Jean Mathieu’s Aerostatic Balloon

Jean Mathieu’s 1784 design for a finned balloon, titled Nouvelle Forme de Globe Aërostatique.

This is a 1784 design by Jean Mathieu for a finned balloon. It’s called Nouvelle Forme de Globe Aërostatique, which means New Shape for an Aerostatic Balloon. It’s an interesting one, because it’s unclear how it’s supposed to propel itself through the air. This illustration was published in the 1922 work L’Aéronautique des origines à 1922, and it appears this is the only documentation of the design we have.[1] The design consists of an ellipsoidal balloon with a small basket underneath, housing two pilots, as well as two side hoods and one rear fin. The fin appears to be controllable due to the hinge joint where it meets the balloon, but it’s unclear exactly how. Also unclear is what the two side hoods are for. It looks like there may be a paddle-wheel-style propeller housed inside the hood, which seems to be how the craft propels itself, but we don’t see any controls for it. Other than the ropes that attach the basket to the balloon, there’s no mechanics present to suggest a steering or propulsion system that connects down to the basket. For this to function, some sort of mechanical system would need to be present inside of the balloon, and it would need to connect down to the pilots in some way. Perhaps some of the ropes that extend up into the balloon are meant to control it’s movement?

I feel like this design wasn’t fully worked out, which would explain some of the ambiguity of it’s operation. Alternatively, it may have been an aesthetic choice to hide the mechanics in order to streamline the overall look. This would make sense, but in the end it just looks undercooked. Either way, it’s an intriguing design and I like the paddle-wheel-style propulsion.

Read more about other ideas for flying machines here.


[1]: De la Vaulx, Comte, Paul Tissandier and Charles Dollfus. L’Aéronautique des origines à 1922. Paris: H. Floury, 1922. 34.