Legendary Balloon Rides
To give you an idea of how far hot air ballooning has come in since its inception, we at Sun Fun have found some interesting milestones that occurred along the way.
1783: French chemistry and physics teacher, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier was the first person to successfully get a hot air balloon airborne. This event occurred on 19 September and the balloon was given the name ‘Aerostat Reveillon’. The pilot was a brave sheep who had a duck and a rooster accompanying it. The flight lasted just 15 minutes before gravity brought the balloon back down to earth.
1960: Hot air balloon flights steadily advanced over the centuries and by 1960 astonishing records were being set. Colonel Joe Kittinger set a new record for the highest flight in a hot air balloon, going up to 102 000 feet before he proceeded to jump out. Kittinger set two records on the day, also breaking the parachute jump record.
1987: Duo Sir Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand achieved the astonishing feat of crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a hot air balloon. The pair travelled 2 900 miles in a record time of 33 hours.
1991: Branson and Lindstrand were not quite done though and became the first to cross the Pacific as well, this time travelling 6 700 miles in 47 hours on a route that went from Japan to Canada. The achievement saw them break the world distance record and at the time they were flying at speeds of 245 miles per hour.
2002: Steve Fossett put his name in the history books by becoming the first and only person to go around the world in a hot air balloon – solo! Fossett had attempted the record six times before finally completing the trip.
Find out why these pioneers fell in love with flying by going choosing from Sun Fun’s list of balloon safaris. We would be happy to tell you more about hot air ballooning while showing you the world from a new perspective.
