It is not exactly the most practical and widespread means of transport, but its image is still a symbol of the industrial nineteenth century. Let's talk about airship, who is celebrating the most important of his birthdays today.
Il 24 September of the 1852 – exactly 169 years ago – the world knew the first powered airship in history. Created by engineer Jules Henri Giffard, the medium traveled for 27 kilometers in French skies, from Paris to Trappes, taking approx three hours. In practice, more than it would take an average trained human being to run. And no wonder: the engine of the aircraft was steam and had a power of just three horses (which today seem very few, but for the time they were an extraordinary achievement).
It was Giffard who maneuvered the airship, which departed from the racecourse of the French capital, where a large crowd had gathered. It must not have been a simple operation, also because the dimensions of the vehicle were quite considerable: the casing measured 44 meters in length and had a diameter of 10 meters, for a total volume of 2.500 cubic meters. The engine mounted a single cylinder, which, fueled by coal, drove a propeller with three blades of 3,3 meters in diameter. As for the weight, adding the engine, the boiler and the fuel, it came to touch i two quintals.
Also for this Giffard was unable to exceed the speed of 10 kilometers per hour, moreover with a non-linear trajectory (the airship described large and very slow circles). In any case, the French engineer demonstrated that, in favorable climatic conditions, controlled flight was possible. A truly historic step, considering that the Wright brothers' first flight would only come half a century later.