by Kevin R Newell

Created on: April 07, 2009   Last Updated: April 09, 2009

It all started back in 1783 when a scientist named Pilatre De Rozier sent a test balloon into the skies on the 19th September. The first pilots of this voyage were some unusual passengers which included a sheep, a duck and a chicken. Needless to say they never flew it well, as it roughly only lasted 10 minutes before coming back down again. This was hailed a success and then the next stage was to take a person on board as the pilot.

This was achieved just two months later on 21st November when a balloon built by two Frenchmen made a 15 minute flight over Paris. The brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier were the creators of the first ever hot air balloon flight. The two daredevil pilots that day were Pilatre De Rozier and Francois Laurnet. It is believed that the word pilot came from Pilatre De Rozier's name, being the first ever pilot alongside his friend Francois.

Now that there were successful manned flights over short distances the next step was to try and travel long distances overseas. The first and best choice for this was the English Channel. It was to be attempted by two very brave pilots, they were Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries. This was a big success and achieved in 1785, only two years after the first manned attempt back in November 1783.

It was also in 1785 off the back of the English Channel flight came another attempt to cross the channel but this ended in disaster, it was said that a new design was tried and the balloon blew up killing its pilot Pilatre De Rozier.

So now man could fly in a hot air balloon and cross oceans and seas, the next step was to see just how high a hot air balloon could go, could any one reach the outer limits of the atmosphere? Well it was tried and success followed in 1932 when a Swiss scientist and balloonist manned a flight up to the dizzy heights of 52,000 plus feet taking him into the stratosphere. So the bar was set for the highest point and this record was constantly broken again and again over the following months and years.

Two years later in 1935 a astounding record of 72,300 feet was achieved; this is over 13 miles! This record was kept for over 20 years before anyone could even come near to it. The next big record was broken when Joe Kittinger not only reached 102,000 feet but then parachuted back down to earth in a daring jump.

The only major challenge after this was to fly around the world. Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand tried it first coming off their success over completing the flight over the Atlantic but never made it all the way. So the race was still on and in 1999 Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones completed the around the first around world trip. Flying for 19 days, 21 hours and 55 minutes. It took them from the take off point in Switzerland and finished up in Africa.

So is this the end of the records for ballooning so far no one else has tried but watch this space there is surely more to come!

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