Wikipedia:On 3 December 1783, he presented a historic paper to the
French Academy: "
Memoire sur l'equilbre des Machines Aerostatique" (Memorandum on the balance of aerostatic machines). The 16 water-colour drawings published the following year depicted a 260-foot-long (79 m) envelope with internal ballonnets that could be used for regulating lift, and this was attached to a long carriage that could be used as a boat if the vehicle was forced to land in water. The airship was designed to be propelled in the air by three airscrew propellers and steered with a sail-like aft rudder.