Uploaded December 2019 | Updated September 2026, 36 minutes ago
The Montgolfier brothers had the first unmanned balloon flight (with a Hot Air balloon) in Paris on the 19th September 1783. The first manned flight was on the 21st November 1783 and by December 1783 a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral, London had beaten all others to have published a song about it, being, as far as is known, the first song about Air Travel. His name was George William Chard - who went on to become Jane Austen's piano teacher!
Balloonomania swept the country and by September 1784 there was a crowd of 200,000 to watch the launch of a manned hydrogen balloon flight from Moorfield, London - manned by the self-styled "Daredevil Aeronaut" Vincenzo Lunardi.
The military applications were not lost on Chard even then. The first cross-Channel balloon flight (foretold by Chard a year earlier) was on 7th January 1785. The first Military use of a balloon was by the French who on the 17th June 1794 used a tethered balloon (L'Entreprenant) for spotting in the Battle of Fleurus. The information from the balloon was a factor in securing a victory.
It was not until the First World War that balloons were used against Britain in the form of the German Zeppelins. Even by then, their use was fading, and powered heavier than air machines took over.
The Montgolfier brothers had the first unmanned balloon flight (with a Hot Air balloon) in Paris on the 19th September 1783. The first manned flight was on the 21st November 1783 and by December 1783 a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral, London had beaten all others to have published a song about it, being, as far as is known, the first song about Air Travel. His name was George William Chard - who went on to become Jane Austen's piano teacher!
Balloonomania swept the country and by September 1784 there was a crowd of 200,000 to watch the launch of a manned hydrogen balloon flight from Moorfield, London - manned by the self-styled "Daredevil Aeronaut" Vincenzo Lunardi.
The military applications were not lost on Chard even then. The first cross-Channel balloon flight (foretold by Chard a year earlier) was on 7th January 1785. The first Military use of a balloon was by the French who on the 17th June 1794 used a tethered balloon (L'Entreprenant) for spotting in the Battle of Fleurus. The information from the balloon was a factor in securing a victory.
It was not until the First World War that balloons were used against Britain in the form of the German Zeppelins. Even by then, their use was fading, and powered heavier than air machines took over.
