More than fifty years: before the Wright brothers flew almost an entire minute in the world's first airplane, French engineer Henri Giffard (1825-1882) traveled 17 miles (27 kilometers) from Paris to Trappes in a lighter- than-air aircraft. Inspired by the streamlined model airship unveiled by.his compatriot Pierre Jullien in 1850, Giffard built his'"'143 feet (44 meter) long, cigar-shaped dirigible and got it off the ground two years later. With its three-bladed propeller driven by a 3-horsepower (2.2 kilowatt) steam engine, it was the first passenger-carrying, powered, and steerable airship in history.
The world's .most famous airship, the twentieth century zeppelin, was rigid with a shape determined by a skeletal structure. Giffard's design was non-rigid. Like a balloon, the envelope's shape depended on the pressure of the hydrogen inside that lifted the airship.
The dirigible's maiden flight took place on September 24, 1852, when Giffard—sitting in a gondola hanging, from a.
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