L'Intrépide

L'Intrépide ("The Intrepid") was a hydrogen balloon of the Compagnie d'Aérostiers (French Aerostatic Corps) and is the oldest preserved manned aircraft in Europe.[1]

This article is about the 18th-century French military balloon. For French nautical ships, see French ship Intrépide. For other uses, see Intrepid (disambiguation).
L'Intrépide
L'Intrépide on display at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum.
Type Hydrogen balloon
Owners and operators Compagnie d'Aérostiers
In service 1795 - 1796
Last flight September 1796 (September 1796)
Fate Captured by Austrian forces
Preserved at On display at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna
L'Intrépide or Hércule flown at the siege of Mainz (1795); print of 1890.

L'Intrépide was the larger[2] of two observation balloons, the other being Hercule ("Hercules"), issued to the Aerostatic Corps in June 1795, twelve years after the pioneering hydrogen balloon flights of Professor Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers in Paris. These balloons were used by the Corps's first company attached to General Jourdan's Army of Sambre-et-Meuse in 1796. When that army was defeated by Austrian forces at the Battle of Würzburg on 3 September 1796, the balloon was captured and taken to Vienna, where it is now on display at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum.

The balloon's silk envelope is roughly spherical and has a diameter of 9.8 metres (32 ft). Its wooden gondola is very small, measuring 1.14 metres (45 in) by 0.75 metres (30 in) and its railing has a height of 1.05 metres (41 in).[2] The balloon envelope is a replica, with the original displayed folded in a glass case nearby.[1]

References
  1. Information plaque displayed in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum: "Da es sich hierbei um das älteste noch bekannte Luftfahrzeug Europas handelte, mußte nicht zuletzt aus Rücksicht auf konservatorische Bedingungen die originale Ballonhülle entsprechend gesondert untergebracht werden."
  2. Duhem, Jules (1964). Histoire de l’arme aérienne avant le moteur. Paris: Nouvelles Éditions latines. p. 429.
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