UPDATE: The Birth of Cross Country Flight

Pilatre de Rozier, Francios Laurent and one hundred years

[Update: Sorry, my website crashed a few hours after posting. I changed the address for the flipbook and decided to make it available to all readers. Click the button above to read it at USHGA.AERO.]

November 21, 1783: Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes, Francios Laurent, made the first aeronautical voyage with a balloon. It was a Montgolfier, or one inflated by fire underneath, the envelope being constructed entirely of paper. It was 70 feet in height and 46 feet in diameter. Crossing above Paris, they gained an elevation of nearly half a mile, and after taking fire, which was fortunately extinguished by the intrepid voyagers, descended near Passy, having passed over about six miles of country in 25 minutes.

One hundred years later, flights on smaller hydrogen balloons had become commonplace across America’s Midwest. In the drawing above, published in a 1901 issue of St. Nicholas children’s magazine (later colorized by Rick Masters), Mrs. Carl Myers, who performed exhibitions as Mademoiselle Carlotta, is portrayed calling to her husband Carl, America’s most prolific balloon manufacturer, who is drifting nearby in another balloon, as her daughter gazes peacefully at the Ohio fields far below.

Source: "Ballooning ordinary and extraordinary," Observer (London), 13 Sep 1852, page 4, and "Careers of danger and daring," St. Nicholas, Mar 1901, page 393.

As a special treat for my thousands of readers across the Internet: The entire first volume draft of Ghosts of Wind and Cloud – The Birth of Cross-Country Flight is now presented to everyone in flipbook format and updated as it is written.