1783
The Montgolfier balloon that first carried people through the air, in a French print of 1786.Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domainscience · Europe
The first people fly
On 21 November 1783 Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes rose from the grounds of the Château de la Muette on the edge of Paris in a hot-air balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers. It was the first time people had flown free, untethered to the ground. Feeding a fire of straw and wool to keep the air hot, they drifted across Paris for about 25 minutes and came down about nine kilometres away.
Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Sending humans aloft ↗
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