the car, the engine, and propeller are suspended.

As the rigid type of dirigible is chiefly advocated in Germany,
so the semi-rigid craft is most popular in France. The famous
Lebaudy air-ships are good types of semi-rigid vessels. These
were designed for the firm of Lebaudy Freres by the well-known
French engineer M. Henri Julliot.

In November, 1902, M. Julliot and M. Surcouf completed an
air-ship for M. Lebaudy which attained a speed of nearly 25 miles
an hour. The craft, which was named Lebaudy I, made many
successful voyages, and in 1905 M. Lebaudy offered a second
vessel, Lebaudy II, to the French Minister of War, who accepted
it for the French nation, and afterwards decided to order another
dirigible, La Patrie, of the same type. Disaster, however,
followed these air-ships. Lebaudy I was torn from its anchorage
during a heavy gale in 1906, and was completely wrecked. La
Patrie, after travelling in 1907 from Paris to Verdun, in seven
hours, was, a few days later, caught in a gale, and the pilot was
forced to descend. The wind, however, was so strong that 200
soldiers were unable to hold down the unwieldy craft, and it was
torn from their hands. It sailed away in a north-westerly
direction over the Channel into England, and ultimately
disappeared into the North Sea, where it was subsequently
discovered some days after the accident.

Notwithstanding these disasters the French military authorities
ordered another craft of the same type, which was afterwards
named the Republique. This vessel made a magnificent flight of
six and a half hours in 1908, and it was considered to have quite