A brief history of the hot air balloon
France, 1783. That’s where it all started, although you can find stories that the first balloons took off earlier (there are even Polish connections). But officially, France is the pioneer of flight, and the balloon is the first aircraft in history to take off, first with animals (a ram, a rooster and a duck) on board.
Shortly afterwards, on November 21, 1783, Jean François Pilâtre de Rozier and his companion François Laurent d’Arlandes made the very first free flight in history with a hot air balloon.