To fly in a balloon is an experience in itself and most likely the utmost and gentlest realization of the old dream of flying.
Traditional and timeless fascination accompanies the gentle giants in the air and on the ground alike.
Now, those who have been fortunate enough to have entered a ballon basket and conquered the sky, experienced the gentle rising between reality and dream, they absorbed the unforgettable, which for many is still an ambition of a lifetime.
In the 17th Century the buoyancy of hot air was already known. At that time men tried to realize the dream of flying with containers of hot air, which unfortunately paralized the buoyancy by their own weight.
The Italian clergyman Francesco Lana de Terzi got the idea of replacing hot air by vacuum. He imagined airless spheres of copper with a diameter of 7,5 meters.
The weight of one sphere would amount to 180 kg, the displaced air 290 kg, so there would be a buoyancy of 110 kg, as de Terzi calculated. Four of those bodies would be able to carry a light boat with six passengers through the air, navigated by sails. The inventor failed, because the air pressure compressed the thin copper-balls simultaneously to the sucked out air. |
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In 1742 Jaques Rousseau defined the problem: You have to find a body, which is lighter than the similar volume of air, so that it could rise. But how to prevent a non-stop rising? And how could one increase the weight to get it down again?
The solution was found by the Montgolfier brothers: In 1783, on the 5th of July, they blew up the first unmanned „air-ball“ in front of the surprised audience at Vivrais. It was made of canvas, glued with paper, with a diameter of 10 meters. This was heated by a fire on the ground.
The first flight passengers were a rooster, a duck and a sheep. These three pioneers raised in a balloon, followed by the eyes of the entire court of Versailles on the 19th of September 1783.
Two months later, on the 21st November, the Montgolfier brothers successfully started the first manned flight in a beautiful painted balloon.
It lasted 25 minutes and was the beginning of aviation...
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