Saturday, October 15

Full of hot air


Two important dates should be noted today in the history of aviation:

  • Oct. 15, 1783 – The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon made its first human ascent with Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier in a tethered balloon. It made its first non-tethered flight with a human on Nov. 21, 1783.

  • Oct. 15, 1910 – The airship America launched from Atlantic City, N.J., in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft. The airship had gone east of New Hampshire and south of Nova Scotia when the engines failed and it drifted south. Thirty-three hours and 1,370 miles later, the crew were rescued west of Bermuda. The first successful aerial crossing of the Atlantic came nine years later.




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