THE AIR-SHIP IN WAR
On Saturday morning, 11th July 1903, at about 10 A.M., the wind blowing
at the time in gusts, I accepted a wager to go to luncheon at the sylvan
restaurant of "The Cascade" in my little "No. 9" air-ship. While the
"No. 9," with its egg-shaped balloon, and motor of but 3 horse-power,
was not built for speed--or, what amounts to the same thing, for
battling with the wind--I thought that I could do it. Reaching my
station at Neuilly St James at about 11.30 A.M. I had the little craft
brought out and carefully weighed and balanced. It was in perfect
condition, having lost none of its gas from the previous day. At 11.50 I
started off. Fortunately, the wind came to me head-on as I steered for
"The Cascade." My progress was not rapid, but I, nevertheless, met my
friends on the lawn of that café-restaurant of the Bois de Boulogne at
12.30 noon. We took our luncheon, and I was preparing to depart when
began an adventure that may take me far.
As everybody knows, the restaurant of "The Cascade" is close to
Longchamps. While we lunched, officers of the French army engaged in
marking out the positions of the troops for the grand review of the 14th
of July observed the air-ship on the lawn and came to inspect it.
"Shall you come to the review in it?" they asked me. The year previous
there had been question of such a demonstration in presence of the army,
but I had hesitated for reasons that may be readily divined. After the
visit of the King of England I was asked on every hand why I had not
brought out the air-ship in his honour, and the same questions had
arisen in anticipation of the visit of the King of Italy, who had been
expected to be present at this review.
I answered the officers that I could not make up my mind; that I was not
sure how such an apparition would be viewed; and that my little "No.
9"--the only one of my fleet actually "in commission"--not being built
for battling with high winds I could not be sure to keep an engagement
in it.
[Illustration: "No. 9." OVER BOIS DE BOULOGNE]
"Come and choose a place to land," they said; "we will mark it out
for you in any case." And, as I continued to insist on my uncertainty
of being present, they very courteously picked out and marked a place
for me themselves, opposite the spot to be occupied by the President of
the Republic, in order that M. Loubet and his staff might have a perfect
view of the air-ship's evolutions.
"You will come if you can," the officers said. "You need not fear to
make such a provisional engagement, for you have already given your
proofs."
I hope I shall not be misunderstood when I say that it may be possible
that those superior officers did good work for their army and country
that morning--because, in order to begin, one must make a beginning--and
I should scarcely have ventured to the review without some kind of
invitation.
Venturing to the review, as I did in consequence, a whole train of
events followed.
In the early morning of 14th July 1903, as the "No. 9" was weighed and
balanced, I was nervous lest some unforeseen thing might happen to it
in my very grounds. One is often thus on great occasions, and I did not
seek to conceal it from myself that this--the first presentation of an
air-ship to any army--would be a great occasion.
On ordinary days I never hesitate to mount from my grounds, over the
stone wall and the river, and so on to Bagatelle. This morning I had the
"No. 9" towed to the railing of Bagatelle by means of its guide rope.
At 8.30 A.M. I called: "Let go all!" Rising, I found my level course at
an altitude of less than 100 metres (330 feet), and in a few moments was
circling and manoeuvring above the heads of the soldiers nearest to me.
Thence I passed over Longchamps, and arriving opposite the president I
fired a salute of twenty-one blank revolver cartridges.
I did not take the place marked out for me. Fearing to disturb the good
order of the review by prolonging an unusual sight I made my evolutions
in the presence of the army last, all told, less than ten minutes.
After this I steered for the polo grounds, where I was congratulated by
numbers of my friends.
[Illustration: "No. 9." AT MILITARY REVIEW, JULY 14, 1903]
These congratulations I found the next day repeated in the Paris
papers, together with conjectures of all kinds concerning the use of
the air-ship in war. The superior officers who came to me at "The
Cascade" that morning had said: "It is practical, and will have to be
taken account of in war."
"I am entirely at your service!" had been my answer at the time; and
now, under these influences, I sat down and wrote to the Minister of
War, offering, in case of hostilities with any country save those of
the two Americas, to put my aerial fleet at the disposition of the
Government of the Republic.
In doing this I merely put into formal written words the offer which
I certainly should feel bound to make in case of the breaking out of
such hostilities at any future time during my residence in France. It
is in France that I have met with all my encouragement; in France and
with French material I have made all my experiments; and the mass of
my friends are French. I excepted the two Americas because I am an
American, and I added that in the impossible case of a war between
France and Brazil I should feel bound to volunteer my services to the
land of my birth and citizenship.
A few days later I received the following letter from the French
Minister of War:--
REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE,
PARIS, _le 19 Juillet 1903_.
MINISTERE DE LA GUERRE,
CABINET DU MINISTRE.
MONSIEUR,--During the Review of the Fourteenth of July, I
had remarked and admired the ease and security with which the
balloon you were steering made its evolutions. It was impossible
not to acknowledge the progress which you have given to aerial
navigation. It seems that, thanks to you, such navigation must,
henceforward, lend itself to practical applications, especially
from the military point of view.
I consider that, in this respect, it may render very
substantial services in time of war. I am very happy, therefore,
to accept the offer which you make, of putting, in case of need,
your aerial flotilla at the disposition of the Government of
the Republic, and, in its name, I thank you for your gracious
proposition, which shows your lively sympathy for France.
I have appointed Chief of Battalion Hirschauer, commanding
the Battalion of Balloonists in the First Regiment of Engineers,
to examine, in agreement with you, the dispositions to take
for putting the intentions you have manifested into execution.
Lieutenant-Colonel Bourdeaux, Sous-Chef of my Cabinet, will also
be associated with this superior officer, in order to keep me
personally aware of the results of your joint labours.
Recevez, Monsieur, les assurances de ma considération la
plus distinguée.
(Signed) General Andre.
A Monsieur Alberto Santos-Dumont.
On Friday, 31st July 1903, Commandant Hirschauer and Lieutenant-Colonel
Bourdeaux spent the afternoon with me at my air-ship station at Neuilly
St James, where I had my three newest air-ships--the racing "No. 7,"
the omnibus "No. 10," and the runabout "No. 9"--ready for their study.
Briefly, I may say that the opinions expressed by the representatives
of the Minister of War were so unreservedly favourable that a practical
test of a novel character was decided to be made. Should the air-ship
chosen pass successfully through it the result will be conclusive of its
military value.
Now that these particular experiments are leaving my exclusively private
control I will say no more of them than what has been already published
in the French press. The test will probably consist of an attempt to
enter one of the French frontier towns, such as Belfort, or Nancy, on
the same day that the air-ship leaves Paris. It will not, of course, be
necessary to make the whole journey in the air-ship. A military railway
waggon may be assigned to carry it, with its balloon uninflated, with
tubes of hydrogen to fill it, and with all the necessary machinery and
instruments arranged beside it. At some station a short distance from
the town to be entered the waggon may be uncoupled from the train, and
a sufficient number of soldiers accompanying the officers will unload
the air-ship and its appliances, transport the whole to the nearest open
space, and at once begin inflating the balloon. Within two hours from
the time of quitting the train the air-ship may be ready for its flight
to the interior of the technically-besieged town.
Such may be the outline of the task--a task presented imperiously to
French balloonists by the events of 1870-1, and which all the devotion
and science of the Tissandier brothers failed to accomplish. To-day
the problem may be set with better hope of success. All the essential
difficulties may be revived by the marking out of a hostile zone around
the town that must be entered; from beyond the outer edge of this zone,
then, the air-ship will rise and take its flight--across it.
Will the air-ship be able to rise out of rifle range? I have always
been the first to insist that the normal place of the air-ship is
in low altitudes, and I shall have written this book to little
purpose if I have not shown the reader the real dangers attending any
_brusque_ vertical mounting to considerable heights. For this we have
the terrible Severo accident before our eyes. In particular, I have
expressed astonishment at hearing of experimenters rising to these
altitudes without adequate purpose in their early stages of experience
with dirigible balloons. All this is very different, however, from a
reasoned, cautious mounting, whose necessity has been foreseen and
prepared for.
To keep out of rifle range the air-ship will but seldom be obliged
to make these tremendous vertical leaps. Its navigator, even at a
moderate altitude, will enjoy a very extended view of the surrounding
country. Thus he will be able to perceive danger afar off, and take
his precautions. Even in my little "No. 9," which carries only 60
kilogrammes (132 lbs.) of ballast, I could rise, materially aided by my
shifting weights and propeller, to great heights. If I have not done so
it is because it would have served no useful purpose during a period of
pleasure navigation, while it would but have added danger to experiments
from which I have sought to eliminate all danger. Dangers like these are
to be accepted only when a good cause justifies them.
The experiments above named are, of course, of a nature interesting
warfare by land. I cannot abandon this topic, however, without
referring to one unique maritime advantage of the air-ship. This is
its navigator's ability to perceive bodies moving beneath the surface
of the water. Cruising at the end of its guide rope, the air-ship will
carry its navigator here and there at will at the right height above the
waves. Any submarine boat, stealthily pursuing its course underneath
them, will be beautifully visible to him, while from a warship's deck
it would be quite invisible. This is a well-observed fact, and depends
on certain optical laws. Thus, very curiously, the twentieth century
air-ship must become from the beginning the great enemy of that other
twentieth century marvel--the submarine boat--and not only its enemy
but its master. For, while the submarine boat can do no harm to the
air-ship, the latter, having twice its speed, can cruise about to find
it, follow all its movements, and signal them to the warships against
which it is moving. Indeed, it may be able to destroy the submarine boat
by sending down to it long arrows filled with dynamite, and capable of
penetrating to depths underneath the waves impossible to gunnery from
the decks of a warship.