Page:O que eu vi, o que nós veremos (1918).pdf/53

 In this line of thought; the first problem I had to solve was the possibility of carrying an explosion engine next to a balloon full of hydrogen. One night, having suspended the engine in my No. 1 a few meters high, I started it; — it was with its muffler — I noticed that the sparks that went out with the burning gas went in all directions and could reach the balloon.

The idea came to me to suppress the muffler and bend the exhaust pipes to the ground. I went from the greatest sadness to the greatest joy, for the greater the sparks, the harder they were thrown to earth and therefore away from the balloon. So this problem was solved: the engine would not set the balloon on fire.

The only thing I needed to prevent was that if the gases escaped from the balloon through the valves, they would not reach the engine. To prevent this, I always placed the valves well behind, aft of the balloon, therefore away from the engine.

The weak point in airplanes was the rudder; therefore, I always paid the greatest attention to this unit and