In other words, the ship
being raised into the air--to the stratum immediately above the region
of storms--and maintained there by the ascensional force of the
balloons, and being forced onward by the screws, the four anterior
wings are to be opened, the four posterior ones remaining closed. The
forepart of the ship being now relieved from the downward pressure of
the air, caused by the upward movement of the balloons, this pressure
still acting on the posterior wings, its equilibrium is destroyed; the
forepart rises, the hindpart dips, thus changing the direction of the
ship's course, by converting its vertical into an oblique movement,
which is to carry it onward upon a plane inclined slightly upward.
'This operation is to be followed by its converse. The four posterior
wings are to be opened, and the four anterior ones closed; the vessel
now dips in the opposite direction, and moves forward on a plane
inclined slightly downward; and so on. Thus, by alternately opening
and shutting the two sets of lateral wings, M. Petin proposes to make
his ship sail forward on a series of inclined planes, upwards and
downwards.
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