Two Frenchmen floated five and one half miles during the
first free-floating trip into the air on November 21,1783. The world’s first
aviators were lifted approximately 500 feet high while standing on a platform attached
to a large bag or balloon filled with hot air.
Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent, called the
two Francois, flew 25 minutes over farm fields near Paris, France. They landed
safely in an abandoned vineyard without attracting any witnesses. Stories from
the period say the airborne pioneers carried wine with them to share in a
victory toast with any people who might have been near the historic flight. Undoubtedly,
the first flyers celebrated by drinking the wine themselves. 
The balloon used by the two Francois consisted of lightweight
but highly flammable materials of paper and silk. The Montgolfier brothers, two
French inventors who experimented with hot air balloons for many years, built
it. The brothers often rode their own experimental balloons that sored hundreds
of feet into the air while being held by ropes attached to the ground. The two
Francois were the first people to take a flight in a balloon that was not attached
to anything.
Hot air rises; that’s what gives balloons the lift to go up.
However, heating the air was a very dangerous part of early hot air ballooning.
The Montgolfiers used wood fires as a heat source. They placed a stove on the
balloon platform and kept the fire going with logs to provide the heat needed to
keep the balloon going.
Many early ballooners had their floating vehicles burn and
crash from onboard fires. Modern hot air ballooners use adjustable flames fed
by propane tanks as their heat source. It’s many times safer than wood stoves,
but fire remains a safety concern for people who like floating quietly into the
air. They can control the rise and
decent of their air ships, somewhat anyway, by increasing and decreasing the
amount of heat that is sent into the air bag. But the biggest disadvantage of
flying hot air balloons is that they aren’t steerable. The big air bags are at
the mercy of the wind, sometimes drifting helplessly into buildings, hills and
power lines. This inability to steer the
balloons has prohibited them from any sort of military or industrial use.
The threat of fire destroying the crafts was greatly reduced
soon after the Frenchmen pioneers made their historic flight. On December 1,
1783, just ten days after the two Francois accomplished their first flight, a gas-powered
balloon flew around Paris for two and one half hours. That air ship used
hydrogen and traveled 25 miles. That flight made the hot air type balloons
obsolete, because no fire was needed to heat the air inside the large bag.
Hydrogen and later helium provided enough buoyancy to lift
the huge bags without using any outside heat. Gas filled balloons became the
major form of flying until 1903 when the Wright brothers flew the first
successful airplane. The Wright’s invention of a powered, steerable airplane demonstrated
the advantage of an engine-equipped plane that could be controlled.
Today, hot air ballooning is more popular than ever as a
sport and recreational event. The sport is in a resurgence that started about
50 years ago and continues to attract a growing number of participants.
Hundreds of hot air ballooners and spectators will meet this month in North
Carolina at one of the country’s biggest floating bag events.
An upcoming event in my area, the annual Carolina Balloonfest is
scheduled for October 16-18 in Statesville, NC. More than 50 hot air balloons
are expected to participate in the three-day event. The public will be able to
take rides on several types of balloons that will be decorated with bright
colors. Organizers describe this celebration of hot air ballooning as the “Oldest Successful Human Carrying Flight Technology.” A directory of hot air balloon festivals across the nation can be found here.
Thanks for reading about the early development of flying.
Another interesting subject will be explored here later this month. Please see
my website at www.joevlatino.com.
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