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The Hot Air Balloon Experiments by the Montgolfier Brothers
The story about the inventors of the hot air balloon
When you think of aviation, you immediately think of airplanes and helicopters and perhaps a zeppelin, but a hot air balloon might not come to your mind just as quickly.
Between 1487 and 1490, Leonardo da Vinci set the first example in the theory of flying with a machine which he called the Aerial Screw. We would now recognize this as a helicopter, but he didn’t actually build the thing. He drew the design but was never able to produce his invention.
Since da Vinci produced this drawing of his Aerial Screw, humankind has dreamed of flying.
In 1782, the Montgolfier brothers started experimenting with hot air balloons that were another step in the world of aeronautics.
The first balloon
On the 19th of September in 1783, Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier started to experiment with a flight using very lightweight fabric.
Étienne made a first successful tethered effort in 1783, which he repeated seven days before the demonstration in front of the monarch at Versailles.
Sadly, the balloon opened, and he has been forced to sew it back fast. The ballon was constructed of canvas…
