Have you ever sat to wonder the first trial of hot air balloon? How it was constructed and who was or were the first passengers?
This article will amaze you to know that the animal kingdom came to play a vital role in history before humans.
A sheep, a duck and a rooster were the first passengers on a hot air balloon, brave pioneers of the modern era of flying. One may think that they are just domestic animals for consumption but these animals proved us wrong by putting fear behind them showing bravery and courage in the world of flight. They put aside their differences and worked as a team to face their common enemy height and took the bold step to take the first flight on the hot air balloon the modern era of flight was inaugurated in 1783, when a sheep, a duck and a rooster boarded a prototype balloon and flew for some eight minutes.
On September 19, 1783 Pilatre De Rozier, a scientist, launched the first hot air balloon called ‘Aerostat Reveillon’. The passengers were a sheep, a duck and a rooster and the balloon stayed in the air for a grand total of 8 minutes before crashing back to the ground.
The First Manned Attempt
The first manned attempt came about 2 months later on November 21st, with a balloon made by 2 French brothers, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. The balloon was launched from the centre of Paris and flew for a period of 20 minutes. The birth of hot air ballooning!!!
Just 2 years later in 1785 a French balloonist, Jean Pierre Blanchard, and his American co-pilot, John Jefferies, became the first to fly across the English Channel. In these early days of ballooning, the English Channel was considered the first step to long distance ballooning. This was a large benchmark in ballooning history.
Unfortunately, this same year Pilatre de Rozier (the world’s first balloonist) was killed in his attempt at crossing the channel. His balloon exploded half an hour after takeoff due to the experimental design of using a hydrogen balloon and hot air balloon tied together. The next major pivotal point in balloon history was on January 7th 1793. Jean Pierre Blanchard became the first to fly a hot air balloon in North America. George Washington was present to see the balloon launch.
Ed Yost
In the late 1950s, Ed Yost took on the challenge of reviving the manned hot air balloon. While early hot air balloons flew due to heating the air in the balloon on the ground, or with an on-board fire, it was different. Yost’s key engineering insight was that a hot-air balloon could be made to carry its own fuel. The invention of relatively light burners fueled by bottled propane made it possible for the balloonist to re-heat the air inside the balloon for a longer flight. Yost’s invention improved modern hot-air balloons into semi-maneuverable aircraft.
Yost took the first modern hot air balloon flight on October 22, 1960 in Bruning, Nebraska flying for one hour and 35 minutes.
In 1987 Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand were the first to cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon, rather than a helium/gas filled balloon. They flew a distance of 2,900 miles in a record breaking time of 33 hours. At the time, the envelope they used was the largest ever flown, at 2.3 million cubic feet of capacity. A year later, Per Lindstand set yet another record, this time for highest solo flight ever recorded in a hot air balloon – 65,000 feet!
Team Richard and Per Lindstrand
The great team of Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand paired up again in 1991 and became the first to cross the Pacific in a hot air balloon. They travelled 6,700 miles in 47 hours, from Japan to Canada breaking the world distance record, traveling at speeds of up to 245 mph.
It’s interesting to see how the development of the hot air balloon has gone full circle on itself. At the very start, the first balloonists burnt materials onboard the balloon to generate heat to propel the envelope into the air. This theory then became obsolete as gas and helium designs were introduced as it was considered safer and more reliable than flying with an open flame. It is only within the last 60 or so years that hot air balloons have come back into interest.
