On this day, November 21, 1783, the French physician Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes, François Laurent, flew for the first time in a hot air balloon. Both of them kept flying for 5.5 miles over Paris for about 25 minutes. This incident had made humans’ dream of flying come true to a great extent.
The fabric of this first hot air balloon was created by the French paper-making brothers Jacques-Étienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, the inventors of the world’s first successful hot air balloon. Humans have been dreaming of flying for a long time.
Humans have been dreaming of flying for thousands of years
Greek mythology tells of Daedalus, who created wings of wax, and Leonardo da Vinci designed flying machines and conceived the concept of the helicopter in the 15th century. However, human flight did not become a reality until the 1780s.
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Many experiments were done even before the flight to Paris.
The first successful flying device was probably not a Montgolfier balloon but an ‘ornithopter’. A glider-like aircraft with flapping wings. According to a vague record, German architect Carl Friedrich Meerwein succeeded in taking off from the ground in an ornithopter in 1781. Whatever the authenticity of this record, Meerween’s flying machine never became a practical means of flight. It was the Montgolfier brothers who flew people in the sky for the first time.
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Inspired by the blowing of a paper bag kept on fire
Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier ran a paper business in the town of Vidallon in southern France. His success allowed him to finance his interest in scientific experiments. In 1782 he discovered that flammable substances burning at the bottom of a light paper or cloth bag would lift the bag into the air.
Both brothers did many experiments before flying humans
From this incident he concluded that the smoke makes the balloon rise. In reality it was hot air that made the balloons rise, but his mistake did not hinder his later achievements. On June 4, 1783, the brothers made the first public demonstration of their discovery. By burning straw and wool, an unmanned balloon was launched, which rose 3,000 feet into the air and then fell to the ground about two miles away.
There was also an unsuccessful attempt to fly with a balloon in Brazil.
In his testing of the hot-air balloon, the Montgolfiers were preceded by the Brazilian priest Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão, who launched a small hot-air balloon at the palace of the King of Portugal in 1709. However, the Montgolfiers were unaware of Lourenço’s work and were soon overtaken by him.
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Before humans, two brothers made animals fly in balloons
On September 19, Montgolfier sent up a sheep, a rooster, and a duck in one of his balloons in prelude to the first manned flight. The balloon, painted blue and decorated with gold flowers, rose over the courtyard of the Palace of Versailles in the presence of King Louis XVI. The barn animals remained flying in the air for eight minutes and landed safely two miles away.
First the balloon was flown by tying it with ropes
On October 15, Jean-François Pilatre de Rosier conducted a tethered test flight of a Montgolfier balloon, rising briefly into the air before returning to earth. An untethered hot-air balloon flew for the first time in front of a large and eager crowd in Paris on 21 November. Pilatre and d’Arlandas, an aristocrat, took off from the grounds of the royal château La Muette in the Bois de Boulogne and flew about five miles. By doing this humans had finally conquered the sky.
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The Montgolfier brothers were honored by the French Academy of Sciences for their achievements. He later published books on aeronautics and did important work in other scientific fields.
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major events
On November 21, 1871, Moses Gale patented the cigar lighter.
On 21 November 1921, the Prince of Wales (later known as King Edward VIII) arrived in Bombay and the Congress announced a nationwide strike.
On 21 November 1947, a postage stamp was issued for the first time in the country after independence.
On 21 November 1962, during the India-China border dispute, China had announced a ceasefire.
The first rocket was launched from Thumba area of Kerala on 21 November 1963.