|
|
|
|
Ballooning
Night Ballooning
Balloon Exhibition
Balloon Take-off
|
The first manned balloon flight took place on 21 November 1783. King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but a young physicist named Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis Francois d'Arlandes successfully petitioned for the honour. Hot air balloons were basically paper bags with a smoky fire built on a grill attached to the bottom, so they had a tendency to catch fire and be destroyed on landing! After the invention of the hydrogen balloon, hot air ballooning faded into obscurity, until being reborn in the 1960s.
Balloons were the first manifestation of air power. They were used by the North for artillery observation in the American Civil War and were used for communication during the Siege of Paris in 1871. They were also used for observation of trench warfare in World War I. |
View all headlines