On November 21, 1783 the first free flight carrying a human occurred in Paris, France in a hot air balloon made of paper and silk made by the Montgolfier brothers. In 1960 Paul E. (Ed) Yost and 3 others formed Raven Industries in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and developed the modern hot air balloon and the propane gas burner which made sustained flight possible. You can read a detailed article on the history of the hot air ballooning on the National Balloon Museum website.
We've illustrated the practice of modern hot air ballooning using photographs of some CLAS members and their balloons in operation here. This page goes back a ways; we've recently updated some of the content and photographs.
We're also happy to present the following highly readable and informative articles by CLAS member Jim Ellis: Launching, Flying, and Landing a Hot Air Balloon
Links and Resources
- Balloon Federation of America
- Ballooning Journal - The Balloon Federation of America produces a bi-monthly publication, BALLOONING: Journal of the Balloon Federation of America.
- Blastvalve - Ballooning Search Engine and Directory
- HotAirBallooning.com
- Hot Air Balloon - Wikipedia
- Hot Air Ballooning - Wikipedia
- How Hot Air Balloons Work | HowStuffWorks
- National Balloon Museum - Indianola, Iowa
The National Balloon Museum came to be in Indianola because of its association with the early days of the National Hot Air Balloon Championships beginning in 1970. - New England Air Museum - Windsor Locks, CT
Our local aviation museum, we held our 30th Anniversary celebration here, and CLAS has provided for exhibit a replica of Jean Pierre Blanchard's gondola from America's First Hot Air Balloon Flight. - World Wide Web Balloon Pages | Compiled by Joop de Wilde
CLAS Members, please send your favorite ballooning sites and links to info@ctlighterthanair.org and we can update this page together!