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1st Hot Air Balloon Flight
French scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier famously launched the first hot air balloon carrying a duck, a sheep, and a cockerel. The balloon is given a lift by hot air but also has a compartment of helium or hydrogen in the top of the balloon. The flight lasted for 15 minutes. -
1st Manned Hot Air Balloon Flight
Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes fly from Paris in a ‘hot air’ balloon created out of paper-lined cloth by wealthy brothers and papermakers Jacques Étienne and Joseph Michel Montgolfier -
1st Hot Air Balloon Flight in America
Jean-Pierre Blanchard completed the first balloon flight in North America, flying from Philadelphia to Gloucester County, New Jersey. -
1st Long Distance Hot Air Balloon Flight
The Great Balloon of Nassau (85,000 cubic ft in size) was flown by UK balloon enthusiast Charles Green 500 mi from London to Weilburg in Germany in 18 hours. -
Hot Air Balloons Used For War
Another first in the history of hot air balloons when they were used for military observation during Franco-Prussian War. A French Minister escapes the war on a Paris ballon. -
Hot Air Ballooning Grows as a Sport
Interest in ballooning as a sport grew thanks to the annual Gordon Bennett Balloon Trophy Races. Founded by American journalist James Gordon Bennett when a group of hydrogen gas balloons flew from Paris, it first took place in 1906, pausing only for World War II and continues today. -
Landmark Distance Record
The Berliner hot air balloon flew 3,052 km from Bitter field in Germany to Perm in Russia. -
Hot Air Balloons Used for World War I
Both sides used balloons for military observation during the war from 1914 to 1918. -
1st Gas Hot Air Balloon Flight to the Stratosphere
Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard flew to the Stratosphere at 51,793 ft in a metal cabin carried by a hydrogen gas balloon. The next year he reached 54,156 ft. -
Modern Hot Ballooning Era Takes Off
Edward Yost invented a propane burner that changes ballooning from gas power to hot air.
A hot air balloon using the burner successfully flew in Nebraska, USA. -
Highest Ever Gas Hot Air Balloon Flight
After several successful attempts to better Auguste Piccard’s record by others, Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather achieved an incredible 113,775 ft. -
The Next Generation for Hot Air Ballooning
The 1970s and 80s see the development of new synthetic materials and lighter burners, allowing ballooning to become a popular modern sport and marking another new age in the history of hot air balloons.