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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not work) :
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The Lebaudy Patrie was a semi-rigid airship built for the French army in Moisson, France, by sugar producers Lebaudy Frères. Designed by Henri Julliot, Lebaudy's chief engineer, the Patrie was completed in November 1906 and handed over to the French army the following month. The Patrie bears the distinction of being the first airship built specifically for military service.[2]
In 1907, from her base at Chalais-Meudon near Paris, a successful series of military manoeuvres was conducted with the airship by the military command, which included a visit by France's President of the Council Georges Clemenceau. Following the successful completion of these operations, in November 1907 the Patrie was transferred under her own power to her operational base at Verdun, near the German border.
Due to a mechanical fault, the Patrie became stranded away from her base on 29 November 1907 in Souhesmes. During a storm on 30 November she was torn loose from her temporary moorings and, despite the efforts of some 200 soldiers who tried to restrain her, she was carried away by the high winds and lost from sight. Had the rope to the emergency gas-release system been attached, her loss could possibly have been avoided.[3] After crossing the English Channel and passing unseen through English airspace during the night, the Patrie was sighted over Wales and Ireland on 1 December. She made a brief landfall near Belfast, before rising again to be blown out over the Atlantic Ocean. Following a sighting from a steamship off the Hebrides, she was never seen again.
Despite the loss of the Patrie, the Lebaudy Brothers went on to complete a sister-ship to the Patrie, the République, for the French Army. Several airships of a similar design to the Patrie were ordered and delivered to export customers, including the Russian Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Development
The military uses of airships at the time were considered to be the dropping of bombs (from an altitude at which they were deemed to be out of range of ground-based weapons)[4] and reconnaissance. M. Julliot, the designer of the Patrie, stated that "each of the French ships can carry thirty, and on short journeys, even fifty torpedoes of 10 kilogrammes (22 lb) each."[4] For reconnaissance purposes the Patrie was equipped with "a mounting for a telephotographic apparatus, and for a 100-candlepower acetylene searchlight".[5] A contemporary author related that "from a height of 4,000 feet (1,200 m) the Patrie observed the smallest movements of formed bodies of troops at the Satory camp and obtained very clear telephotographs of them."[6]
Semi-rigid airships were considered more suitable for military use because, unlike rigid airships, they could be deflated, stored and transported by land or by sea.[7] The Patrie was a semi-rigid airship manufactured by the French sugar magnates Paul and Pierre Lebaudy and designed by their chief engineer, Henri Julliot. She was the second Lebaudy airship, and "surpassed her predecessor in both size and method of construction".[8] The company's first airship, simply known as the Lebaudy,[9] and dubbed by the French public "Le Jaune" ("The Yellow (One)") because of the yellow colour of the lead chromate paint on its cloth exterior, was considered the most successful airship then in operation.[10]
The main structural components of the Patrie, like those of its predecessor, were the envelope (or "gas-bag"), a nickel-steel frame or keel, and a gondola suspended from the frame on steel cables. Contained within the envelope was a ballonet, the function of which was to ensure that sufficient gas pressure was maintained in the envelope at all times, irrespective of the degree of expansion or contraction of the lifting gas. Attached to both the gas-bag and the gondola were active and passive control surfaces to provide lateral and vertical stability and to give the pilot directional control over the airship.[11][12]
The gondola, constructed of nickel-steel tubing, was suspended some 3.4 meters (11 feet) below an elliptical steel frame (or keel) attached to the bottom of the gas-bag, under the centre of lift. Between the frame and the envelope and linking the two was a small hemp net. The net was attached by wooden toggles to a canvas band sewn directly onto the envelope, and the frame was attached to the net by further toggles. This permitted the easy removal of the frame from the envelope. The frame itself could also be dismantled for ease of transport.[5]
The open gondola offered the crew and passengers little protection from the elements. It was common for there to have been two pilots, two engineers and two passengers on board during test flights and military missions. Ballast, in the form of 10- and 20-pound (4.5 and 9.1 kg) bags of sand, could be jettisoned through a pipe set into the floor of the gondola.[5] Other equipment included "a 'siren' speaking trumpet, carrier pigeons, iron pins, ropes for anchoring the airship, a reserve supply of fuel and water, and a fire extinguisher".[4]
Le Patrie est un dirigeable semi-rigide réalisé par l'ingénieur Henri Julliot et les frères Paul et Pierre Lebaudy, en 1906.
Historique
Fin 1905, les militaires, intéressés après les essais menés avec le dirigeable Lebaudy à Toul passent commande d'un dirigeable similaire mais plus puissant pour un usage militaire2. La construction de la structure est réalisée par les Frères Lebaudy à Moisson sous la direction de M. Juchmès3, tandis que la réalisation de l'enveloppe est confié à Surcouf à Billancourt4.
Il fait son premier vol en novembre 1906, d'une durée d'environ 2 h 205, et devient avec le Jaune l'un des premiers dirigeables militaires de l'armée française.
Le 30 novembre 1907, alors qu'il est amarré près de Verdun à la suite d'une avarie moteur survenue le jour précédent, des rafales violentes de vent l'emportent vers l'ouest. Le dirigeable touche le sol en Irlande avant de s'abimer en mer1.