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Balloon Flying Menu > Introduction to Ballooning >
History
The first manned aircraft was a hot air balloon.This
balloon was built by the Montgolfier Brothers and flown by Pilatre
de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes on November 21, 1783,
in France, over 120 years before the Wright Brothers’
first flight.The balloon envelope was paper, and the fuel was
straw which was burned in the middle of a large circular basket.
Only 10 days later, Professor Jacques Charles launched the first
gas balloon made of a varnished silk envelope filled with hydrogen.
Thus, the two kinds of balloons flown today—hot air and
gas—were developed in the same year.
Gas ballooning became a sport for the affluent
and flourished on a small scale in Europe and the United States.
Gas balloons were used by the military in the Siege of Paris,
the U.S. Civil War, and World Wars I and II. In the last few
decades, gas ballooning has been practiced primarily in Europe,
particularly in the town of Augsburg, Germany, where an active
club has arranged with a local factory to purchase hydrogen
gas at a low price.
At the turn of the century, the smoke balloon—a
canvas envelope heated by a fire on the ground— was a
common county fair opening event. Today, there are only a few
people who have ridden on the trapeze of a smoke balloon (called
a hot air balloon without airborne heater). After the initial
climb—about 3,000 feet per minute (FPM)—the hot
air cools and the rider separates from the balloon, deploying
a parachute to return to earth.Two chase crews were standard,
one for the performer and one for the envelope.
In the 1950s, the U.S. Navy contracted with
the General Mills Company to develop a small hot air balloon
for military purposes. The Navy never used the balloon, but
the project created the basis for the modern hot air balloon.
With the use of modern materials and technology, hot air ballooning
has become an increasingly popular sport.
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