On June 4th, 1783, the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne, made history by launching the first hot air balloon carrying living beings. The balloon, constructed from paper and silk, took flight from the marketplace in Annonay, France, with a rather unusual crew: a sheep, a duck, and a rooster.
The Montgolfier brothers had been experimenting with the concept of hot air rising, and they believed that they could harness this principle to create a flying machine. Their balloon was heated by burning a mixture of straw and wood, which caused the air inside to expand and become less dense than the surrounding air, thus creating lift.
The choice of animals for this pioneering flight was not random. The sheep was believed to have a physiological system similar to humans, the duck was expected to be unharmed by being at high altitude since it could already fly, and the rooster was included as a control, as it was a bird that did not fly at high altitudes.
The balloon reached an estimated height of 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) and traveled for about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) before safely landing with all three animals unharmed. This event marked a significant milestone in the history of aviation, as it demonstrated that living beings could survive the ascent and descent in a balloon.
The success of this flight paved the way for further advancements in ballooning, with the first manned untethered flight taking place just a few months later on November 21, 1783, by Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes. The Montgolfier brothers' innovative spirit and their historic flight with the sheep, duck, and rooster will forever be remembered as a pivotal moment in the annals of aviation history.
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