history of hot air ballooning

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The History of Hot Air Ballooning:

Chapter One: The First Acensions

Why flight?
Since the beginning of time, man has wanted to float through the sky like a bird. From fashioning huge feathered wings to creating complex machines, many people have tried to take to the skies unsuccessfully throughout history. However, it was the Montgolfier brothers of France that discovered the secret.

What was the secret?
The Montgolfier brothers were paper makers in France in the 1700's. It is said that one of the brothers got the idea for creating a balloon after watching an article of clothing being lifted into the air from the smoke of a nearby fireplace. Their balloon project was begun.

How did it work?
The brothers, using paper and linen, constructed their balloon. On June 5th of 1783, a crowd gathered to watch as they positioned it over an open straw fire, hoping the balloon would fill with hot smoke and float away, proving their theory. To everyone's amazement, it worked! What many spectators didn't know was that it wasn't the smoke that was making the balloon soar.

What causes balloons to fly?
In reality, it was the heat generated by the fire that caused their little balloon to fly over the countryside of France. When the air inside of a balloon is heated more than the air outside the balloon, it is less dense, and therefore rises. That explains the name "lighter than air flight" - the air inside the balloon is lighter than the rest!

Who were the first balloon passengers?
After several more test flights, the Montgolfier Brothers decided it was time to send some passengers aloft. The first balloon passengers were not people - but a duck, a chicken, and a sheep! Then, on November 21st, 1783, a physicist named Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and an army major named the Marquis Francois d'Arlandes took flight in a Montgolfier balloon. The flight was watched by nearly all of Paris, including King Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette! After 25 magical minutes of flight, they landed safely outside Paris, and with much celebration.

Chapter Two:New experiments in flight

Birth of the Gas Balloon
It was a short time later, in December of 1783, that another adventurous man, Jacques Alexandre Charles, made an ascension in a different type of balloon - the gas balloon. Charles' balloon was similar in shape, but instead of being filled with hot air from a fire, it was filled with lighter than air hydrogen gas. This style of balloon is referred to as a "Charliere" balloon, named for Charles. After one of the Montgolfier brothers sent up a small test balloon, Charles ascended safely from the Tuileries Gardens with one passenger, the Duke of Chartres. After a successful two hour journey, Charles dropped his passenger off and ascended to a height of some 9,000 feet! His success left many scientific minds to wonder which aeronaut's methods were the most favorable - the Montgolfier's or Charles'?

The first "ride balloon"
There was a great deal of interest and experimentation going on in France at this time. Everyone wnated to master this mysterious and magical art of flying. In 1784, Joseph Montgolfier launched a new, giant balloon called "La Flesselles" from Lyons. Its 22 foot wide wicker basket carried 7 passengers aloft to a height of over 3,000 feet. It is said that though the flight was a bit rough at times, all passengers were thrilled with the voyage.

Ballooning spreads across the globe
Experimental flights were now being conducted in nearly all of Europe. Both men and women adventurers built balloons to take them to the skies. Balloon mania even reached the United States, and in June of 1784, the first aerial voyage was made in the States from Baltimore. The passenger was a 13 year old boy.

After a successful free flight in England was made by Vincent Lunardi in September of 1784, a new goal was set by a pair of intrepid aeronauts - Jean-Pierre Blanchard and his companion, Dr. Jeffries. On January 7th, 1785, they completed an aerial crossing of the English Channel. The team traveled from Dover to Calais in a Charliere Balloon.

The Rozier Disaster
Another style of balloon was created, not a Montgolfier, with it's open flame, or a Charliere with it's bag of hydrogen, but a combination of the two - a Roziere Balloon. Pilatre de Rozier, following in the footsteps of Blanchard and Jeffries, hoped to cross the English Channel from the opposite direction. Shortly after his June 15th , 1785 ascension, the deadly combination of hydrogen and fire exploded, killing both de Rozier and his passenger. This was to be the first balloon related death. Much debate surrounded his death about the safety of a Roziere Balloon. Interestingly enough, over 200 years later, it would be a Roziere Balloon that would carry aeronauts Bertrand Piccard and Brian JOnes safely and successfully around the world! But we are getting ahead of our story...

Ballooning Popularity "Soars"
By the late 1700's balloon ascensions were taking place all over. Balloons were used for battle reconnaisance, a school of Aeronautics was formed in France, and balloons were called on to celebrate the coronation and the marriage of the Emporer Napolean. In 1793, Blanchard made a flight before George Washington, in Philadelphia. In 1836, a distance record of some 373 miles was set in a balloon piloted by Charles Green. He travelled from London to Holland aboard his balloon "The Royal Vauxhall".

With all the excitement ballooningmiles was set in a balloon piloted by Charles Green. He travelled from London to Holland aboard his balloon "The Royal Vauxhall".

With all the excitement ballooning spurred, would-be aeronauts began to think of greater acheivements. In July of 1859, the American pilot John Wise made a voyage from St. Louis to New York state, covering a distance of 803 miles in 20 hours. It was his dream to take his balloon "The Atlantic" across the Atlantic Ocean!

Next... A Century of Records, and the Birth of Modern Ballooning!