Montgolfier Balloon
The hot air balloon is the first successful human-carrying flight technology. The first untethered manned flight was performed by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes on November 21, 1783, in Paris — in a balloon created by the Montgolfier brothers.
The first hot air balloon in the Americas was launched from the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia on January 9, 1793, by French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard.
The Fake Russian First
In the 1820s–1830s, a fake Russian police report was “recovered” suggesting a Russian balloonist had piloted a hot air balloon fifty years before the Montgolfier Brothers. The document was eventually exposed as a fabrication — but it speaks to something important: the mythology of “who flew first” is so powerful that people forge evidence to claim it.
From Sky Lanterns to Zeppelins
Sky lanterns were in use in China from approximately 200 BC — effectively the first hot air balloons, used for military signals. The line from sky lantern to Montgolfier to Hindenburg is a straight one, technically; the cultural distance is enormous. The Hindenburg explosion (May 6, 1937, Lakehurst, NJ) ended the age of airships in one photograph.
Tags