Hot Air Balloon History
Although, this 85-foot Mr. Potato Head Balloon might suggest otherwise, hot-air balloons have a long history stretching back thousands of years to ancient China and South America. In China, sky lanterns were used for military signaling as early as the 3rd century BC. In pre-Incan civilizations there is evidence that Peruvian funeral rituals involved sending corpses out over the Pacific Ocean by hot-air balloon, much like a Viking fireboat.
The first untethered, crewed flight occurred in Paris, France, on November 21, 1783. The paper and silk balloon created by the Montgolfier brothers was piloted by Francois Pilatrê de Rozier and Francois Laurent, Marquis of Arlanders. This fire-fed balloon reached an altitude of 500 feet and traveled 5½ miles before landing safely 25 minutes later. Ten days later, on December 1, 1783, physicist Jacques Alexander Charles and engineer Nicholas Louis Robert launched the first hydrogen balloon. They covered 25 miles in two and a half hours. The flight’s success led the way for gas balloons to become the preferred method of air travel since the gas-filled balloons did not depend upon fire to ascend allowing the balloon to stay aloft longer and its altitude to be controlled by ballasts. However, inflating a gas balloon was expensive and time-consuming so flying was not able to be enjoyed by all.
Balloon flying may not have been for the masses, but it was for the military. Mainly used for reconnaissance, balloons allowed for an elevated perspective that enhanced intelligence collection and allowed for more precise battlefield maps. Balloons were deployed in military operations from the French Revolution through World War II. In 1940, the U.S. Army hired aeronautics graduate Paul Edward “Ed” Yost to develop balloon technology as the military was interested in dropping propaganda and equipment into occupied territory. Yost would become known as the father of modern hot-air ballooning.
When his civilian company stopped working on military contacts, Yost and three colleagues formed Raven Industries in Sioux Falls, SD in 1956. In 1960, Raven Industries developed the modern hot-air balloon by equipping it to carry its own fuel in the form of a propane gas burner and tanks. Raven Industries sold their first civilian hot air balloon in November 1961, and by 1963 the first U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship event was held in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Hosted by the Balloon Federation of America, this event marked the establishment of a new sport.
Today, hot air balloons are primarily used for recreation. There are hundreds of balloon festivals and races held throughout the United States and the world with one of the most famous being the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta established in 1972.
