The Wichita daily eagle., 1904-05-29

feet below me and that the tops OF the
Bo:s trees extend up some seventy feet
from the ground. this extreme altitude
left me but 40 feet of clear space for
vertical maneuverng
1t was enough, and the proof of it is
that | do not go higher on these trips Of
pleasure and experiment. Indeed, when
hear of dirigibles going up 1900 feet in
the air without some special justifying
object, l am filed with amazement. AS l
have already explained, the place of the
dirigible is, normally. in low attitudes and
the idea is to guide-rope on a sufficiently
low course to be left free from vertical
maneuvering. 1t is not necessary to go
to the plain Of La Blauce. One can guide
rope even in the center of Paris if one
goes about it at the proper moment. 1
have done it,
NJ. Sartos-Dumont tells all about these
| experiences and discusses them with the
authority of d man VINO has built ten air
ships He refers to the fact that he is the
Poo-Bah of the airship. Throughout.
he explains, Il had been inventor. patron.
manufacturer, amateur. mechanician. and
! airship captain, all united"' Certainly a
/ large. comprehensive order, but he filled
ii without whiting a collar.
! With the same delightful confidence with
which the author of My Arships has in
everything he does. he tells of the esiab-
lishment of the first airship station of
the future. capable OF housing seven air
ships. all inflated and red to navi-
gate at an instant's notice." Yet already
he finds it too small and sighs: What a
small and hampered place it is. compared
! with the great. highly organized stations
! which the future must produce for itself
/ with their high-placed and spacious laud-
f. ing stages to which arships will descend
with complete safety and convenience like
/ great birds that seek nests on fiat rocks
To NJ. Santos -Dumont the future is al
ways at hand. yet he likes to picture what
is in store for US.
/ These stations. he ventures to predict
are likely TO be common in the future,
/ They are to be fitted with tracks on which
| great airships will be pulled in and out by
their guide ropes without loss of time or
/ the aid Of dozen or more men. Their
observation towers he continues. will
serve for judges timing stations in
aerial races; fitted with wireless tele-
! communicate with distant goals and. per-
/ haps. even with airships in motion. At
/ tached to their airship stations, there
Will he gas generating plants. There may
be u casemated workshop for the test
ing of motors. There will certainly. be
sleeping rooms for experimenters who de-
sire to make an early start and profit by
the calm dawn. 1t is quite probable
that there will also be balloon envelope
workshops for repairs and changes
carpenter shop and machine shop, with
intelligent and experienced workmen
ready and able TO seize an idea and exc
cute it.
He describes his present station, where
he houses his fleet OF airships, as a
great square tent, striped red and white.
set in the midst of a vacant lot. Its
tent-like appearance, he explains, is due
TO the fact that he was in a hurry TO con-
struct it. Inside it is fitted up as a great
stable, for monsters of the air. The cen
tral stalls are thirty-one feet wide, 1e5
feet long, and forty-four and one-half
feet high. affording room for the largest
dirigibles without permitting them to
come into contact with each other.
COST $500 TO FILL
Here he keeps his NO. Z" which he
calls his racing airship.' which costs
$500 TO fill with hydrogen: his NO Q.
the little runabout,' and his No. TO-"
which has been called The Omnibus
Its gas capacity" he states, ''Of nearly
eighty thousand cubic feet, makes its
balloon greater in size and lifting power
than even the racing, No. =: and should l.
indeed. desire at any time to shift to it
the latter's keel, all furnished with the
racing motor and machinery, l might
combine very swift aircraft capable of
carrying myself, several aids. large
supply of both petroleum and ballast,
not to speak of war munitions.
THE prime purpose of my No. TO-
however, is well indicated in its name,
The Omnibus Its keel, or rather
keels as l have fashioned them is double
mat is to say, hanging underneath its
usual keel, in which my basket is sit
uated, there is a passenger keel that
holds similar baskets and smaller one
for my aid. Each passenger basket is
large enough to carry four passengers:
and il is TO carry such passengers that
THE Omnibus has been constructed.
Indeed after mature reflection, II
seemed to me that this must be the most
practical and rapid way 10 populariZe
aerial navigation. In many other airships
| have shown that it is possible to mount
and travel through the air on a pre-
scribed course with no greater danger
than one risks in any racing automobile.
In The Omnibus I shall demonstrate to
the world that there are very many men
and women possessed of sufficient con-
fidence in the aerial idea to mount with
me as passengers in the first OF the air
omnibuses OF the future"
NJ Santos Dumont expresses q belief !
that the dirigible balloon should be ap-
preached by the amateur through the +
spherical gas bag. - do not believe. /
he SAYS, that without previous study /
and experience with a spherical balloon, /.
a man can be capable OF succeeding with
an elongated dirigihle balloon, whose
handling is so much more delicate. Be 4
fore attempting 10 direct an airship il is 4
necessary to have learned in an ordin- 4
airy balloon the conditions of the atmos- 4
phere medium. 10 have become acquaint- 1
ed with the caprices of the wind. and /
TO have gone thoroughly into the diff I
hcuIties Of the ballast problem from the i
triple point Of view OF starting. OF eounh- /
brium in air. ana of landing at the end Of I
the trip.
AN INDISPENSABLE PRELIMINARY. 4
To have been ones self the captain
Of an ordinary balloon al the very least ,
4 dozen times seems 10 me an indispen- /
sable preliminary 10 acquiring an exact /
notion of the REQUESTS for constructing +