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Aeronautics - Early history of Flying
Introduction
Kite balloons, used almost, exclusively in Germany, for military purposes,
are a combination of the elongated balloon and kite principles. Though it is
said that Laurenzo de Gusmann constructed a lighter-than-air apparatus
at lisbon in 1685, which succeeded in raising itself from the ground by
means of the lifting power of hot air, the real science or art of aeronautics
definitely dates from 1783, when the Montgolfier brothers at Annonay in
France, constructed their first balloons. They, and their co-workers Charles,
Pilatre de Rozier, Robert and the Marquis d' Arlandes rapidly developed the
spherical balloon to a state of efficiency. In the balloon used by M.M Roberts
and Charles in 1783 there were present all the details of a modern balloon with
the exception of the guide-rope and the ripping-cord. In all of Europe and principally
in France, ballooning became a great fad and object of scientific inquiry, but
languished in 1812 owing to a number of untoward accidents.
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