Except for the doubling of his long balloon, Santos-Dumont’s first voyage was satisfactory, and he returned to Paris elated. He had found it easy to steer in all directions. He could change his level hundreds of feet without discharge of gas or ballast, by merely canting his balloon, and allowing it to run obliquely up or down grade. He had stemmed the wind and gone whither he pleased, at such speed as to make his clothes flutter. And best of all he had found no danger in using a gasoline motor near an inflammable gas bag. The mere buckling of the long bag was a trifle, to be remedied by using an air pump adequate to maintain the flabby thing well inflated. He felt, therefore, that he had the conquest of the air well in hand, and that he was drifting into air ship construction as a life work. Small wonder that he continued his conquests till he had built, in less than one decade, fourteen motor balloons. _Santos-Dumont No. 2_ was closely patterned after its predecessor, but was a little larger and carried a rotary fan worked by the motor, to keep the balloon plump by filling the air pocket, or ballonet. On May 11, 1899, an ascension was made from the old starting place, but in rainy weather. As the vessel rose its hull contracted faster than air could be pumped into the ballonet, the long bag doubled worse than before, and dropped into the trees with its chagrined but fearless rider. The _No. 3_, which followed, was a short, thick vessel, 66 feet long by 25 feet in diameter, having in outward appearance the features of Dupuy de Lome’s very stable and very slow dirigible. It was apparently a safety ship for a scared young man who had not yet learned fully to appreciate Renard’s elegant design. It served for a few pleasant trips, while the inventor was screwing up courage to build another cylindrical vessel, and gradually realizing the advantage of an elongated car such as Renard had employed in _La France_. Not only was the hull short and thick, but it was further secured from buckling by a horizontal stiffening pole placed between it and the basket, and from which the latter was hung. After some voyages in _No. 3_, which the captain found very tractable, and probably capable of fifteen miles per hour, he was ready to begin a new vessel.