Ballooning history

Terry Adams has enjoyed an illustrious career in ballooning but before that he was a dashing young Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and surely

Balloon takes telescope to 81,000ft to view Venus

On 28 November 1959 the Stratolab IV balloon ascended to 81,000 feet with a 16 inch Schmidt infra red telescope attached to the top of

World altitude record hot air balloons

On 26 November 2005 Dr.Vijaypat Singhania broke the world altitude recode for hot air balloons after reaching 68,986 feet in Mumbai, India. Cameron Balloons built

21st November is Montgolfier Day

All over the world, 21st November is the day balloonists celebrate the anniversary of the first free flight with human beings. In 1783 in Paris,

Parachute from balloon

It was on this day 16 November 1959 that American balloonist Joe Kittinger made the first high altitude jump. As part of the Execlsior 1

First manned balloon across the Pacific.

As the crew of Double Eagle V crossed the Californian coast at 9pm on 12 November 1981 they had already been in the air

First Hot Air Balloon across the English Channel

On April 13, 1963, pilots Ed Yost and Don Piccard launched the 60,000 cubic foot hot air balloon "Channel Champ" from the village of Rye,

Don Piccard b.1926 – d.2020.

In 1957, on 18th September Don Piccard flew the first plastic Pleiades, a cluster of small balloons, based upon a design of his father's, Jean-Felix

1709 – First demonstration of a model hot air balloon

Just after breakfast on August 8th, 1709, a 24 year old Priest, Bartolomeu de Gusmão from Brazil, demonstrated the first model balloon to King John

First Flight at South Pole

On 8th January 2000, the first ever hot air balloon flight at the South Pole took place. Ivan André Trifonov, an Austrian balloon pilot, flew

The day a duck, a sheep and a cockerel took to the air in 1783

On the 19th September 1783, Etienne Montgolfier, a paper maker, launched the first hot air balloon with passengers, it was called ‘Aerostat Reveillon’. The passengers

Military Ballooning

The first military use of observation balloons was during the French Revolutionary Wars. They were also used by both sides during the American Civil War

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