A French balloonist, Jean Pierre Blanchard, and his American co -pilot, John Jefferies, became the first to fly across the English Channel. This flight marked a huge step forward in the capabilities of balloons, and people were already starting to think of the possibilities that long-distance ballooning might hold.

'How posterity will laugh at us, one way or other! If half a dozen break their necks, and balloonism is exploded, we shall be called fools for having imagined it could be brought to use: if it should be turned to account, we shall be ridiculed for having doubted.'
Horace Walpole, letter to Horace Mann, 24 June 1785

Brief History

1783 - Birth of Flight

1784 - English Aeronaut

1785 - Conquering the Channel

1793 - America Takes Off

1800 - Death of the Hot Air Balloon

1812 - The Irish Question

1898 - Balloons to Airplanes

1931 - A Stratospheric Achievement

1935 - Highest Men in the World

1960 - Balloons and Parachutes

1960s - Renaissance of Hot Air

1978 - Transatlantic Challenge

1981 - Transpacific Challenge

1987 - Richard Branson

1999 - The Last Frontier

2005 - Altitude Record Broken Again