Although his first craft never managed to leave the ground, Godard persisted, and by the end of 1846 he had designed, built, and successfully launched several unmanned hydrogen balloons.

He and his brother Louis established a workshop in Lille where the two constructed the balloon in which, on October 17, 1847, Eugène made his first free ascent, initiating his career as professional aeronaut and aerostat manufacturer.

In 1849, Godard went to Bordeaux and met the famous British balloonist Charles Green, who flew him aboard a balloon inflated with coal gas, which was cheaper and more easily obtained than hydrogen.

On that occasion Godard signed an agreement with the Austrian government which stated that, in case of war, he would build balloons, organize balloonists companies, and perform observation ascents for the military.

Godard’s many balloon ascents in North America included launches in New York City, New Orleans, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Cuba.

The aircraft, which was called Le Géant (The Giant), had an onboard darkroom, a two-story deck capable of carrying 50 men, and an envelope capacity of 6,000 m3 (210,000 cu ft).

Later that year Godard built an even larger craft, L'Aigle (The Eagle), whose furnace weighed 445 kilograms (980 pounds) and had a volume that dwarfed that of Le Géant with 14,000 m3 (490,000 cu ft).

[8] Using work space in both the Austerlitz and East railway stations, with the help of his wife and his brother Jules, Godard built 33 balloons from October 1870 to January 1871.

[9] At the 1878 Paris Expo, Godard worked with Henri Giffard offering rides to the public in his giant tethered passenger balloon[10] at the Tuileries Garden.

[11] On April 6, 1885 at Place Saint-Ambroise in Paris, Godard organized and directed the Arènes du Sport Aéronautique, France’s first ever aviation competition.

He performed approximately 2,500 ascents in ten countries on two continents (Europe and America) setting several world records for altitude, distance, and duration of flight.