The use of electricity for aircraft propulsion was first experimented with during the development of the airship which took place in the latter part of the nineteenth century. On 8 October 1883, Gaston Tissandier flew the first electrically-powered airship. The following year, Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs flew La France with a more powerful motor. Even with the lifting capacity of an airship, the heavy accumulators needed to store the electricity severely limited the speed and range of such early airships.