The _Ville de Paris_ showed considerable resemblance to her prototype, the _France_ of 1884, but differed from that elegant vessel in various important features. Her hull was shaped like a wine bottle with its thickest end, or bow, brought to a sharp projectile point, and its other end furnished, like an arrow, with four fixed guiding surfaces to steady its flight. These guiding surfaces were elongated, finlike, cylindrical sacs, inflated as shown in the illustration. The hull measured 200 feet long, 34½ feet in major diameter, 112,847 cubic feet in volume. Heavy bands of canvas with their edges sewed along the sides of the balloon served as flaps for the attachment of the cords suspending the long car beneath. With this long suspension the weight of the car was more evenly distributed over the envelope than in the Lebaudy balloons. An interesting improvement in this air ship was the stabilizing planes, placed above the car, fore and aft, to lift or depress aëroplanelike, thus enabling the pilot to raise or lower the vessel, also to alter her trim, or to check her pitching. As might be expected, her flight was very steady, but as the motor developed only 70 to 75 horse power, her velocity did not exceed twenty-five miles per hour. In January, 1908, she made a run of 147 miles in seven hours, six minutes, with an average speed of 21 miles an hour. Further details of construction are given in Appendix III. We now have had examples of the three leading types of motor balloons; the rigid, the semirigid, the flexible. The rigid type, as exemplified in the Schwartz and Zeppelin air ships, is characterized by its solidly trussed hull of invariable size and form to which all other parts are directly attached. The semirigid type, exemplified in the Lebaudy vessels, has a flexible hull, generally of woven fabric, with a trussed floor or platform for its ventral part, from which the car is suspended. The flexible type, as seen in the _Ville de Paris_, the _France_, and its predecessors, consists of a flexible hull entirely devoid of stiffening framework, together with a car, usually quite long, suspended from the bag directly. These are all of the important kinds in use at present. A combination of balloon and aëroplane has been tried by Santos-Dumont, Malecot, and others, but thus far has not resulted in a very successful and distinct type. Of the many powerful, swift, and elegant balloons which sprang into being after the success of the Lebaudy vessels, all could be classified under the above three types. Neither kind proved preëminently the fittest for all service, but the semi-rigid and flexible balloons multiplied most rapidly; partly, no doubt, because of their cheapness and convenience of management. We may review briefly this new crop of air ships, before turning to the novel and huge rigid vessels of Count von Zeppelin.