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Ballooning
The first kind of air transportation was not a plan. It was a balloon. People traveled by balloon one hundred years before there were planes or jet aircraft. Those early day of ballooning were exciting, but they were also dangerous. Sometime the balloon fell suddenly. Sometime they burned. However, the danger did not stop the balloonists.
The first real balloon flight was in France in 1783.Frenchmen, the Montgolfier brother, made a balloon. They filled a very large paper bag with hot air. Hot air it lighter than cold air, so it goes up. The Montgolfier hot air balloon went up 1,000 feet in the sky.
Later that same year, two other Frenchmen ascended in a basket under the balloon. They built a fire under the balloon to make the air hot. This made the balloon stay up in the air for a few hours. But their balloon was tied to the ground. So it could not go anywhere. The first free balloon flight was in December, 1783. The balloon flew for 25 minutes over Paris .It traveled about five and a half miles.
Flying a balloon is not like flying a plane. The balloon has no engine, now power of its own. The wind controls the balloon. It goes where the wind blows. The pilot can only control the altitude of the balloon. He can raise and lower the balloon to find the right wind direction. That is how a good pilot controls where the balloon goes.
Very soon balloonists tried longer flights. A major event in the history of ballooning was the first long flight over water. In 1785, an American and a Frenchmen flew over the England on a cold, clear January day. After about an hour, their balloon began to descend towards the water. They threw out some equipment and food to make the balloon lighter. The balloon continued to fall, so they threw out almost everything in the basket even some of their clothes. Finally, after about three hours, they landed in France, cold but safe.
During the 19 century, ballooning became a popular sport. There were balloon races in Europe. Balloons were also used by scientists to study the air and by armies in war time. After the airplane was invented, people lost interest in balloons. Planes were much faster and easier to control. But some people today still like to go up in balloons. High up in the balloon basket, they find quiet. They have a wonderful view of the world below.
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