In 1903, Alberto Santos-Dumont was flying around Paris in a small one-man dirigible. Henri Rousseau - Le Douanier Rousseau - showed three of his aircraft in flight in his painting Vue du Pont de Sèvres 1908.

Santos-Dumont wrote; I determined to build a small air-ship runabout for my pleasure and convenience only. In it I would pass the time while waiting for the future to bring forth competitions worthy of my race craft. So I built my "No. 9," the smallest of possible dirigibles, yet very practical indeed. When in the spring of 1903 I found my air-ship station completed I had three new air-ships ready to house in it. This handy little runabout takes me over the Bois at between 20 and 25 kilometres (12 and 15 miles) per hour.

On Monday, 29th June 1903, I landed with it on the grounds of the Aéro Club at St Cloud in the midst of six inflated spherical balloons. After a short call I started off again. After leaving my fellow-clubmen at St Cloud that afternoon I made a typically practical trip. To go from Neuilly St James to the Aéro Club's grounds I had already passed the Seine. Now, crossing it again, I made the café-restaurant of "The Cascade," where I stopped for refreshments.

It was by this time 5 P.M. Not wishing to return yet to my station I crossed the Seine for a third time and went in a straight course as close to the great fort of Mount Valerien as delicacy permitted. Then, returning, I traversed the river once again and came to earth in my own grounds at Neuilly.