History of Balloon Flight
By Anna Mracek
The first hot air balloon rose 1,800 m (6,000 ft) on June 5, 1783. It was made of linen and paper and built by two brothers, Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier in Annonay, France. A few months later, on August 27, 1783, Jacques A. C. Charles released a balloon made of varnished silk that covered 43 km (27 mi.) and was filled with hydrogen. Later that same year, a Montgolfier balloon became the first balloon to carry living passengers (assorted farm animals) and then in November, two men, Jean-François P. Roziere and François Laurent, made the first official manned flight across Paris in a Montgolfier balloon.
After this beginning, the use of hot air balloons spread widely. In 1785 Jean Pierre Blanchard, a Frenchman, and the American John Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a balloon, barely escaping falling into the ocean by throwing equipment and even clothing overboard. The first balloon flight in America was launched in Philadelphia on January 9, 1793.
During the nineteenth century balloons acquired military significance as a means of rising above enemy lines. They were used for their intelligence capabilities and as means of transport. During the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, and both World Wars balloons were of strategic importance. During the Franco-Prussian War 65 balloons were used to remove 164 passengers—including the French Minister Léon Gambetta—and 9,000 kg (20,000 lbs.) of mail from the surrounded city of Paris by flying over the German troops. World War I saw the most widespread usage of balloons for reconnaissance artillery observation. Balloons were used in World War II for aerial warfare. Barrage balloons (small blimps) strung a spider web of cables across the sky in hopes of snagging an enemy fighter or bomber. Japan even outfitted 9,000 balloons with explosives in the hopes that they would be carried across the Pacific and fall on American cities. Only 300 of those balloons landed on American soil, falling in sparsely populated coastal regions.
A more peaceful (and productive) use for balloons is meteorological research, an occupation that has involved all manner of balloons since the 1890s. Small balloons are launched carrying instrumentation to measure atmospheric conditions at all altitudes, including the health of the ozone. The highest altitude ever achieved by one such unmanned research balloon was 51,820 m (170,000 ft.); this balloon was launched from Chico, California in 1972.
Unmanned balloons aren’t the only ones to reach high into the Earth’s envelope of air. High-altitude aeronaut ascents began in 1931 with the 15,797 m (51,793 ft.) ascension of Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard in a sealed metal sphere attached to a 14,000 cu m (494,400 cu ft.) balloon. A year later Piccard improved this altitude by approximately 1,000 meters (» 3,000 ft). In 1935 two U.S. Army captains, Orvil Anderson and Albert William Stevens reached an altitude of 22,080 m (72,395 ft). These flights were just the beginning. Throughout the twentieth century people have flown higher and farther in balloons of all shapes and sizes.
M. D. Ross and V. A. Prather, two U.S, Navy officers, set the balloon altitude record in 1961 over the Gulf of Mexico, rising to a height of 34,668 m (113,740 ft.).The first transatlantic flight touched down on August 17, 1978 after covering 5,000 km (3108 mi.) and spending 137 hr 6 min in the air in Miserey, France, and was launched from Presque Isle, Maine. It was piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Max L. Anderson, and Larry Newman.
The first Pacific balloon flight was piloted by Abruzzo, Newman, Rocky Aoki and Ron Clark, who flew together from Nagashima, Japan to Covello, California in 1981.
The first solo transatlantic flight was executed by Joseph Kittinger in 1984 when he flew from Caribou, Maine, to the Italian Riviera spending four days in the air suspended from a hydrogen balloon.
The first transatlantic race was held in 1992, with the endurance record being broken by Troy Bradley and Ben Abruzzo’s son, Richard, who were entered in the race but got blown off course to land in Morocco after 146 hours (over six days) in the air.
Steve Fossett completed the first solo Pacific crossing in 1995 when he flew from Seoul, South Korea to Saskatchewan.
Steve Fossett set the time and distance record for solo balloon flight on his around the world attempt in January 1997.
Steve Fossett was forced to land near
the village of Grechanaya Balka, Russia, at 11:27 UTC, January 5, 1998.
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