The History of Hot Air Ballooning
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.
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