The Great British Balloon Lunchtime The 2016 BBM&L AGM and Annual Luncheon held at the Elcot near Newbury on October 30th was a brilliant success. More people attended the event this year than for the last six years, many travelling hundreds of miles, Wilf Woollett and Rachel, flew in from Ireland for the day! We […]

The Annual British Balloon Museum & Library Luncheon is going to be on Sunday 30th October. It will be at the Mercure Elcot Park Hotel near Newbury, Berkshire. The BBM&L’s Annual General Meeting will take place just before the luncheon, and all Friends are welcome to attend, the AGM is at 11.00am. Click here for […]

Well, what a busy and exciting day it was for the 14th BBM&L Inflation Day, and the weather really was the cream topping to make it a perfect event! I cannot remember such an impeccable forecast during the preceding week and turning out as predicted on the day. The only complaint I received was ‘it’s […]

Here are the front covers of the last four Trailropes, the journal of the British Balloon Museum & Library. The most recent one has all the reports on the most amazing Inflation Day, held on May 7th. But do you realise that for £10 a year you receive four Trailropes plus invitations to the luncheon and […]

  The British Balloon Museum & Library are pleased to announce that the 14th Inflation Day will be held on Saturday May 7th 2016. We are looking forward to welcoming you all to Lakeside Lodge at Pidley, near Huntingdon, where David Hopkins has very graciously agreed to host it again for us. LAAS International, the […]

The Annual Luncheon of the British Balloon Museum took place at the Elcot near Newbury, Berkshire at the end of October and was really well attended. The BBM&L were lucky to have persuaded Greg and Molly Winker to have cut short their European tour to come and tell us about Early American ballooning. It was […]

232 years ago, on June 4th, 1783, Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier demonstrated the first balloon heated by hot air to the nobles of Annonay in south of France. The Montgolfier family ran a large paper factory and had 16 children and they all worked there. Joseph was the 12th Child and Etienne was the 15th. […]

On Thursday 18th June at 11.30 am St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8AU over 300 people attended the Memorial service for a remarkable man in the history of ballooning, exploration,  raft expeditions and journalism. Anthony’s son Adam looked forward to welcoming all who remembered his Father, and he was amazed at how many hundreds […]

1967 4th February, on a beautiful calm and sunny day, Malcolm Brighton piloted the 1st balloon to cross the English Channel carrying 5 people.  JAMBO, a gas balloon was flown from Rye in Sussex to Berck Plage in France. JAMBO was better known as the gas balloon flown in Africa by Anthony Smith, and this […]

222 years ago  was the 1st balloon flight in the USA. 9th January 1793 Jean Pierre Blanchard decided to set out for America aboard the ship Ceres on September 30, 1792. He arrived in Philadelphia on December 9. He was received by President George Washington and Pennsylvania Governor General Thomas Mifflin. Blanchard had already made […]