Jules Verne’s dream machine takes flight in Czech record-breaking replica
In a sports hall in the Czech town of Pelhřimov, a dream from the age of steam and brass finally lifted off the ground. A nearly three-meter-long replica of the Albatross - the fantastical flying machine from Jules Verne’s 1886 novel Robur the Conqueror - successfully took flight, earning a place in the Czech Book of Records.
Verne’s novel Robur the Conqueror was remarkably prophetic for its time. While most 19th-century aviation enthusiasts believed balloons and dirigibles would dominate the skies, Verne imagined something radically different: a heavier-than-air craft powered by rotating propellers. In the story, the mysterious inventor Robur uses the Albatross to prove that mechanical flight — not gas-filled airships — represents the future.
Decades before helicopters or drones existed, Verne envisioned vertical lift, hovering flight and electrically powered propulsion. The Albatross therefore occupies a strange place between airship, helicopter and airplane — less Zeppelin than mechanical bird.
The illustrations to the novel by Léon Benett became iconic, especially in Central Europe, where generations of readers encountered Verne through richly illustrated editions and paper cut-out models in magazines like ABC.
That explains why the team of Czech engineers based their replica on those historic drawings rather than on a modern aerodynamic interpretation.
The Pelhřimov team enlarged those designs, reproducing the cabins, cannon and propellers almost exactly.
The model was built in just six months, but its creators spent another five to six years refining the complicated system of motors and propellers needed to make it airborne. In the end, 64 electric motors powered 81 propellers, transforming a piece of literary imagination into a functioning aircraft.
Strong winds forced organizers to move the maiden flight from an outdoor airfield into the Beachwell sports center in Pelhřimov. Yet the change of venue did little to diminish the moment. As the propellers roared to life, the enlarged vision of Verne’s futuristic machine slowly rose into the air.
The project was led by Jaroslav Hrášek, who says it was a team effort.
“It was Milan Karsnak who actually came up with the idea in the first place. He said to me - Jardo, anyone can build choppers. Show us something really special – like Verne’s Albatross! That would be something! So I built the Albatross, but it would never have flown without the know-how of our engineer Jindřich Šafra. He perfected it. When we got stuck he would say –you know what the propellers need to turn the other way. “
This year marks 140 years since the first publication of Robur the Conqueror. In Pelhřimov, the fantastical flying machine from Jules Verne’s 1886 novel briefly became reality.
And the maiden flight of the Albatross replica made it into the Czech Book of Records.
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