page_title: Clément-Bayard
section_title: Airship manufacture
hierarchical_section_title: Clément-Bayard / Airship manufacture
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of the French Dirigible "Adjudant Vincenot", a Clement-Bayard model.
context_page_description: Clément-Bayard, Bayard-Clément, was a French manufacturer of automobiles, aeroplanes and airships founded in 1903 by entrepreneur Gustave Adolphe Clément. Clément obtained consent from the Conseil d'Etat to change his name to that of his business in 1909. The extra name celebrated the Chevalier Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard who saved the town of Mézières in 1521. A statue of the Chevalier stood in front of Clément's Mézières factory, and the image was incorporated into the company logo.
  From 1903 Clément-Bayard automobiles were built in a modern factory at Mézières, known as La Macérienne, which Clément had designed in 1894 mainly for building bicycles.
  The company entered the field of aviation in 1908, announcing the construction of Louis Capazza's 'planeur', a lenticular airship, in L'Aérophile in May 1908.: however it was never built. Adolphe Clément also built Alberto Santos-Dumont's Demoiselle No 19 monoplane that he had designed to compete for the Coupe d'Aviation Ernest Archdeacon prize from the Aéro-Club de France. It was the world's first series production aircraft and by 1909 Clement-Bayard had the license to manufacture Wright engines alongside their own design.
context_section_description: In 1908 'Astra Clément-Bayard' began manufacturing airships at a new factory in La Motte-Breuil in response to a French Army decision to commence airship operations.
  The Clément-Bayard No.1 airship was offered to the French government but was too expensive so it was bought by Tsar Nicholas II for the Russian army.
  In 1910 the Clément-Bayard No.2, piloted by Maurice Clément, was the first airship to cross the Channel, travelling over 380 km in 6 hours. The army ordered 3 copies.
  The airship hangar in La Motte-Breuil is still maintained by Clément-Talbot Ltd.
caption: Clement-Bayard Airship No 1, The "Adjudant Vincenot" circa 1910. Caption from Popular Mechanics magazine 1910
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