The first clearly recorded instance of a balloon carrying passengers used hot air to generate buoyancy and was built by the brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier in Annonay, France. After experimenting with unmanned balloons and flights with animals, the first tethered balloon flight with humans on board took place on October 19 1783 with the scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, the manufacture manager, Jean-Baptiste Réveillon and Giroud de Villette, at the Folie Titon in Paris.

The first free flight with human passengers was on 21 November 1783. King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but de Rozier, along with Marquis Francois d'Arlandes, successfully petitioned for the honor. This collection contains four {4} vintage texts, as well as a modern day flight manual.

Also included is a treasury of over four hundred fifty {450} vintage ballooning photos, patents, and photographs depicting the early pioneers of the hot air balloon.

This library includes the following five {5} publications:

:: Ballooning A Concise Sketch of Its History and Principles (1885) - 110 pages.

:: Ballooning as a Sport (1907) - 194 pages.

:: Spherical Ballooning (1917) - 44 pages.

:: The Balloon Travels of Robert Merry and his young friends - A Novel - (1855) - 336 pages.

:: Hot Air Balloon Photo Gallery