360People fly for the first time, in a hot-air balloon
On 21 November 1783, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes rose over Paris in a hot-air balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers. They flew about nine kilometres in some 25 minutes, the first free flight carrying people. Ten days later, a hydrogen balloon also flew, and the age of flight had begun.
The brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier ran a paper factory in Annonay, in southern France. They found that a bag filled with hot air would rise, and in June 1783 they flew a large unmanned balloon in public.
In September 1783, at Versailles, they sent up a sheep, a duck and a rooster, which landed safely. This showed that living creatures could survive in the air.
On 21 November 1783, two men, the scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the army officer the Marquis d'Arlandes, took off from the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Feeding a fire to keep the air hot, they flew about nine kilometres across the city in around 25 minutes.
On 1 December 1783, the physicist Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert flew a hydrogen balloon for more than two hours. Ballooning became a craze across Europe and opened the way to the science of flight.
- June 1783
- First public Montgolfier balloon
- September 1783
- Animals fly at Versailles
- 21 November 1783
- First crewed flight
- 1 December 1783
- First crewed hydrogen balloon
Sources: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum · Britannica.