PHILADELPHIA (WHTM) — By 1793 Jean Pierre François Blanchard was a major pioneer in the barely 10-year-old technology of lighter-than-air flight. He made his first ascent in a balloon he built ...

A watch case depicts the flight of a Montgolfier hot-air ... on December 1, 1783. The sight of the first balloons rising above the Paris skyline in 1783 had generated an unprecedented wave of ...

In 1783, hot air balloons became the first viable option for people to explore the world from the sky. In the years since then, balloon flight technology has evolved from cloth balloons and open ...