Patrie
The Lebaudy Patrie was a semi-rigid airship built for the French army in Moisson, France, by sugar manufacturers Lebaudy Freres. Designed by Henri Julliot, the company's chief engineer, the Patrie was completed in November 1906 and handed over to the military the following month, thus becoming the first airship ordered and taken on 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, before the Patrie was transferred to her operational base at Verdun, near the German border, in November 1907.
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 was carried away by the wind. After crossing the English Channel and passing unseen through English airspace during the night, the Patrie was sighted over Wales and Ireland on 1 December. She made a brief landfall near Belfast, before rising again to be blown out over the Atlantic Ocean. Following a sighting from a steamer off the Hebrides, she was lost without a trace.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia