The car of this Lebaudy airship was boat-shaped with a flat bottom. To diminish the shock in case of a fall steel tubing was placed in a slanting position beneath it in a pyramid arrangement, the point facing downwards. The car was set very close to the envelope or body of the airship, and carried the 40 horse power benzine engine. At the front of the car was an electrically worked camera, a 1,000,000 candle power acetylene projector providing lighting by night.
Many improvements were later added to this second dirigible which was christened the _Lebaudy_. The interest of the French Minister of War was aroused and he appointed a commission from the Balloon Corps to follow the progress of the experiments.
Every one now began to look upon the dirigible as a factor to be reckoned with in the event of a war. The Lebaudy brothers offered their airship to the French government, and after it had accomplished a series of tests to prove its value as an instrument of war, it was accepted, and became a model for later airship construction.
Germany was not far behind, for already Count von Zeppelin's second airship had proved itself a success, and plans were being laid for a third. From this time on the two European nations destined to become powerful adversaries in the World War, though working along somewhat different lines, kept almost neck and neck in their struggle for air supremacy.
The French military balloon department began at once the work of constructing an airfleet with the _Lebaudy_ as a model and with the engineer Jouillot as chief adviser, this work went forward with great rapidity. The _Lebaudy_ was followed in design pretty closely, but a few changes were made which experience had suggested. For one thing the balloon envelope was rounded at the front and pointed at the rear, exactly the reverse of the Lebaudy model, as this arrangement was thought to offer less resistance to the air. It had an internal air-bag or ballonet whose capacity was one-fifth that of the envelope. This ballonet was of course empty on the ascent. It was calculated that the balloon could reach a height of about a mile. To descend, gas would then be allowed to escape, and, in order to keep the envelope fully inflated, air would be pumped into the ballonet.