AY Honors/Hot Air Balloons/Answer Key

The Montgolfier brothers,

Joseph Michel Montgolfier (August 26, 1740 - June 26, 1810) and Jacques Étienne Montgolfier (January 6, 1745 - August 2, 1799) were sons of a paper manufacturer at Annonay, south of Lyon, France. When playing with inverted paper bags over open fire they found that the bags rose to the ceiling.

On June 5, 1783, they sent up at Annonay, near Lyon, a large linen bag inflated with hot air; its flight covered more than a mile and lasted 10 min. In the same year a Montgolfier balloon sailed over Paris in the first manned free balloon flight demonstration made at the royal court in Versailles in August, 1783.

Only one of the brothers ever flew himself in a balloon, and only once.

The first manned ascent was made in one of their balloons on November 21, 1783, by Pilâtre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes who flew aloft for 25 minutes about 100 metres above Paris for a distance of nine kilometres.

Hot air balloons soon were surpassed by gas balloons and did not return until the 1960s when propane gas became available as a practical fuel.