For thousands of years, people longed to fly. In ancient Greek, for example, there was the legend of Icarus and his father, who escaped from an island prison on wings made of wax and feathers.
But it was a long time after the ancient Greeks before the dream was fulfilled. The Montgolfier brothers finally made it happen when they invented the hot-air balloon.
One story has it that the inspiration for the balloon came when Jacques Montgolfier's wife saw one of her petticoats billowing as it hung next to the fire to dry.
Believing the smoke was lifting the petticoat, Jacques and his brother Joseph designed a large bag that they inflated with the air from a fire beneath. As they expected, the bag rose into the air, though it was the hot air, not the smoke, that caused it to rise.
Following that success, they designed a large balloon and held a public demonstration on June 5, 1783 at Annonay, France. The balloon jumped about 200 yards into the air.
They repeated the performance in Paris, and again for King Louis XVII at Versailles.
Later, chemist Jean François Pilâtre de Rozier volunteered to go up in one of the Montgolfiers' balloons. On Oct. 15, 1783 he took a tethered flight, then on Nov. 21, 1783 made a free flight.
It was the start of a great adventure that would eventually take men to the moon. And perhaps some day it will take us beyond.
