November 23, 1783
Human beings flew in their imaginations long before they flew in air. In myths and folktales around the world, men and woman ride giant birds and horses. They wear wings of their own and sit on magic carpets. Devising actual ways to join the birds took far longer. When man did reach the sky, he first floated in a hot air balloon.
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| First Manned Balloon Flight November 23, 1783 |
In June, 1783, Joseph and Etienne Montfolfier, sons of a prosperous French papermaker, publicly demonstrated a successful flight of an unmanned cloth-and-paper balloon filled with hot smoke. News of their invention spread rapidly throughout France. Human balloon flight was born November 21, 1783, with a brief voyage by Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes. They rode in a Montgolfier-constructed balloon, a blue sphere decorated with the golden face of the sun god, Apollo. The first manned flight by Rozier and the Marquis lasted only 20 minutes, but it proved that man could fly.
A few weeks later, another adventurous Frenchman, Professor Jacques Alexandre Charles, made an ascension in a balloon filled with hydrogen. Because Charles' balloon proved a much more practical device than the Montgolfier hot air balloon, ballooning became dominated by gas balloons. For the next 175 years the hot air balloon was virtually ignored.
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| First Modern Hot Air Balloon October 10, 1960 |
Hot air ballooning as we know it today began in the 1950's, when former aviator Ed Yost began experimenting with lighter-than-air craft. He developed the rip-stop nylon envelope and propane burner system which evolved into the popular system in use today. Now known as the "Father of Modern Hot Air Ballooning," Yost made his first flight Oct. 10, 1960, at Bruning, Neb. Since then, along with the development of balloon materials and balloon manufacturing, hot air ballooning has evolved into the safe and colorful sport it is today, drawing millions of people to balloon festivals throughout the world each year.