The caged duck looked down as terra firma slowly drifted away. Above the duck,
a balloon, constructed of paper and fabric, provided the lift necessary to
carry aloft the duck and its companions, a sheep and a rooster. Never before
had a human, let alone a duck, flown in a balloon. The year was 1783, a
milestone year for aviation—the dream of flying had finally been realized.
On October 15th of that year, a few months after the duck's historic flight, a
balloon, 'Aerostat Reveillon,' launched in France, carrying scientist Pilatre
De Rozier, and rose to the end of its 250 foot tether. It stayed aloft for
fifteen minutes and then landed safely nearby.
A month later De Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes flew, untethered, to 500
feet and traveled about five and a half miles in a 20-minute flight, the first
'free flight' made by man. The Montgolfier-designed balloon was heated by a
straw fire that eventually caused the balloon to catch on fire, but the two
French brothers soon went on to design the first successful, unmanned (and
unducked for that matter) balloon.
Although these early crude balloons were a far cry from today's high-tech
contraptions, the science of ballooning and sending humans aloft had begun. In
the years to follow, humans had access to the skies like never before, and with
the advent of hydrogen ballooning, even the sky seemed to offer no limit. What
follows is a brief outline of milestones in ballooning history:
Posted at 01:32 pm by Dravid
