THE HISTORY OF HOT AIR BALLOONS
Hot air balloons date back to Zhuge Liang of the Shu Han kingdom (220-280AD) in China. These were used for signaling in the military and are known as Kongming lanterns. Albert’s Magnus who was a German philosopher also contributed with his theory of relative weights. In the 1500s Giovanni de Fontana made a object from cloth and rings of wood. His theory was if a burning brand that made lots of smoke was placed under the pyramid, the air would become lighter and it would move up.
Bartolomeu de Gusmao on the 8th August 1709 in Lisbon Portugal was successful in lifting a hot air balloon 4,5m off the ground. His balloon was called Passarola.
The first ever transportation …show more content…
An attempt was made 10 days after the first gas balloon launch but unfortunately it crashed killing Pilatre de Rozier. Sadly the first passenger of balloon flight was also the first victim. They were experimenting with hydrogen which is highly flammable and hot air compartments resulting in an explosion. On this flight they took a letter to deliver in England, this was the start of airmail post.
This tragedy did stop the Montgolfer brothers and they built a huge balloon that could carry several passengers. On the 19th January 1784 a balloon took 7 passengers to an altitude of 3000 feet. The Montgolfer brothers became very famous. Ballooning became a huge fashion with furniture, cutlery, clocks etc engraved and decorated with hot air balloons. The French Academy des Sciences were honed for their work on hot air ballooning. They also published a book on aeronautics, invented the hydraulic ram and the calorimeter.
On the American continent balloon flight was developing and the first manned flight took place on the 9th January 1793 the pilot was Jean- pierre Blanchard. George Washington observed the launch. Airships, blimps became popular until the Hindenburg, a luxurious passenger airship caught fire killing 35