The birth of the hot-air balloon, a story that goes back several hundred years in theAnnonay-Rhône conurbation. With video reports and audio podcasts, (re)discover the history of ballooning in the northern Ardèche.
The birth of the hot-air balloon
Discover the second episode of the series of reports offered by France 2 Television, France seen from the sky in a balloon, and broadcast in the 1pm news in autumn 2015.
After a presentation of balloons and the safety conditions required for all balloon flights, this episode looks at thehistory of aerial flight and the birth of the aerostat.
This adventure began in the Annonay-Rhône area in the north of the Ardèche department, thanks to its famous inventors, the Montgolfier brothers, with the technical support of local paper mills.
Annonay in the Vivarais region of the Ardèche has been a hot-air balloon town for almost 250 years!
A look back at a unique story of innovation in Annonay with a report by J.-M. Nouck-Nouck, L. Marques and E. Metge for France Télévision :
Flying is an old dream. The idea of the hot-air balloon was born in Annonay in the Ardèche in 1782. Photographer Jean-Pierre Girard knows the story inside out.
It was here that the Montgolfier brothers first flew a paper balloon inflated with hot air,” he explains. This invention was to have a global impact. The paper mill used to make the balloon is now a museum.
Trials took place in the gardens. The first balloon flew on 14 December 1782. It was an experiment that was to revolutionise science and transport.
The video of the report, from 1’30 for the zoom on Annonay-Rhône, Du ballon à la lune, histoire d’une aventure ardéchoise:
France from the air in a balloon, 5 episodes devoted to the world of hot-air balloons and aerostats:
A week in a balloon… a unique and privileged way to discover France in a different way.
France from the air… in a balloon, via France Télévisions:
Since the Montgolfier brothers invented the hot-air balloon in 1782, balloon flights have certainly evolved, but they are still synonymous with adventure.
Between heritage and discovery, France 2 is devoting a series to these extraordinary machines, which have fed the imagination of many novelists.
The Montgolfier brothers: Wild chronicles
On 20 July 2017, in Chroniques Sauvages on France Inter, Robert Arnaut offered to (re)broadcast a radio programme from 1996.
The Montgolfier brothers?
42 minutes devoted to hot-air balloons and their inventors, the Montgolfier brothers, and to the Annonay-Rhône region from where the first aerostat took to the skies…
It’s a poetic, historic and technical flight in this hot-air balloon, which returns every year to the very place from which the Montgolfier brothers first set off, Annonay.
Guests on the radio show
- Xavier de Montgolfier: descendant of the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Étienne, inventors of the hot-air balloon.
- Marie-Hélène Reynaud: Curator of the Montgolfier Museum in Annonay
- Jacques de Lavaux: author of a History of hot-air balloons from 1783 to the present day
Listen to the radio sequence? Here is the podcast replay (in french):
See also
- The history of ballooning in Annonay, hot-air balloons and the art of flight since 1782:
- Aerospace History Timeline, AIAA