21 November 1783: First Manned Balloon Flight
On November 21, 1783, humanity took its first untethered flight when Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis dArlandes rose above Paris in a hot air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers.
The Montgolfier brothers were paper manufacturers who observed that heated air caused paper bags to rise. They had earlier demonstrated with a flight carrying a sheep, duck, and rooster.
The balloon was seventy feet tall and decorated with gold. A fire of straw and wool burning beneath provided lift. For twenty-five minutes, the aeronauts drifted over Paris.
Benjamin Franklin witnessed the event and immediately grasped its implications for transportation and warfare. Within months, balloon flights were conducted across Europe.
The age of flight had begun. Though powered flight was still 120 years away, humanity had proven that the sky was no longer a barrier.
