Science Art: Chasse à courre en dirigeable, by Albert Guillaume.

11 October 2020 grant Featured, Science Art 0

Scientific illustration of a dirigible hunt, a cartoon of balloons and zeppelins and blimps all aiming at a flock of birds in midair
Scientific illustration of a dirigible hunt, a cartoon of balloons and zeppelins and blimps all aiming at a flock of birds in midair

Scientific illustration of a dirigible hunt, a cartoon of balloons and zeppelins and blimps all aiming at a flock of birds in midairClick to embiggen

This is a cartoon inspired by “the experiences of Santos-Dumont,” the famed Brazilian-born aviator who maybe might have kind of sort of had a powered flight before the Wright Brothers. At any rate, Santos-Dumont went on to make records with both heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air vessels, one of the few pilots to work with both planes and dirigibles. The title (if the red jackets don’t make it clear) translates to “hunting with hounds by dirigible.” Basically, this is imagining a bird hunt done in the birds’ own domain.

This image is in the New York Public Library’s Le Triomphe de l’Aéronautique sub-collection, which they’ve packaged online like a digital book, but which is actually a gallery of images of, like, zeppelins and balloons and aeroplanes and stuff.