The History of Hot Air Ballooning
History Pages
- Brief History
- 1783 - Birth of Flight
- 1784 - English Aeronaut
- 1785 - Conquering the Channel
- 1793 - America Takes Off
- 1800 - Death of the Hot Air Balloon
- 1812 - The Irish Question
- 1898 - Balloons to Airplanes
- 1931 - A Stratospheric Achievement
- 1935 - Highest Men in the World
- 1960 - Balloons and Parachutes
- 1960s - Renaissance of Hot Air
- 1978 - Transatlantic Challenge
- 1981 - Transpacific Challenge
- 1987 - Richard Branson
- 1999 - The Last Frontier
- 2005 - Altitude Record Broken Again
1785 – Conquering the Channel
A French balloonist, Jean Pierre Blanchard, and his American co -pilot, John Jefferies, became the first to fly across the English Channel. This flight marked a huge step forward in the capabilities of balloons, and people were already starting to think of the possibilities that long-distance ballooning might hold.
‘How posterity will laugh at us, one way or other! If half a dozen break their necks, and balloonism is exploded, we shall be called fools for having imagined it could be brought to use: if it should be turned to account, we shall be ridiculed for having doubted.’
Horace Walpole, letter to Horace Mann, 24 June 1785
