The History of Hot Air Balloons

In the race for glory, Parisian physicist Francis Pilatre de Rozier volunteered to become the first human to go on a hot air balloon rides and to fly in a Montgolfier balloon and on November 21, 1783, King Louis XVI allowed an untethered human flight as The King of France, who had witnessed a previous eight-minute test flight with a hen, a duck, and a sheep, refused to witness the historic human event.

After several solo, tethered tests, Francis Pilatre de Rozier piloted the first flight with a passenger, Army Major Marquis d’Arlandes, in a basket with three compartments - two for the passengers and one for the burner. It made Hot Air Balloon Ride History, the flight above Paris lasted 28 minutes at a cruising altitude of 3,300 feet, writing the Montgolfier brothers and de Rozier into history.