The Italian government brought forth, in the summer of 1909, a swift and elegant auto balloon showing considerable originality of design. It has a porpoise-shaped hull of 2,500 cubic meters capacity, divided into seven compartments, so as to obviate the accident which wrecked the _République_. An ample keel along the rear bottom, and large aëroplane surfaces at the stern, serve to guide and steady the vessel. Propelled by twin screws well above a short car, she readily attained thirty miles an hour, carrying four persons. On October 31st, starting on her seventeenth voyage, she cruised from the aëronautic park, Vigna de Vale, near Rome, to Naples and back to Rome by ten o’clock at night, having sailed over the edge of the Mediterranean Sea and over the French squadron in the bay, remaining fourteen hours in the air and traversing 520 kilometers, or 323 miles. It was one of the finest voyages of the year. Further details of this Italian military dirigible _No. I bis_, together with illustrations, are given in _Aërophile_ for January 15, 1910, together with its prototype the dirigible _No. I_, which maneuvered so successfully in 1908. England and America all along had pursued an oriental, or semicivilized, policy toward the auto balloon, languidly watching the progress elsewhere, and hoping some time to enjoy the fruition, if not the glory, of the costly and successful experiments made in other countries. In 1909, however, the British government appropriated nearly $400,000 for aëronautics, and the United States House of Representatives voted $500,000, but promptly reversed its action, and gave nothing, though it may be said that even then there was a growing sentiment in favor of a more liberal policy. The movement to secure the beginning of an aërial fleet in England is summarized in the following paragraph.[16] PLATE VI. [Illustration: _LA BELGIQUE._] [Illustration: ITALIAN MILITARY DIRIGIBLE _NO. I BIS_.] “The naval authorities were entrusted with the building of a rigid ship, whilst to the military department was delegated the work of building non-rigid and semi-rigid ships. A national air-ship fund was organized by the _Morning Post_ with the object of purchasing a French Lebaudy semi-rigid dirigible which would be presented to the War Office; whilst Mr. Arthur du Cros and other members of the Parliamentary Aërial Committee arranged for a _Clément_ non-rigid air ship of new design, to sail from Paris to London, and also to qualify for purchase as a unit of the British aërial fleet.”