page_title: Patrie (airship)
section_title: Final flight
hierarchical_section_title: Patrie (airship) / Operational history / Final flight
caption_attribution_description: English: Approximate flightpath of the French airship "Patrie" after she was torn from her temporary moorings in Souhesmes, Franch, on Saturday, 30 Nov. 1907
context_page_description: The Lebaudy Patrie was a semi-rigid airship built for the French army in Moisson, France, by sugar producers Lebaudy Frères. Designed by Henri Julliot, Lebaudy's chief engineer, the Patrie was completed in November 1906 and handed over to the military the following month. The Patrie bears the distinction of being the first airship ordered for military service by the French army.
  In 1907, from her base at Chalais-Meudon near Paris, a successful series of military manoeuvres was conducted with the airship by the military command, which included a visit by France's President of the Council Georges Clemenceau. Following the successful completion of these operations, in November 1907 the Patrie was transferred under her own power to her operational base at Verdun, near the German border.
  Due to a mechanical fault, the Patrie became stranded away from her base on 29 November 1907 in Souhesmes. During a storm on 30 November she was torn loose from her temporary moorings and, despite the efforts of some 200 soldiers who tried to restrain her, she was carried away by the high winds and lost from sight.
context_section_description: While based at Verdun, the Patrie was stranded on Friday, 29 November 1907, at nearby Souhesmes due to a mechanical problem caused by the clothing of one of the mechanics becoming caught in the distributor drive gear. On-the-spot repairs were made but the lack of a spare magneto on board meant that the motor could not be used for the return flight. The decision was made not to drag the airship back to Verdun but to tether her overnight in the open at Souhesmes.
  During that night, a storm blew up and approximately 200 soldiers were assigned to the task of restraining the airship in the gale-force winds. On Saturday morning, the wind was strong enough to pull some of the iron pickets anchoring the airship out of the ground so that she swung broadside to the wind, causing her to tip on her side, which in turn caused sacks of ballast to be released. Even then the Patrie could have been saved; had the release cord been attached to the gas-bag, a single tug on the cord would have been enough to release the hydrogen and save the ship. However, an oversight led to this not being done. Thus, the troops were unable to keep control of her, and could not continue to hold her down in the storm.
  Relieved of her ballast of 750 kilograms (1,650 lb) and without a crew, she shot up to a great height (calculated by the constructor to have been some 2,000 metres (6,600 ft)), and was carried away in a north-westerly direction. Two days later there was still no news. In 2007, the French newspaper Journal l'Alsace / Le Pays reprinted a news item from 5 December 1907, which spoke of the "anxiety" caused in Paris by this "disaster". It was feared that the Patrie could have risen into an eastward air current, crossed the nearby Franco-German border and fallen into "Prussian" hands, so news reports of her whereabouts were eagerly awaited.
  Finally news of sightings filtered back to France and spread around Europe and the United States. As was reported in The New York Times the following day, the Patrie had been observed on the morning of Sunday, 1 December 1907, over Cardigan (Wales). On the afternoon of the same day she made landfall at Ballysallagh, near Holywood, County Down in northern Ireland, where a propeller and bevel gear assembly were broken off (see photo). With the loss of this weight the Patrie once more ascended and was spotted by a Lloyd's signal station at Torr Head on the Antrim coast. The next sighting came soon after, over islands in St. Patrick's Channel, between Ireland and Scotland. The Patrie continued northwards, where the last sighting was reported by Captain Buchanan of the steamship Olivine at latitude 58°N near the Hebrides,  after which she was lost without a trace.
caption: Approximate flight path taken by the Patrie based on recorded sightings
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