Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-14
DEPOT FOR A|RSH|PS
One or More to Be Built Soon
in Paris.
AN ELABORATE PLAN
PREPARING FOR A SENSATIONAL
SUMMER CAMPAIGN.
Santos Dumont's Fleet-One Designed
to Carry Passengers-Races
to Be Held.
AN ELABORATE PLAN

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PARIS. February 1. 1903.
Paris will soon see the first of the union
airship depots of tomorrow
They will be great for races" said.
Exactly. My depot will have room for
seven airships; and my fleet next summer
will consist of but three. Therefore 1 can
at any time invite the owners of four other
airships. stable them, supply them with
supplementary hydrogen or illuminating
gas, and every other convenience. When
all Is ready. the maneuvering trucks, roll
ing on their miniature railway tracks, Will
haul the airships out. and hold them parallel
to each other, at the starting line, till the
word Cor is uttered"
The speaker was NJ. Santos-Dumont. We
stood in the large salon of his palatial
apartment at ia Avenue des Champs Ely
sees. Two other salons, or parlors, form a
splendid suite. The furniture Is Empire
of the epoch. Ones feet sink in expensive
carpets. Yet these carpets are Uttered with
shavingS. Long pine work tables alternate
with Empire pieces that might grace mu-
seums. Beside the mantelpiece tiny two
horsepower electric motor was gently
whirring. Two tall compressed-hydrogen
cylinders for filling balloon models stood in
a corner. In smaller salon further on an
architects table. Uttered with plans and
blue prints held the model of the first
arship depot. The third salon was filled
new passenger airship; and superior
kind of carpenter, or jointer, or model
maker was working In corner
Il live as l please said Santos Dumont
"Why should not? l live alone
A Man With Fad.
He lives alone, this very wealthy young
man; and with all the pleasures of Paris
at his command. he works as hard as any
penness inventor. Over his head anchored
to weights on the floor, bobbed half a
dozen large airship balloons, inflated with
hydrogen Here everything is exact, by
rule and measure; the model is a perfect
miniature of the proposed construction.
THAT is why 1 have not killed myself
yet" said Santos-Dumont Il leave less
to chance than one might think
II see that the architect H. ]. Glaizot
has also scheme for a union airship de-
pot" I suggested.
YES" replied Santos, IT am not aston
ished that the ideas came to us almost
simultaneously, though my own plans are
so far advanced that 1 am ready to break
ground. l have secured my land 1t is
private property, though in the Bots de
Boulogne. Here is the complete archi
tectural model. The builder Is ready And
l am now testing heavy waterproof can
vas for the rolling roof. If desired, the
dlTSHlpS Will De aDle TO rise up through the
roof when it is rolled away
But the little railway tracks?" l asked
Everything is New.
"Or the airshps can be hauled out by
means of trucks rolling on those tracks
In the airship world everything is new.
We must try each way. The great thing is
to have the depot, capable of holding half
dozen airships, each in its stall; though
perhaps even greater thing is to have the
wide open landing space 1 have planned
Look at the drawing, here
We talked about the landing yard, with
its trucks and tracks. For want of such a
landing yard last winters accident at
Monte Carlo happened. The balloon house
built for Santos-Dumont by the Prince OF
Monaco stood just across the street that
runs along the shore Of the Bay of Monaco
Street car tracks, houses, trees, telegraph
poles. lamp posts and, worst of all, great
sea wall, threatened the airship each time
it left or returned to the balloon shed. The