When most people think of air travel a plane is the first thing that comes to mind likely followed by a helicopter. What many people do not realize is that the hot air balloon is credited with being the first form of successful flight in terms of transporting human beings through the air.
The first successful flight of a hot air balloon carrying a person occurred in Paris, France back in November of 1783, over 120 years before the December, 1903 flight of the Wright Brothers in the first airplane. Whereas the invention of the airplane is credited with the Wright Brothers ballooning has the Montgolfier Brothers. It was the efforts of Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier that resulted in the first successfully manned balloon flight.
Initial experimentation was done with unmanned balloons and gradually as the two brothers felt more comfortable with their progress animals were introduced into the testing. A few weeks before the official human flight in October of 1783 three men (none of which were the Montgolfier brothers) took to the air in the first tethered lift off on record for a hot air balloon. Interestingly, at the time King Louis XVI of France declared that convicted criminals would be the first human guinea pigs to be sent up towards the atmosphere in a non-tethered balloon but a French scientist and French soldier successfully persuaded the King Louis XVI to let them be the first two men to go up freely in a hot air balloon.
While it was the manned hot air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers that gets much of the historical credit the earliest concepts of this sort of device actually date back to ancient China were unmanned balloons have been a popular staple in the culture since at least 220 AD. As a practical purpose of communication cloth balloons with hot air were sent up into the sky as a method of signaling across great distances for military purposes. These precursors to modern day balloon transportation are known as Kongming lanterns.
Some historians believe that the credit for first introducing the concept of hot air ballooning should not be exclusive to Europe and Asia. While hard evidence eludes archeologist there are prevailing theories that suggest ancient natives of the land currently called Peru may have used hot air balloon devices as far back as 2,000 years ago. This Peruvian date is so far back that it might predate the earliest Asian balloons in Chinese culture.
The impressed onlookers at the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade held annually in New York City can thank global cultures from bygone eras for laying the groundwork for the large inflatable Snoopy and Mickey Mouse balloons that have become staples at the annual event that is enjoyed by children of all ages.
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