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Title: Auto-Locomoteur Aerien |
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Description: This poster depicts a conceptual design for a powered flying machine, designated in French as a dirigible. Dirigibles are controlled by a pilot in combination with static lift, dynamic lift, and lighter-than-air gases. In the late nineteenth century, there was an array of conceptual drawings for dirigibles, which were designed but never constructed. At first, designers based their designs for dirigibles on boats and fish, two modes of travel which were already well known in the nineteenth century. Designers were influenced by the idea that a fish has the ability to move while entirely submerged in water, and believed that fish shaped airships would move effectively in the air. It was thought that an airship could only propel itself if it had ‘cod’s head’ and ‘mackerel tail’. One remarkable benefit of the fish shape design was that the elongation of the balloon’s hull minimized air resistance. Ship based designs were less successful in the sky because sails and oars proved impractical in the air. While not necessarily practical, these imaginative sketches have provided modern day collectors with well documented plates of early dirigible designs. |
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