Robur the Conqueror (book)

If you remember the story, the mysterious Robur introduces himself to the world by fixing his flag in places difficult to reach (without an airship). The rest of the novel portrays his heavy-handed approach to proving he is right in defending the 'heavier-than-air' theory of flying.
Jan Mertens, 19 May 2005

Robur

In the original French (taken from Manybooks.net), end of Chapter 1 (talking about the appearance of a flag in inaccessible places):

"Et ce pavillon, c'était une étamine noire, semée d'étoiles, avec un soleil d'or à son centre."

Or in English from an E-book extract from Gutenberg

And the flag was black, dotted with stars, and it bore a golden sun in its center.

A very small image of it appears here. A rendering of Robur's airship 'Albatros' can be seen here. A third picture: a beardless Robur partly obscuring his flag

I think somewhere in the book it is said that the stars are white – something to check! In any case Robur presents his flag as that of a future, seventh continent: Icaria, home of the airborne.

Note that in the companion volume Master of the World (orig. Maître du Monde), Robur uses a Coat of Arms containing three stars.
Jan Mertens, 19 May 2005

Two more pictures of the flag:

Undeterminate colours in 11th photo;
Swallowtail and yellow stars, here.

This second pic also shows a long black streamer and I believe (haven't got the book at hand at the moment) this is a feature found in the original engravings. Very unpractical with so many screw about!
Jan Mertens, 20 May 2005

Robur the Conqueror (book)

Introduction

Robur