The first hot-air balloon flight
Two brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, prosperous paper manufacturers, experimented with lighter-than-air devices after observing that heated air directed into a paper or fabric bag made the bag rise. On June 4, 1783, they made a public demonstration in Annonay with a 10.5-metre (35-foot) diameter unmanned cloth-and-paper balloon, using the heat from a straw fire. The balloon rose to between 5,200 and 6,600 feet (1,600 to 2,000 m) and stayed aloft for 10 minutes, traveling more than a mile (about 2 kilometers).
