Hot air balloon Timeline of Events

Home / Timelines / Hot air balloon

Hot air balloon

The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air balloon created on December 14, 1782 by the Montgolfier brothers...

Timeline of Events

1783

6.4.1783

The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their ''montgolfière'' (hot air balloon).

10.15.1783

The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon marks the first human ascent, by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, (tethered balloon).

11.21.1783

In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight.

1785

6.15.1785

Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, co-pilot of the first-ever manned flight (1783), and his companion, Pierre Romain, become the first-ever casualties of an air crash when their hot air balloon explodes during their attempt to cross the English Channel.

1984

9.14.1984

Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a hot air balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

1999

3.21.1999

Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.

2003

9.22.2003

David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon.