INVENTION
Man’s First Flight G.B.Sharma
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or time immemorial, man has dreamt of flight. Daedalus of Greek mythology made wings of wax, and Leonardo da Vinci drew designs of flying machines and visualised the concept of a helicopter in the 15th century. And it became a reality three centuries later.
Man’s tryst with the sky began on June 05, 1783, when two brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier launched a hot air balloon at Annonay, France. This huge balloon with a diameter of 33 feet (10 meters) had nobody aboard. The balloon rose 5200 to 6600 feet and stayed aloft for 10 minutes and travelled a little more than 2 kilometres. Word quickly spread, and a demonstration for the king of France was planned. For this flight, the brothers sought the help of Jean-Baptiste Réveillon, a
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June - July 2020
wallpaper manufacturer. They constructed a balloon about 30 feet (9 m) in diameter made of taffeta and coated with a varnish of alum for fireproofing. Réveillon decorated the balloon with golden flourishes, zodiac signs and suns, together symbolizing the French monarch of the time, King Louis XVI.
The king proposed the first passengers be prisoners. (No matter if they die) The brothers prevailed upon the king and changed it as they had apprehensions about the effect of high altitude on humans. Instead they suspended a basket below the balloon in which they put a sheep, a duck and a rooster. They thought that the sheep’s body was close to that of humans and being birds, the duck and rooster would be safe at high altitude. It took off on Sept. 19, 1783. The flight lasted 8 minutes and
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