History of
Hot Air Ballooning
September
19, 1783 —
A sheep, a duck, and a rooster become the
first passengers in a hot air balloon launched by the Montgolfier
brothers, Joseph and Ettienne.
November 21,1783
—
The
first recorded manned flight in a hot air balloon took place in
Paris. Built from paper and silk by the Montgolfier brothers, this
balloon
was piloted on a 22-minute flight by two noblemen from the court
of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. From the center of Paris they
ascended 500 feet above the rooftops before eventually landing
miles away in the vineyards. Local farmers were very suspicious
of this
fiery dragon descending from the sky. The pilots offered champagne
to placate them and to celebrate the first human flight, a tradition
carried on to this day.
January 19, 1784
—
In Lyon, France, the
only recorded flight by Joseph Montgolfier was made in one of the
largest
balloons ever made.
September 15,
1784 —
An Italian, Vincenzo Lunardi,
made the first balloon flight outside of France. The 500 cubic
metre balloon flew from Moorfields in England and landed near Ware.
November 30,
1784 —
Launching their balloon from Rhedarium Garden, London,
another Frenchman, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, and an American, John
Jeffries,
make their first flight.
January 7, 1785
—
The same team of Jean-Pierre
Blanchard and John Jeffries became the first to fly across the
English Channel.
January 9, 1793
—
The first flight of a balloon
in North
America occurred in Philadelphia and was piloted by Jean-Pierre
Blanchard.
October 10, 1960
—
The official birth date of the modern
hot-air balloon.
The first man-carrying free flight took place at Bruning, Nebraska,
in the Raven prototype ‘modern’ hot-air balloon. The
30,000 cu ft envelope was constructed of a polyurethane coated
nylon and the burner was propane powered.
By
1963, the growing sport was
able to sustain the first U.S. national championships.
The
balloons used for passenger flights today were developed in the
United
States during the 1960s and have two main technological advances:
using
rip-stop nylon, a very safe and reliable material for the envelope
and running a LPG gas burner to heat the air in the envelope.
Ballooning began as a sport with a few enthusiasts in the USA
and England
and spread to Australia in the 1970s. Today there are over
5,000 balloon
pilots in the U.S. alone.
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