In 1886, the French publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel published the 28th title of the writer Jules Verne entitled Robur the Conqueror (also in Czech as Airship Around the World). In this and the following two adventure sequels, Captain Robur and his crew of five and the Albatros, which was a kind of aerial craft powered by an electric motor, play the main role. When writing his novel, Verne was most likely inspired by a real airship named La France. It was an experimental machine that was the first controllable aerostat capable of returning to its starting point even against the wind. But Verne wasn’t the only one interested in the airship. Aircraft designer Ferdinand von Zeppelin was so enthusiastic about the invention that he began promoting it in Germany as a weapon against the enemy.
In 1966, director Karel Zeman made the adventure film The Stolen Airship, based on Verne’s novel Two Years of Vacation (1888), in which his protagonists sail through the air on a machine that is very similar in design. However, unlike the real aerostat, the film craft is powered by a steam engine, but like La France it was filled with flammable gas, although the owner and businessman in one person claimed otherwise.
La France
The aerostat was the joint work of pilots and aeronautical engineers Arthur Constantine Krebs and Charles Renard. Construction began in 1884, and thanks to government funding of the project, the first flight could take place on 9. August of that year. The machine took off from the balloon unit in Chalais-Meudon and was piloted by Arthur C. Krebs. After about 23 minutes, the ship flew at an average speed of 17.2 km / h, a distance of 7.6 kilometers, circled the loop and returned to the place of takeoff. From that day until 23. September 1885, she took off six more times, and from that she managed to return to her starting point a total of five times. During the last flight, the pilots also managed to reach the highest average speed, which was then 23.4 kilometers per hour. In 1886, both designers won the Ponti Prize of the French Academy of Sciences for their contribution to aviation. In 1889, their lighter air machine was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.
The airship consisted of an unreinforced body filled with hydrogen with a total length of 50.4 m and a diameter of 8.4 m, under which hung a 32.9 m long bamboo gondola coated with silk. Inside was a space for pilots and a part dedicated to the engine, which was very progressive and modern at the time. It was a 100-kilogram Gramme principle motor with an output of 6.2 kilowatts, powered by a 263-kilogram chromium chloride battery. The total flight time was then between 20 and 90 minutes when the battery was fully charged. In front of the gondola was a double-bladed wooden propeller with a diameter of 7 meters, which was installed on a 14.9 meter long drive shaft. During the first flight, its speed reached 42 rpm, during later flights it was up to 57 rpm. The whole vessel was controlled by a rudder and a system of weights. The change in weight in this system made it possible to change the center of gravity of the machine, which could then rise or fall.
| Crew | 2 persons |
| Engine | 1 x Gramme principle electric motor |
| Engine power | 1 x 6,25 kW |
| Speed |
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| Length | 50,40 m |
| Volume | 1 864 m³ |
| Diameter | 8,40 m |
source:
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_France
http://www.vrtulnik.cz/ww2/luftschiff.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Renard
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robur_Dobyvatel
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/9-august-1884/
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukradená_vzducholoď
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Constantin_Krebs