Thursday, December 13, 2012

French Balloons (Not French Letters)




A View of Paris in 1878… From the Air

Res Ipsa Loquitor

It’s hard to believe that humans have been flying for well over 100 years. Even when we take into account that the Wright brothers took to the air in 1903, that isn’t even old when compared to the first flights. Before the Wrights there was Octave Chanute and Otto Lilienthal, pioneering glider inventors; and before them there was Henri Giffard, creator of the first powered flying machine – a steam powered airship.

No, not hard at all ya whippersnapper.  The Federals were using balloons during the war of Northern Aggression in 1862.  Still, it is fascinating to look back in time—if it was someplace I was familiar with.   Perhaps, if you're a Francophile, you'll notice what's wrong with this picture. It's pretty obvious.  Barn Army bombardiers will have no problem.  Give up?   Here.



4 comments:

Drew458 said...

Over 100 years? You betcha: nearly 230 at this point.

TimO said...

From Wikipedia:

The brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier developed a hot air balloon in Annonay, Ardeche, France, and demonstrated it publicly on June 4, 1783 with an unmanned flight lasting 10 minutes. After experimenting with unmanned balloons and flights with animals, the first balloon flight with humans aboard-- a tethered flight-- performed on October 15, 1783 by Etienne Montgolfier who made at least one tethered flight from the yard of the Reveillon workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. It was most likely on October 15, 1783. A little while later on that same day, Pilatre de Rozier became the second human to ascend into the air, to an altitude of 80 ft (24 m) which was the length of the tether.[9] The first free flight with human passengers occurred on November 21, 1783.[10] King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but de Rozier, along with Marquis François d'Arlandes, petitioned successfully for the honor.[11][12][13] The first military use of a hot air balloon happened during the battle of Fleurus in Europe (1794), with the French using the balloon l'Entreprenant as an observation post.

Anonymous said...

Humans have been flying for well over 100 years, and boy, are my arms tired!
GrinfilledCelt

Rodger the Real King of France said...

Apologize immediately to Henny Youngman Celt.

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