The Montgolfiers were a big family,  but two of their sixteen children really stood out: Joseph, born in August 1740 and Etienne, five years his junior. Neither showed any great enthusiasm for the family paper- manufacturing trade, with their father, Pierre. The aging father was probably wondering if his two boys had their heads in the clouds...

Joseph  didn't lack imagination. Observing the sky, he concluded that after all he could very easily make a cloud himself: so he got some paper from the factory, made an envelope, filled it with steam or smoke - and saw his idea collapse in a mass of sodden paper. Etienne wasn't about to be left out: it was probably his scientific reading that gave him the idea of making a bag float in the air with gas obtained from sulfuric acid and iron filings. Another failure. But then in November 1782, working indoors, Joseph managed to get a

taffeta envelope filled with hot air to rise to the ceiling. He summoned his brother: "Get in a stock of taffeta and rope and you'll see one of the most astonishing sights in the whole world!" It was time for serious scientific experiments to begin.

To the amazement of a group of spectators, the Montgolfier brothers soon managed to send a sort of giant paper bag some thirty meters (100 ft) up in the air, using gas obtained by burning a mixture of wet straw and chopped wool. Joseph and Etienne decided to push things further, via a "machine" for taking people into the air - an "aerostat" they called it. . A totally hare-brained idea, according to their critics. After the preliminary tryouts, the first public experiment was scheduled for Annonay on 4 June 1783, just happening to coincide with a meeting of the area's most influential people.

The town square in Annonay was packed. The fire was lit and the envelope began to fill; some of the spectators became uneasy, not least because of the horrible smell given off by the burning mixture of straw and wool. Under a menacing sky and with the wind beginning to rise, it took several men to hold the enormous balloon down until the order was given to let go. The balloon took off and a few minutes later was no more than a dot in the sky, some 2000 meters (6500 ft) up. The "aerostat" began to drift and gradually descend, since the hot air was escaping little by little. Rushing after it the local people found it in the middle of a vineyard two kilometers (a mile and a quarter) from where it had taken off.

News of the experiment traveled fast. Soon all Paris was talking balloons. On August 26 the physicist Jacques Charles sent up a hydrogen balloon from the Champ de Mars: it came to earth in a village 16 kilometers (10 miles) away, where terrified locals attacked this monster from the skies. However the first "accompanied" flight - with a sheep, a rooster and a duck on board - was organized by the Montgolfiers on September 19, from the gardens of the Palace of Versailles. And finally, on November 21, Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes climbed into a Montgolfier balloon for the first manned flight. With Benjamin Franklin in attendance.The hot-air balloon had been born and on January 19, 1784 the people of Lyon had their chance to admire the invention that began the conquest of space.

Charles' balloon was a much more practical device than the hot air balloon in the 18th century, and differed very little from the gas balloons flying today. For almost two centuries hot-air balloons were virtually ignored until the late 1950's when a balloon was built as part of a United States Government research program. This balloon was of man-made fibers and was filled with air heated by a propane flame. The modern hot-air balloon was born.

Just 2 years later in 1785 a French balloonist, Jean Pierre Blanchard, and his American co pilot, John Jefferies, became the first to fly across the English Channel. In these early days of ballooning, the English Channel was considered the first step to long distance ballooning so this was a large benchmark in ballooning history.

The next major pivotal point in balloon history was on January 7th, 1793, Jean Pierre Blanchard became the first to fly a hot air balloon in North America, George Washington was present to see the first balloon launch.

Now a large jump in time, of over 100 years: In August of 1932 Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard was the first to achieve a manned flight to the Stratosphere. He reached a height of 52,498 feet, setting the new altitude record. Over the next couple of years, altitude records continued to be set & broken every couple of months - the race was on to see who could reach the highest point.

In 1935 a new altitude record was set and it remained at this level for the next 20 years. The balloon Explorer 2, a gas helium model reached an altitude of 72,395 feet (13.7 miles)! For the first time in history, it was proven that humans could survive in a pressurized chamber at extremely high altitudes. This flight set a milestone for aviation and helped pave the way for future space travel.

The altitude record was set again in 1960 when Captain Joe Kittinger parachute jumped from a balloon that was at a height of 102,000 feet. The balloon broke the altitude record and Captain Kittinger, broke the high altitude parachute jump record. He actually broke the sound barrier with his body!

THE ATLANTIC CHALLENGE

In 1978, the Double Eagle II became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic, another major mark in the History of Ballooning. After many unsuccessful attempts crossing the Atlantic, this mighty ocean had finally been conquered. It was a helium filled model, carrying 3 passengers, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman. They set a new flight duration time at 137 hours.

THE PACIFIC CHALLENGE

The first Pacific crossing was achieved 3 years later in 1981. The Double Eagle V launched from Japan on November 10 and landed 84 hours later in Mendocino National Forest, California. The 4 pilots set a new distance record at 5,678 miles. Three years after this, Captain Joe Kittinger flew 3,535 miles on the first solo transatlantic balloon flight, setting yet another record.

In 1987 Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand were the first to cross the Atlantic in a HOT air balloon, rather than a helium/gas filled balloon. They flew a distance of 2,900 miles in a record breaking time of 33 hours. At the time, the envelope they used was the largest ever flown, at 2.3 million cubic feet of capacity. A year later, Per Lindstrand set yet another record, this time for highest solo flight ever recorded in a hot air balloon - 65,000 feet.

The great team of Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand paired up again in 1991 and became the first to cross the Pacific in a hot air balloon. They traveled 6,700 miles in 47 hours, from Japan to Canada breaking the world distance record, traveling at speeds of up to 245 mph. Four years later, Steve Fossett became the first to complete the Transpacific balloon route by himself, traveling from Korea and landing in Canada 4 days later.

Finally, in 1999 the first around the world flight was completed by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones. Leaving from Switzerland and landing in Africa, they smashed all previous distance records, flying for 19 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes.