Even in this day and age of airplanes, space shuttles and drones, hot air balloons still
capture the imagination.
Majestic, large, and often colorful, there’s something truly incredible about watching
a hot-air balloon in flight.
And it was with hot air balloons that man first ventured into the heavens.
Despite this, while most can name the inventors of the first airplane to achieve sustained
flight, few have any idea who invented the first hot air balloon capable of carrying
a human.
Allow us to rectify this.
In the pre-modern world, there were plenty of examples that can be considered a precursor
to hot air balloons.
For example, sometime starting around the fourth century BC, the Chinese first started
using “fire balloons” or what we know today as “Chinese lanterns” as signals
during warfare, to send letters and to commemorate festivals.
Using virtually the same concept as hot air balloons, the lanterns are lifted up by a
candle that heats air.
As for a more scientific approach to things in more modern times, in early 17th century,
Galileo proved that air had weight.
After that came a series of experiments and ideas around creating something that was lighter
than air.
Considered the “father of aeronautics,” Jesuit Italian priest Francesco Lana-Terzi
drew up plans for what is basically a flying boat.
According to Lana-Terzi’s written and drawn explanations, the system used round spheres
with air vacuumed out, therefore making them lighter than air, and thus making the vessel
float.
While impractical given technology of the age, he was on the right track.
Several decades later in 1709, in front of King John V Portuguese priest Bartolomeu de
Gusmão showed off a small paper balloon that levitated to the palace ceiling.
But this was a far cry from being able to transport a human.
This bring us to the late eighteenth century when the Montgolfier brothers took up the
task of perfecting hot-air balloons.
Born into a family of paper manufacturers in Annonay, France, Joseph and Ètienne were
set for a comfortable life producing scrolls until, as legend has it, Joseph keenly observed
a phenomenon while watching laundry dry over a fire.
With smoke rising from the fire, billows of air formed in the clothes’ fabric, pushing
the garment up and creating bubbles of air.
Not quite understanding what was happening, he believed that the smoke had a special gas
in it - which he named after himself, Montgolfier Gas.
Whether that's all really how inspiration struck or not, thinking that such a flying
instrument concept could be used for military advantage, he got his brother on board to
investigate further what Joseph would later call a “cloud in a paper bag.”
June 4, 1783 was the first demonstration of a Montgolfier balloon in the marketplace of
their hometown of Annonay.
Made from taffeta, fabric and paper materials and weighing 500 pounds, the balloon actually
floated to an estimated altitude of 6,000 feet (1.8 km).
Knowing they were on to something, they made their way to Paris to showcase their invention.
And so it was that in September of 1783, King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, along
with 130,000 curious French citizens - stood in the Palace of Versailles’ courtyard to
witness a demonstration of this modern marvel.
Thirty feet in diameter, the colorful balloon was made from taffeta (a type of silk) and
coated with a fireproofing alum varnish.
It was decorated with golden flourishes, bright yellow suns (for King Louie, who was known
as the “Sun King”) and zodiac signs.
A wicker basket was suspended from the bottom of the balloon, in which resided the first
living passengers to experience a hot-air balloon ride.
While Louis XVI had apparently suggested using prisoners for this test flight, what the brothers
actually decided to use was a duck, a rooster and a sheep.
With a rousing cheer, the balloon was filled with hot air, untethered and lifted off.
After the balloon landed safely in the woods after an eight minute and two mile flight,
the animals were described as not having suffered a bit, reportedly, “to say the least, much
astonished.”
(Though we’re guessing, contrary to what was reported, this would have been a bit of
an exaggeration with regards to the duck.)
The first hot-air balloon flight with passengers was a success.
A month after animals, physics and chemistry teacher Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier
was the first human to take a trip in a tethered hot air balloon.
On November 21, 1783, Rozier was joined by a French military officer named Marquis d'Arlandes
in a Montgolfier hot air balloon.
After several practice runs to get the feel for how to work the balloon, de Rozier and
d’Arlandes finally made the first untethered flight with human passengers, leaving at 2:00
p.m. from the garden of the Château de la Muette to the Butte-aux-Cailles.
This 25 minute flight covered about 5 1/2 miles (9 km) with the balloon reaching an
altitude of nearly 3,000 feet (0.9 km).
At the completion of the flight, there was enough fuel left to have allowed the balloon
to go nearly four to five times as far, but parts of the balloon itself started to catch
on fire, so they chose to land early.
Upon landing, the pilots drank champagne to celebrate, which started the tradition still
sometimes maintained by balloonists to this day.
None other than American great Ben Franklin, who was serving as United States’ ambassador
to France, was in attendance for this historic moment when man first slipped the surly bonds
of earth.
Franklin later wrote in his journal about what he witnessed that day,
“We observed it lift off in the most majestic manner.
When it reached around 250 feet in altitude, the intrepid voyagers lowered their hats to
salute the spectators.
We could not help feeling a certain mixture of awe and admiration.
“ However, with flight came danger.
On June 15, 1785, Rozier accomplished another first - the first to die in a balloon accident
when his balloon (filled with hydrogen and hot air) exploded while he attempted to fly
across the English Channel.
And so it was that another Frenchman, Jean-Pierre-François Blanchard and his American financer for the
trip, John Jeffries, became the first to cross the English Channel in a balloon, though not
without difficulty.
In fact, as the trip progressed, it became very apparent they were too heavy, and unfortunately
for the duo, neither could swim.
Thus, they ditched their ballast bags first, then when still skimming just above the water
ditched a bag of mail they were supposed to deliver.
Next, they chucked a bottle of brandy they had overboard.
Next went a barometer, a thermometer, and a telescope.
Still not rising much, Blanchard stripped completely naked, while Jeffries decided to
keep his undergarments, but threw the rest overboard.
They also ditched their anchor and eventually steering equipment.
Yet through all of this, still they found themselves dangerously close to the water.
That’s when Jeffries later stated, “We were able to obtain, I verily believe, between
five and six pounds of urine, which circumstance, however trivial or ludicrous it may seem,
I have reason to believe, was of real utility to us.”
Even with all of this, the bottom of the basket still touched the water just as they were
coming into site of the shore.
It was at this point that the two men grabbed their cork life jackets, preparing to sink.
As luck would have it, however, a large gust of wind came up and pushed the balloon up
into the air and towards the shore.
Ultimately the craft settled over the Felmores Forest where the balloon caught some branches
and the pair ultimately safely landed.
They soon found some locals willing to lend them some clothes and give them a ride into
town.
Becoming somewhat of a celebrity, Blanchard took his balloon show on the road and became
the first to fly in a balloon in several countries.
For example, in 1794, Blanchard took off from Philadelphia in front of George Washington,
who had expressed his fascination with ballooning in numerous letters.
Because Blanchard was not an American citizen, Washington gave him a written “passport”
guaranteeing him rightful and safe passage no matter where he landed in the country.
45 minutes later, Blanchard landed in Gloucester County, New Jersey.
By mid-19th century, ballooning had been established as little more than an exciting novelty.
It was Thaddeus Lowe who first successfully showed it could be used for military purposes.
A self-taught meteorologist, Lowe was using balloons to help his studies of the weather,
but when the Civil War broke out in April of 1861, Lowe knew he could be of help to
the Union.
On April 19th, 1861, he took off in his balloon from his home state of Kentucky in hopes of
landing on the White House front lawn so he could impress President Lincoln.
Instead, he landed in South Carolina - Confederate territory.
After taking a train, he ended up meeting Lincoln in June of 1861 and convinced him
that balloons would make the perfect surveillance equipment.
On Sept 24th, 1861, he ascended more than 1000 feet in the air in Arlington and spotted
Confederate troops over three miles away.
Relaying that information to the Union, the Confederates were attacked a short time later.
Lowe and his balloon would prove to be invaluable to the Union, creating a tactical advantage
for the remaining days of the War.
Because of his constant presence behind enemy lines, Lowe is known as the Civil War’s
“most-shot-at man.”
As the years went on, balloons continued to improve and capture the imagination.
The late 20th century still had a few firsts for hot air balloons, including the first
Atlantic crossing in 1987 and the first Pacific crossing in 1991.
Finally, in 2002 Steve Fossett completed the first nonstop around-the-world trip in a hot
air balloon.
No doubt, the duck, rooster and sheep would have been impressed.
Bonus Fact: • The first ever helium inflated airship,
the USS Shenandoah, was destroyed after getting caught up in an extreme updraft, resulting
in it ascending rapidly from 2,100 ft to 6,200 ft (640 m to 1889 m) and then subsequently
being able to descend, but then getting caught up in an even more severe updraft, bursting
some of its helium bags and breaking the keel.
The ship was torn apart and crashed to the ground in pieces.
Amazingly, 29 of the 43 crew managed to survive the crash by taking refuge in three different
pieces of the ship that still had at least some loft as they descended, rather than a
free fall.
Unlucky for them, most who survived this crash later died on the Akron airship, which broke
up and sunk in the Atlantic, killing 73 of the crew (3 survived).
The Akron crash at the time was the deadliest in aviation history.
It’s also noteworthy here that the J-3 blimp sent to search for survivors of the Akron
crash also crashed into the ocean, though in this case only two people died.
Fool me once…
It’s also noteworthy that the USS Shenandoah would not have been destroyed at all had Commander
Lansdowne’s superiors listened to him.
The flight it was destroyed in was made under protest as Commander Lansdowne knew that late
Summer weather in Ohio often had weather conditions unsuitable for flying an airship through.
However, because of the expense of the airship, military brass felt that they couldn’t afford
delays or a cancellation of the flight as the airship had been extremely expensive and
they needed to show it off to help sway taxpayers to view the ship
more favorably.