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1860s
In the civil war, union troops like the french Army before them, used balloons to spy behine enmy lines to see how battles were going. -
1875
Three French scientists, exploring the atmosphere, soared to 25,000 feet in a balloon. The men took bottles of oxgen with them, but when the balloon laned only one scientist had survived. -
1900s
The early 1900s brought the dirigible, or blimp. Made of several balloons, it was fitted with motors and propellers that let the pilot steer. A cabin on the underside held more than 100 people on Atlantic Crossings. -
1932
The man invented a way to travel safly high into the atmosphere was a swiss named Auguste Piccard, who built a ballshaped aluminum gondola.Sealed inside with oxygen tanks. he safely reached a hight of 54,000 feet. -
1961
Brave men kept going higher and higher. two U.S Navy officers, Malcomlm D. Ross and Victor Prather, Jr went up 133,740 feet in an open gondola to test space suits for astronauts. -
1999
Other had crossed the oceans, but Bertrand Piccard (grandson of Auguste) and Brian Jones were the frist to balloon non-stop around the world, covering 30,000 miles in 20 days.Thier balloon was a cross between a hot ari balloon and a gas balloon. -
Every Day
Hundreds of small weather balloons explore the atmosphere and transmit their.finding to Earth. -
present day
Planes have long ben the way to travel by ari, but you often see a dirigible carrying a TV crew above a football game or other sports event.