“They actually built balloons in the city railroad stations” to assist the military, according to Crouch. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), they contributed to the war effort, flying government officials out of the besieged capital, assisting in reconnaissance work, and delivering messages to the field. (It wasn’t until the early 20th century that Germany, with its Zeppelin, powered ahead of France in lighter-than-air technology.)īalloonists became celebrated national heroes in France. For about a century after that, “the French were almost always at the cutting edge of ballooning, airships, lighter-than-air flight,” says Tom Crouch, curator in the Aeronautics Department at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. The first people-toting balloons-both hot air and hydrogen-launched from Paris in 1783. Members of a cadre of French balloonists, the siblings helped bolster their country’s reputation as the balloon capital of the world. The brains behind the flying machine-Gaston Tissandier (right) and his brother, Albert-are the two standing gents (the guy perched on top of the basket’s frame seems to have gone unidentified). What’s not visible is the spindle-shaped gasbag that would have ballooned above the framework.

See the propeller on the right? Batteries and a Siemens motor provided the oomph to sail the airwaves. That floating basket actually served as the control room for the first electric-powered airship, which took flight in France in 1883. But this is no Mother Goose illustration-it represents a memorable event in aeronautics history. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Check out more images from the Library of Congress’ Tissandier collection here.The whimsical image above might conjure a nursery rhyme: the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, sailing off in a tub. Albert Tissandier (left), Gaston Tissandier (right), and an unidentified man in the basket of their airship demonstrate an electric navigational system featuring a propeller.

Afloat in france