The Flagship of the 18th-Century French Aerial Navy. I found this in Christopher Hatton Turnor's Astra Castra: Experiments and Adventures in the Atmosphere (1865), a survey of manned flight from Greek myth into possible futurity. He found it who-knows-where, except that it is a post-Revolutionary French design.
Among my favourites: this rather-you-than-me-mate early-model parachute:
... and this nifty Persian airborn throne:
Here is Turnor's frankly over-propellered idea for a future dirigible:
He concludes with this slightly tinted glimpse of the future:
Twentieth-century Revelation indeed!
I grew up with this as a coloured print and a series of others (balloon with cannon; balloon with cavalryman sitting on stag (?) etc) on my bedroom wall. I used to study them by torchlight after I'd been sent to bed. The four prints are somewhere in storage but if I find some photos I'll let you know.
ReplyDeleteExcellent -- it's obviously better-known than I realised.
DeleteHere you will find the excellent Ascension de Margat sur son Cerf Aeronaute Coco - because, why not: http://www.finerareprints.com/margat-ascending-on-his-stag-in-1817-16833
ReplyDeleteAnd here the first of the prints above: La Minerve Vaisseau Aerien destinemaux decouvertes, 1803 - http://www.finerareprints.com/vintage-balloon-artists/la-minerve-vaisseau-aerien-destinemaux-decouvertes-1803-16829
Possibly more than you wanted to know ....
Very cool! Thanks for the links.
Delete