Aviation 1 Flashcards
First unmanned, balloon flight?
June 1783
Montgolfier Brothers launched a hot-air balloon in France.
Who were the Montgolfier Brothers?
Worked in family papermill.
Believed that they discovered “Montgolfier Gas”
First hot-air balloon?
Created by the Montgolfier Brothers
1,800 buttons
Hot air leaked through the rag paper (made of cotton fiber)
Straw and wool burner
First free flight in a balloon?
November, 1783. Pilatre de Rozier.
Convinced the King of France not to send up a criminal for the first flight.
Covered 5 miles in 25 minutes.
First aviation death?
June 1785. Rozier died over the English Channel.
He tried to combine hot air with hydrogen.
Pilatre de Rozier
“First to fly 1783
First to die 1785”
First hydrogen balloon?
December 1783. JAC Charles.
Rubberized balloon, didn’t leak.
Went up 5,000 ft. Scared out of flying.
Ornithopter?
Developed by Leonardo Da Vinci in the early 1500’s
“Bird” plane
Which two historic flights did Benjamin Franklin witness?
1st untethered, passenger flight in a balloon (Rozier)
1st untethered, passenger flight in America (Blanchard)
Jean Blanchard
January 1785 - first flight across the English Channel
January 1793 - first balloon flight in the U.S.
1808 - died after 50 ft fall from a ballon, b/c of a heart attack
First flight over the English Channel
January 1785, Jean Blanchard
“Almost naked as the trees,” w/ John Jefferies (who was into meteorology, Blanchard’s employer, and almost tricked out of the flight).
First balloon flight in the U.S.
January 1793, Jean Blanchard
Philadelphia Prison. Ben Franklin and George Washington were there.
First military use of the hot-air balloon
French Army, 1794
Napoleon used balloons for recon missions
Napoleonic wars later hindered French aviation
Use of balloons in the Civil War
1860’s Union used balloons against the Confederates
Attached balloon to a barge, first cargo carrier
Hindenburg Disaster
1937
Used hydrogen, because U.S. stopped selling helium to the Germans
