Alberto Santos-Dumont dirigible No.6 of 1898 was powered by a petrol motor of 12 hp. After some tethered trials on September 5th, 1901 Santos-Dumont made his first flight in the airship on 6 September. A series of mishaps ended with a hard landing which damaged the gondola. This accident, shown in the photo, took place at Gare des Coteaux in Saint-Cloud, west of central Paris and close to Santos-Dumont’s home base.
It was soon repaired and October 19th won the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize of 125,000 francs to the first machine capable of flying from the Aéro-Club de France’s flying field at Parc Saint-Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back to the starting point; a distance of 7 miles, which he accomplished in thirty minutes. The ship had a length of 22 metres, a diameter of 6 metres and was powered by a Buchet four-cylinder inline water-cooled engine of 12 hp.
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