History of Hot Air Balloons
Who Invented the Hot Air Balloon?
The history of hot air balloons begins in France in 1783. Two brothers who owned a paper mill, Joseph Michel and Jacques Ettienne Montgolfiere, launched a balloon carrying a sheep, a duck, and a rooster in September of that year. After that successful flight, the brothers moved on to manned flight and two months later, on November 21, 1783, they launched the first manned hot air balloon. The balloon, made of silk and paper, was piloted by Pilate de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes. It ascended to approximately 500 feet and stayed up for about 25 minutes before landing in a vineyard approximately 5 1/2 miles from the Paris park from which it had been launched.
Legend says that the pilots gave champagne after landing to the local farmers to alleviate their fears of this suspicious, fiery craft descending from the sky, but the National Balloon Museum in Iowa says research shows that the balloon actually landed in an empty vineyard with no witnesses.
Just 10 days after this historic flight, the first hydrogen gas balloon was launched in Paris, and the era of ballooning had taken off.
Crossing the English Channel became a benchmark in ballooning history. In the early days, this was considered an important first step to long distance ballooning. French balloonist Jean Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries became the first people to complete the crossing in a hydrogen balloon. The crossing took two and a half hours, and the pilots had to most of their ballast overboard after the balloon unexpectedly lost gas and almost fell into the English Channel. Months later, Pilate de Rozier, one of the two pilots in the first manned Montgolfiere, became the first person to die in a balloon accident as he attempted to cross the Channel.
Early Hot Air Balloon History in North America
Blanchard later set another important milestone by becoming the first person to fly a hot air balloon in North America, in 1793. But it wasn't until 1830 that the first successful American aeronaut, Charles Ferson Durant, made his first hot air balloon ascent, rising from New York's Castle Garden to drop leaflets that contained a poem he had written about the joys of flight.
The next major accomplishment in the history of hot air balloons in North America occurred on July 2, 1859 when John Wise, John LaMountain, O.A. Gager and a news reporter flew 809 miles from St. Louis to New York. The flight lasted 19 hours and 50 minutes, setting an official world distance record for non-stop air flight that would stand until 1910.
Modern Hot Ballooning Takes Off
It wasn't until 1960 that new advances in balloon technology led to a new interest in hot air ballooning. Paul Yost, who became known as the father of modern hot air ballooning, piloted the first flight of a balloon sporting a new envelope and new propane burner system he developed. The sport took off. By 1963, sport ballooning had become popular enough that the first U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championships were held in Michigan.
Today there are about 5000 balloon pilots in the U.S. who are supported by local clubs and national organizations such as the Balloon Federation of America. The sport also has its own museum, the National Balloon Museum in Indiana, and publications such as Balloon Life magazine.
For more information, see the following sites:
National Balloon Museum - The History of Ballooning
U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission - Lighter than Air
Encarta - Ballooning
BalloonZone - Short History of Hot Air Ballooning
About.com - History of Balloons
eBalloon.com - History of Hot Air Ballooning