Episode 1 of 1

First Powered Airship Flight

Name: First Powered Airship Flight
Start: 1852-09-24
Location: Paris to Élancourt

When: 24 September 1852
Where: Paris to Élancourt
Part of: Henri Giffard makes the first powered airship flight from Paris to Trappes

Giffard flew his steam-powered dirigible 27 km from Paris to Élancourt on 24 September 1852, achieving the first controlled powered flight.

The flight utilized a hydrogen-filled airship weighing over 180 kg, equipped with a 2.2 kW steam engine driving a propeller. Giffard had theorized the design in 1850 before building the experimental instrument. The journey covered 27 km, demonstrating steerable, powered navigation.

Sources

Henri Giffard Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-27

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.