What Regency date night is complete without a gentleman taking his ladylove for a flight in a hot air balloon? (Would you be impressed if your version of Mr. Darcy took you for a ride?)

The hot air balloon is a late 18th century invented, brought to us by brothers Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier (French, not British!) in 1783. They launched their invention in the marketplace in Annonay, France, showing off their silk and paper-lined balloon as it rose over 6,000 feet for ten full minutes, unmanned.

What sealed the balloon’s fate was King Louis XVI’s wish for the Montgolfier brothers to demonstrate this invention. A friend of Ben Franklin, the king fancied himself a bit of a scientist and wanted to see this invention for himself.

September 19, 1783 was the date. At Versailles, before a crowd of 130,000, the brothers wowed King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette with their floating balloon, which had been beautifully decorated, just for the occasion, with taffeta and various sun symbols for the king.

Two short months later, the Marquis Francois d’Arlandes and Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier volunteered to be the first in flight on the balloon (much to the dismay of the king). This was no ten-minutes-up-in-the-air-and-down-again sort of ride. Oh no. They flew over Paris for two hours!

Not to be outdone, we see the hot air balloon success repeated in England, just on the outskirts of London, the next year in September of 1784. The Prince of Wales attended for the occasion. The balloon, a British version of its own making, inspired by the French version rather than replicated, traveled 24 miles before landing in Hertfordshire.

Not all flights were so successful. See if you can find more about the English balloonist who landed in a tree with his hot air balloon in 1784. 😉 

For the full tale of “The Daredevil Aeronaut” who brought the hot air balloon to England with his own flair, an arguably superior balloon to the French version, check out this post on British Ballooning from JaneAusten.co.uk:

https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/arts-and-entertainments/british-ballooning

A terrific little article about the French version from All Things Georgian:

https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/early-ballooning-in-18th-century-france-and-england/