The Wright brothers are famous for building and flying the world’s first airplane. However, the story of human flight started over 100 years before that with another pair of brothers: Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Éienne Montgolfier. Their family owned a paper manufacturing company in France, but the Montgolfier brothers dreamed of bigger things. Joseph-Michel was the more creative brother. He made his own parachutes and tested them by jumping off houses. Jacques-Éienne was better at business and had a talent for building things.
In 1782, Joseph-Michel had a vision while staring into a fire. He imagined soldiers sailing into battle on a giant balloon powered by heat. He contacted Jacques-Éienne and he agreed to help him build it. Their first hot-air balloon test flight failed, but they made some improvements and tried again. They set up another flight with a rooster, a duck, and a sheep as their passengers. The flight lasted for eight minutes, and the balloon landed successfully. This gave them confidence that their hot-air balloon would be safe for humans. On November 21, 1783, two people went on a 25-minute flight around Paris in the Montgolfier’s hot-air balloon, making it the first free flight by humans in history.
