnin (13 miles west of Pots- 

 dam), Doberitz and back to Teltow, where a 

 landing was effected. Here on two successive 

 days, with a change in the wind, practically the 

 same course was covered, with one balloon fill- 

 ing, the balloon remaining in sen-ice for forty- 

 one hours in all. On July 27, 1902, Capt. Eric 

 Unge of the engineer corps of the Swedish army 

 traveled more than 540 miles in a balloon in 

 fourteen hours and a half, descending near Nov- 

 gorod, Russia. On Sept. 19, while attempting, in 

 the presence of King Oscar, at Stockholm, to 

 cross the Baltic to Germany and the south of 

 Europe, his balloon exploded, and he and his 

 companion fell more than 2 miles. The wrecked 

 balloon acted as a parachute and both escaped 

 unhurt. On Sept. 22, 1902. Count de la Vaulx, 

 accompanied by M. Castillon de Saint-Victor. M. 

 Laignier, of the French navy. M. Herve\ the engi- 

 neer whose patent " deviator " plays so promi- 

 nent a part in the experiments, and Duhanot, the 

 mechanic, started from the aerodrome at Palavas- 

 les-Flot*, near Montpellier, in his balloon M- 

 diterraneen II, in a second attempt to cross the 

 Mediterranean. The balloon, which was provi- 

 sioned for several days, was escorted by the tor- 



