History of the development of aeronautics. A Brief History of Aeronautics
It is generally accepted that the term “ufology” appeared in English in 1959. In particular, the Oxford English Dictionary reports its first use in the Times Literary Supplement on January 23, 1959. What is known, however, is that this article appeared eight years after Edward J. Ruppelt first proposed and began using the term UFO in 1951. The very origin of ufology, as a direction that studies unidentified flying objects, began in the late 40s of the twentieth century, when in 1947 K. Arnold saw nine strange flying objects moving at a then unimaginable supersonic speed (this event is known as “”) .
However, despite the fact that ufology itself is a modern direction, it is believed that the facts of the appearance of UFOs on Earth began long before 1947. To do this, ufologists themselves provide various eyewitness accounts, sketches and photographs. Experts in photography, astronomy, psychology, military technology, aviation, etc. can figure out where the grain of truth is hidden and where there is outright falsification. And the rest need to have at least a general understanding of these areas in order to be able to form an independent opinion.
This article will discuss the history of aeronautics: the evolution and chronology of the appearance of aircraft.
World history of aeronautics
Since ancient times, man has strived for the sky. There were many fairy tales, myths and legends about various flying machines: chariots of the gods, flying carpets, wings that you can put on and fly like a bird, and much more. People tried to come up with various devices that would allow them to fly.
History of Aeronautics
Balloon
The flying lantern (a prototype of balloons with a shell filled with hot air) has been known in China since ancient times. Its invention is attributed to General Zhuge Liang (180-234 AD, honorific title Kunming), who sources say used them to strike fear into enemy troops.
However, according to some sources, it is believed that in the 3rd century. BC In China, a device was known that was a lamp in a paper container and resembled hot air balloons.
In the 5th century AD e. Liu Bang invented a "wooden bird", which may have been a large kite or an early glider. However, there is no evidence that such structures were used for human flight.
In 559, the flight of a man on a kite was documented in the kingdom of Northern Wei.
Balloon
The first balloon of the Montgolfier brothers, filled with heated air, rose on June 5, 1783 in Annonay, and the second, built by Professor Charles and filled with hydrogen, rose on August 27, 1783, opening the way to the implementation of real aeronautics.
Balloons and airships: 1-Montgolfier Balloon, 2-Charles Balloon, 3-Blanchard Balloon, 4-Giffard Balloon (bal. captif), 5-Giffard Balloon (free), 6-Dupuy de Lome Balloon, 7-Henlein Balloon, 8-Renard and Krebs balloon
Further, balloon construction developed, increasing the lift height, flight range, as well as the variety of shapes and designs.
After the war of 1870-71. all aeronautical societies, especially the Parisian one, began with great zeal to find a way to control the balloon in order to make it suitable for practical purposes. The first rational attempt in this direction was made earlier, in 1852, by Henri Giffard, who built a cigar-shaped ball, 44 meters long and 12 m in diameter, equipped with a screw driven by a steam engine.
Airship
An airship is essentially a controlled balloon.
Santos-Dumont Airship No. 6
- unmanned uncontrolled;
- unmanned automatic;
- unmanned remotely piloted aerial vehicles (RPA).
In 1898, Nikola Tesla developed and demonstrated a miniature radio-controlled boat.
In 1910, inspired by the successes of the Wright brothers, a young American military engineer from Ohio, Charles Kettering, proposed the use of unmanned flying machines. According to his plan, the device, controlled by a clock mechanism, in a given place was supposed to shed its wings and fall like a bomb on the enemy. With US Army funding, he built and tested several devices with varying degrees of success, but they were never used in combat.
In 1933, the first reusable UAV, Queen Bee, was developed in the UK.
Subsequently, the design of the UAV was modernized and modified depending on the purposes.
Conquest of space
This section is included in this article with the purpose of showing when it became possible to notice a “uniformly moving star” in the sky, which is in fact an artificial satellite of the Earth.
In 1949, the idea of launching rockets into space for research purposes began to be implemented. Geophysical devices, soaring to altitudes of 100-200, and then 400 km, paved the way for artificial Earth satellites.
On November 4, 1957, a rocket with an artificial satellite was successfully launched from the secret “site No. 2”. The satellite was just a metal ball with a radio transmitter inside. The scientific laboratory, weighing more than a ton, flew beyond the atmosphere only on the third satellite on May 15, 1958.
In 1962, the multi-purpose Cosmos program was adopted, within the framework of which satellite launches were carried out for both peaceful and military purposes.
In November 1957, the dog Laika went into space on the second satellite, becoming the first “living cosmonaut” on Earth.
This was followed by a whole series of launches with animals, which made it possible to send the man Yu.A. into space. Gagarin. The Vostok-1 spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961 at 09:07 Moscow time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Conclusion
Thus, we can conclude that various aircraft began to appear in the sky a very long time ago, and for most of the population they were truly unidentified due to limited knowledge. It cannot be said that all evidence of strange technical devices in the sky before the 19th century is direct evidence in favor of the alien theory.
Based on the above information, everyone can draw their own conclusions regarding some of the historical evidence, drawings and photographs offered by some as evidence of ancient UFO history.
Aviation experts are invited to write a review article about interesting models of experimental aircraft that could be mistaken for a UFO.
As a more detailed source of information, we can recommend the Aviaschool.net website dedicated to aviation and aeronautics and the large aviation encyclopedia
In 1783, in the small town of Annonay in France, the brothers Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier designed the first hot air balloon in France, called the “hot air balloon” in honor of their creators. The brothers were rich people, owned a paper factory, studied science and applied their knowledge in practice.
One day, while watching the clouds passing in the sky, they cut out a large ball from a canvas and tried to fill it with hot steam. But the steam quickly cooled down, turned into drops of water on the matter, the ball became heavy and did not rise into the air.
Joseph knew about the discovery of hydrogen by the English scientist Henry Cavendish, a gas that was not only flammable, but also fourteen times lighter than air.
The brothers bought hydrogen, but this time the balloon did not rise - the gas quickly seeped through the fabric of the shell. Using paper instead of fabric also did not lead to success.
One winter evening, the elder brother Joseph saw his wife bending over the fireplace with her skirt lifted high. Joseph was interested in his wife's explanations. She claimed that the smoke was to blame, which put her in an awkward situation.
Montgolfier had an idea - he must fill the balloon with smoke. The inventor used fabric and paper, soaking them in a solution of alum.
Residents of the city learned about the brothers' hobby and asked to show the subject of their research to the city.
Aeronautics is the first step into the sky.
The brothers met the residents halfway and scheduled the launch of the balloon for June 5, 1783. They prepared very hard for this date. They made a huge ball of fabric covered with paper; in the middle of the ball they reinforced it with a cloth belt, to which they attached ropes in order to hold the balloon while it was filled with smoke.
A wooden frame was attached to the bottom of the ball, through which they planned to blow hot air. As a result, the ball weighed more than 200 kg and was the height of a three-story house.
On the appointed day, when the city residents gathered in the square, the brothers lit a fire. The assistants took hold of the ropes, and the brothers positioned the bottom of the ball over the fire. Filling with hot air, the balloon grew before our eyes, and the residents of Annone saw the inscription on the shell of the balloon “AD Astra”, which translated from Latin means “To the stars”. When the 8 people holding the ball released the ropes, the ball soared into the sky. The joy of the city residents knew no bounds, and the Montgolfier brothers rejoiced with them at their success. And although the balloon flew no more than a kilometer, this small French town took an honorable place in the history of aeronautics.
News of the flying balloon reached King Louis XVI of France, who invited the brothers to Paris. At this time, the Academy of Sciences, on behalf of the king, turned to the famous scientist, professor at the Conservatory of Sciences and Crafts, physicist Jacques Charles to explain the invention of the hot air balloon. But he used a balloon filled with hydrogen in his experiments. To create it, together with the Robert brothers, silk and a rubber solution were used, which made it possible to make rubberized fabric.
In August 1783, in Paris, Charles filled a balloon with hydrogen and launched it into the sky. The balloon quickly gained altitude, but burst in the clouds. Jacques realized that atmospheric pressure was to blame and waited for the Montgolfier brothers to arrive in Paris to find out how they managed to solve this problem.
The Montgolfier brothers showed their balloon to the Academy of Sciences in the fall of 1783. The ball was designed by his younger brother Etienne in the shape of a barrel, painted with monograms more than twenty meters high. The demonstration caused such delight that it was decided to repeat it in the presence of the king. By this time the balloon had become unusable; the shell of the balloon was washed away by rain. The brothers designed a new ball, working day and night to meet the deadline.
On September 19, 1783, a hot air balloon was launched in Versailles, carrying a ram, a duck and a rooster. The balloon flew four kilometers and landed successfully. The king honored the brothers with awards. From that moment on, all balloons using smoke as a lifting force were called hot air balloons.
The Montgolfier brothers did not stop there; they dreamed of flying themselves in a hot air balloon. They made a new balloon, more than twenty-two meters high and fifteen meters in diameter. At the bottom of the ball there was a gallery for two people with a fireplace in the middle for burning wet straw. King Louis XVI was against the brothers' participation in the risky project and offered to fly in a hot air balloon to two criminals sentenced to death.
Pilatre de Rozier, who took an active part in the construction of the balloon, was against the king’s decision. He wanted to remain in the history of aeronautics himself, his candidacy was approved. The co-pilot of the balloon was the Marquis d'Arland, a passionate fan of aeronautics.
On November 21, 1783, the balloon took off, flying over Paris for twenty-three minutes, rising to a height of nine hundred meters.
According to tradition, all people who make their first flight in a balloon are given count titles. This tradition dates back to the moment the Montgolfier brothers first took King Louis XVI on a hot air balloon ride. The king was so delighted with the flight that he gave the balloonists the lands over which they flew. After that, he clarified: “Yours, while you fly over them.”
Since that time, balloonists from all over the world have dedicated earth, fire and water to everyone who flew in a balloon and donated those lands where the balloon landed.
Aeronautics - anyone who has tried it at least once will remember it forever...
Among the pioneers of aeronautics whose names have not been forgotten by history, but whose scientific achievements remained unknown or questioned for centuries, is the Brazilian Bartolommeo Lorenzo.
This is his real name, and he entered the history of aeronautics as a Portuguese priest Lorenzo Guzmao, author of the Passarola project, which until recently was perceived as pure fantasy. After a lengthy search in 1971, it was possible to find documents that shed light on the events of the distant past.
These events began in 1708, when, having moved to Portugal Lorenzo Guzmao entered the university in Coimbra and was inspired by the idea of building an aircraft. Having shown extraordinary ability in the study of physics and mathematics, he began with what is the basis of any endeavor: with experiment. He built several models that became prototypes of the planned vessel.
In August 1709, the models were demonstrated to the highest royal nobility. One of the demonstrations was successful: a thin egg-shaped shell with a small brazier suspended underneath, heating the air, rose almost four meters from the ground. In the same year, Guzmao began implementing the Passarola project. History has no information about her test. But in any case, Lorenzo Guzmao was the first person who, based on the study of physical phenomena of nature, was able to identify a real method of aeronautics and tried to implement it in practice.
THE INVENTION OF JOSEPH MONTGOLFIER
“Hurry up and prepare more silk fabric and ropes, and you will see one of the most amazing things in the world,” I received this note in 1782 Etienne Montgolfier
, owner of a paper factory in a small French town, from his older brother Josepha. The message meant that at last something had been found that the brothers had talked about more than once during their meetings: a means by which one could rise into the air.
This means turned out to be a shell filled with smoke. As a result of a simple experiment, J. Montgolfier saw how a fabric shell, sewn in the shape of a box from two pieces of fabric, after filling it with smoke, rushed upward. Joseph's discovery also captivated his brother. Now working together, they built two more aerostatic machines (that’s what they called their balloons). One of them, made in the form of a ball with a diameter of 3.5 meters, was demonstrated among family and friends.
It was a complete success - the shell stayed in the air for about 10 minutes, rising to a height of almost 300 meters and flying through the air for about a kilometer. Inspired by their success, the brothers decided to show the invention to the general public. They built a huge balloon with a diameter of more than 10 meters. Its shell, made of canvas, was reinforced with rope mesh and covered with paper to increase impermeability.
The balloon demonstration took place in the city market square June 5, 1783 in the presence of a large number of spectators. A ball filled with smoke rushed upward. A special protocol, signed by officials, documented all the details of the experiment. Thus, for the first time, the invention was officially certified, which opened the way aeronautics
.
THE INVENTION OF PROFESSOR CHARLES
The Montgolfier brothers' balloon flight aroused great interest in Paris. The Academy of Sciences invited them to repeat their experience in the capital. At the same time, the young French physicist professor Jacques Charles was ordered to prepare and demonstrate their aircraft. Charles was sure that hot air balloon gas, as the smoky air was then called, was not the best means for creating aerostatic lift.
He was well acquainted with the latest discoveries in the field of chemistry and believed that the use of hydrogen would provide much greater benefits, since it is lighter than air. But having chosen hydrogen to fill the aircraft, Charles faced a number of technical problems. First of all, what to make a lightweight shell from that can hold volatile gas for a long time.
The mechanics, the Robey brothers, helped him cope with this problem. They made a material of the required qualities using light silk fabric coated with a solution of rubber in turpentine. On August 27, 1783, Charles's flying machine took off from the Champ de Mars in Paris. In front of 300 thousand spectators, he rushed upward and soon became invisible. When one of those present exclaimed: “What is the point of all this?!” - the famous American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin, who was among the spectators, remarked: “What is the point in the birth of a newborn?” The remark turned out to be prophetic. A “newborn” was born, who was destined for a great future.
FIRST AIR PASSENGERS
The successful flight of Charles's balloon did not stop the Montgolfier brothers from their intention to take advantage of the offer of the Academy of Sciences and demonstrate a balloon of their own design in Paris. In an effort to make the greatest impression, Etienne used all his talent; it was not for nothing that he was also considered an excellent architect. Built by him balloon was in a sense a work of art. Its shell, more than 20 meters high, had an unusual barrel-shaped shape and was decorated on the outside with monograms and colorful ornaments.
The balloon demonstrated to official representatives of the Academy of Sciences aroused such admiration among them that it was decided to repeat the display in the presence of the royal court. The demonstration took place at Versailles (near Paris) on September 19, 1783. True, the balloon, which aroused the admiration of French academics, did not live to see this day: its shell was washed away by rain, and it became unusable. However, this did not stop the Montgolfier brothers. Working day and night, they built a ball by the scheduled date, which was not inferior in beauty to the previous one.
To create an even greater effect, the brothers attached a cage to the balloon, where they put ram, duck and rooster
. These were the first passengers in the history of aeronautics
. The balloon took off from the platform and rushed upward, and eight minutes later, having traveled a distance of four kilometers, it safely landed on the ground. The Montgolfier brothers became the heroes of the day, were awarded awards, and all balloons that used smoky air to create lift were from that day called hot air balloons.
THE FIRST MAN FLIGHT IN A HOT HOTTON FIELD
Each flight of the Montgolfier brothers' balloons brought them closer to their cherished goal - human flight. The new ball they built was larger: height 22.7 meters, diameter 15 meters. In its lower part there was a ring gallery, designed for two people. In the middle of the gallery there was a fireplace for burning crushed straw. Being under a hole in the shell, it radiated heat, which warmed the air inside the shell during flight.
This made it possible to make the flight longer and, to some extent, controllable. King Louis XVI of France forbade the authors of the project to take personal part in the flight. Such a life-threatening task, in his opinion, should have been entrusted to two criminals sentenced to death. But this caused violent protests Pilatra de Rosier , an active participant in the construction of the hot air balloon.
He could not come to terms with the idea that the names of some criminals would go down in the history of aeronautics, and insisted on personally participating in the flight. Permission was received. Another “pilot” was aeronautics fan Marquis d'Arland. And on November 21, 1783, man was finally able to get off the ground and take flight in the air. The hot air balloon stayed in the air for 25 minutes, flying about nine kilometers.
There is no evidence in the documents that Louis XVI himself took an air tour. But there is a beautiful legend about the flight of the king with the Montgolfier brothers. Allegedly, Louis XVI was so delighted with the flight that he exclaimed: “Gentlemen, all the lands that you see are yours!” After landing, the king immediately gave the brothers the title of count, since only a count could own such land. Afterwards, the king came to his senses, remembered that “these lands already belong to someone, and found a witty solution. He added one word to the brothers’ title, and they became “counts of aeronautics” and, accordingly, all lands should belong to them only when they flying in the air.
FIRST MAN FLIGHT ON CHARLIÉRE
In an effort to prove that the future of aeronautics belongs to charliers (the so-called balloons with shells filled with hydrogen), and not to hot air balloons, Professor Charles understood that for this it was necessary to carry out a flight of people on a charlier, and more spectacular than the flight of the Montgolfier brothers. While creating the new balloon, he developed a number of design solutions that were then used for many decades.
The charlier he built had a mesh that covered the upper hemisphere of the balloon shell, and slings with which a gondola for people was suspended from this mesh. A special vent was made in the shell to allow hydrogen to escape when the external pressure dropped. To control the flight altitude, a special valve in the shell and ballast stored in the nacelle were used. An anchor was also provided to facilitate landing on the ground.
On December 1, 1783, the charlier, with a diameter of more than nine meters, took off in the Tuileries Park. Professor Charles and one of the Robert brothers, who took an active part in the construction of the Charliers, went on it. Having flown 40 kilometers, they landed safely near a small village. Charles then continued his journey alone.
Charlier flew five kilometers, climbing to an unprecedented height for that time - 2750 meters. After staying in the sky-high heights for about half an hour, the researcher landed safely, thus completing the first flight in the history of aeronautics in a balloon with a shell filled with hydrogen.
AEROSTAT OVER THE English Channel
Life of a French mechanic Jean Pierre Blanchard
, who made the first balloon flight across the English Channel, is notable for being a vivid illustration of a turning point in the development of aeronautics at the end of the 18th century. Blanchard began by implementing the idea of flapping flight.
In 1781, he built an apparatus whose wings were driven by the force of his arms and legs. Testing this apparatus suspended on a rope thrown over a pulley, the inventor rose to the height of the roof of a multi-story building with a counterweight of only 10 kilograms. Delighted by the success, he published in the newspaper his thoughts on the possibility of flapping human flight.
Air travel made on the first balloons, and then the search for means of controlling their movement, again returned Blanchard to the idea of wings, this time as a control for the balloon. Although Blanchard's first trip in a balloon with winged oars ended unsuccessfully, he did not give up his attempts and became more and more interested in rising into the heavenly expanse. Blanchard began performing public flight demonstrations.
When his flights in England began in the fall of 1784, he had the idea of flying in a balloon across English Channel, thereby proving the possibility of air communication between England and France. This historic flight, in which Blanchard and his friend the American doctor Jeffrey participated, took place on January 7, 1785.
A LIFE DEVOTED TO AERONAUTATION
The history of aeronautics has been a history of not only victories, but also defeats, and sometimes dramatic fates. An example of this is the life of Pilatre de Rosier. A physicist by training, he was one of the first to understand the true significance of Joseph Montgolfier's invention.
Rosier persistently put forward the idea of manned aeronautics, repeatedly declaring his personal readiness to fly in a hot air balloon. Perseverance and courage led to triumph: Rosier became the first aeronaut pilot, making a twenty-minute flight in a hot air balloon together with the Marquis d'Arland on November 21, 1783. At his suggestion, the design of the hot air balloon, which was built in 1783 in the city of Lyon for a flight demonstration, was changed.
In the new version, the balloon was designed to lift twelve people into the air. And although the Lyon hot air balloon lifted only seven people into the air and touched the ground again 15 minutes later, it was the first flight of a multi-seat balloon in the history of aeronautics. Rosier then sets a new record. In a hot air balloon flight with the chemist Proulx, he reaches a height of 4000 meters. Having achieved this success, Rozier returns to the idea of long-haul flights.
Now his goal is to fly across the English Channel. He is developing a balloon of his own design, combining a conventional spherical balloon and a cylindrical hot air balloon. The combined balloon became known as a rosier. But fate was clearly not kind to Pilatrou de Rosier . Having taken off on June 15, 1785, together with his assistant Romain, Rosier did not even have time to fly to the English Channel. A fire that broke out on the rosier led to the tragic death of both balloonists.
FROM DREAM TO PROFESSION
Attempts to implement controlled movement of balloons, undertaken in France in the early years of the development of aeronautics, did not produce positive results. And the interest of the general public in demonstration flights gradually turned aeronautics into a special type of spectacular event.
But in 1793, that is, ten years after the first flights of people in balloons, an area of their practical application was discovered. French physicist Guiton de Morveau proposed the use of tethered balloons to lift observers into the air. This idea was expressed at a time when the enemies of the French Revolution were trying to strangle it.
The technical development of the tethered balloon project was entrusted to the physicist Coutell. He successfully completed the task, and in October 1793 the balloon was sent to the active army for field testing, and in April 1794 a decree was issued on the organization of the first aeronautical company of the French army. Cutelle was appointed its commander.
The appearance of tethered balloons over the positions of the French troops stunned the enemy: rising to a height of 500 meters, observers could look far into the depths of his defenses. Intelligence data was transmitted to the ground in special boxes, which were lowered along a cord attached to the gondola.
After the victory of the French troops, the National Aeronautical School was created by the decision of the Convention. Although it lasted only five years, a start had been made: aeronautics became a profession.
AERONAUTATION IN RUSSIA AND
For the first time in Russia, a balloon flight without passengers lasting 6 hours was carried out by Frenchman Minel March 30, 1784 , which aroused great interest among the Russian population.
The Russian Ambassador to France, Count Baratynsky, told Empress Catherine II about the invention of the Montgolfier brothers. Russian society received this discovery with interest and enthusiasm. The first experiments on the creation of a “hot air balloon” were carried out at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and even the book “Discussions about balloons filled with flammable substances and flying through the air, or air-carrying, invented by Mr. Montgolfier in Paris” was published. Catherine II in a letter dated December 20, 1783, i.e. literally a few months after the first balloon flights in Paris, she wrote: “...Although here these air travels are less involved than in Paris, everything that concerns them is accepted with the participation that such a curious discovery deserves.” "
During one of the flights over Paris, the balloon caught fire. Although no one was injured, Catherine II on April 15, 1774 issued a decree on a temporary ban on balloon flights: “In order to prevent dangerous incidents and other unfortunate incidents that could occur from newly invented balloons filled with hot air or braziers with all sorts of hot compounds, we command that a ban be imposed so that from March 1 to December 1 no one dares to launch such balloons into the air, on pain of paying a penalty of 20 rubles.” In a letter to France, Catherine II explained this decree by saying that in Russia many buildings are wooden and the roofs are thatched; a flaming ball can cause a huge fire.
At Alexandra I The idea arose to arm the Russian army with balloons. However, it did not progress further than test flights. And the first Russian balloonist was staff doctor Kashinsky , who in October 1805 independently flew in a hot air balloon. Researchers also mention a certain Moscow bourgeois Ilyinskaya, who in August 1828 took to the air in a balloon of her own design. But her origin played a cruel joke on her: aeronautics was still considered a noble privilege, and therefore she did not become a heroine of her time. History has not preserved her first name or patronymic, nor her biography. There were also casualties: in 1847, the aeronaut Lede died, whose balloon was blown into Lake Ladoga by the wind.
On December 3, 1870, the Russian Aeronautics Society was created. And after five years Dmitriy Mendeleev At a meeting of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, he proposed his project of a balloon with a hermetically sealed gondola for high-altitude flights. In 1880, on his initiative, an aeronautical department was created at the Russian Technical Society. In addition to Mendeleev, Alexander Radishchev, Ilya Repin, Lev Tolstoy, Viktor Vasnetsov and many others showed their interest in flying in the sky. And in February 1885, in St. Petersburg on Volkovo Pole, a Cadre Military Aeronautics Team was organized, which conducted military exercises using balloons.
Following Russian chronicles,November 17, 1731 The first manned flight in a hot air balloon was made by clerk Kryakutnoy from Nerekhta.
FIRST FLIGHTS IN MOSCOW
In the spring of 1803, Moscow entrepreneur Terpi decided to use the balloon for commercial purposes. On May 4, he launched a ball into the Moscow sky with gymnasts who performed somersaults, “Chinese groups and poses with various new changes,” and at the end there was a grandiose fireworks display. The next day, the Moskovskie Vedomosti newspaper published a note about these flights and an announcement of new flights and entertainment, already for a certain fee: “...for first place 1.5 rubles, for second - 1 ruble, and for third - 50 kopecks copper."
October 2 (September 20, Old Style) 1803 Moscow saw flight for the first time hot air balloon, which was piloted by a former inspector of the French revolutionary army André Jacques Garnerin.
André Garnerin, having traveled throughout Europe, arrived in Russia at the end of May 1803 with his balloon. He was known as the first person to jump from by parachute and therefore was considered hero - pioneer, was favorite among women, although he was not known as a Don Juan. He traveled around Europe to make money. Going into the sky was by no means free; a ticket for a hot air balloon cost 2,000 silver rubles. If you consider that in those days you could buy a horse at a fair for fifty rubles, then you can imagine who his passengers were.
However, the princes and merchants were afraid to board a flying boat (that’s what the balloon basket was called) and Garnerin decided to persuade a certain person to fly, after whose flight it would be simply a shame for rich Muscovites to refuse. And he persuaded the most beautiful woman in Moscow at that time to fly with him - Princess Trubetskoy. As a beauty, she was known under the pseudonym Praskovya Kologrivova. As he persuaded, it remains a secret, she was not particularly brave. She was probably attracted by personal PR.
It is believed that it is Praskovya Yuryevna Kologrivova, in her first marriage Gagarina, nee Trubetskoy, renamed Tatyana Yuryevna, just in case, that Griboyedov’s Molchalin mentions in “Woe from Wit”:
Tatyana Yuryevna!!! Famous, at the same time
Officials and officials -
All her friends and all her relatives;
You should go to Tatyana Yuryevna at least once...
How courteous! of good! sweetie! simple!
He gives balls that couldn’t be richer,
From Christmas to Lent,
And in the summer there are holidays at the dacha.
Andre Jacques Garnerin and Princess Trubetskoy climbed on the ball October 2, 1803 in 17.25 near today's Kursk station, and landed safely in the area of the Ostafyevo estate, in which the prince lived at that time Peter Vyazemsky. Thirty kilometers flew in an hour, and the public was waiting for them at the landing site in advance, where they greeted them with delight. How much Garneren earned from his flights after this is unknown. But rumors spread about some kind of relationship with Trubetskoy. To refute all the gossip, Andre publicly promised his wife (his legal wife) to take her on the same route and fulfilled his promise the following summer. After this, Russia had its own balloonists and balloonists.
Before the Patriotic War of 1812. Russian military officials were developing a project for a “controlled balloon.” The War Department expected to build 50 airships, each capable of lifting 40 soldiers and 12,000 pounds of ammunition. Moreover, the greatest “action” was expected “from boxes filled with gunpowder, which, thrown from above, can, with their explosion, falling on solid bodies, overturn entire squadrons.” It was planned to place falconets - small cannons - on the sides of this ship, and in the bottom - a special hatch for dropping “powder boxes”. In fact, it was the first controllable airship to be lifted into the air using hydrogen. The balloon had to be maneuvered using sails. They began to build these balloons near Moscow. But Napoleon and his army were already near Moscow. By this time, only one experimental balloon had been built. Kutuzov, preparing for the battle of Moscow, counted on these aircraft. He wrote a letter to Count Rostopchin: “The Emperor told me about the erostat, which is secretly being prepared near Moscow. Will it be possible to use it, please tell me, and how to use it more conveniently.” The experimental balloon flew very poorly and, of course, was not combat-ready. The balloon production was evacuated.
In 1890, a training aeronautical park was created in the Russian military department, which was supposed to test aircraft militarily. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The commander of the Manchurian army, General Linevich, asked to allocate 2-3 balls for reconnaissance and siege operations. In the spring of 1904, a special Siberian aeronautical company was formed for the Manchu army. The company consisted of 5 officers, 120 lower combat ranks, and 73 non-combatant ranks. Of the non-combatants, the majority were foremen and mechanics. The company was designed to serve 2 balls. Already in the fall of 1904, the balloons went on combat duty at the Liaoliang fortification. The Japanese also delivered balloons to the theater of operations. Thus, the head of the defense of the Port Arthur fortress wrote to the headquarters: “There is no aeronautical park, which makes it very difficult to determine the location of enemy batteries and correct shooting at a closed target; the enemy has balloons..." Count Stroganov, who by that time was living in France, used his own money to purchase a high-speed warship equipped with a hot air balloon for the Pacific squadron. The balloons of the Siberian Aeronautical Company successfully conducted reconnaissance. Assistant commander of the aeronautical company V.F. Naydenov wrote: “The Japanese did not shoot, but yesterday, when I got up with my adjutant to take photographs and observe, the Japanese were apparently lying in wait, and when they began to lower the ball and already took it by the belt tension, hit us with shrapnel, we immediately got up again and could open where the Japanese were shooting from, three more approached two guns.” From Mukden, the inspector of the military engineering unit reported to the headquarters: “In the end, 13 St. George’s crosses were sent to both companies during the days of fighting at Sandepu (the balls were in effect all the time). I liked the activity of the balloons so much that now not only the headquarters of all 3 armies, but also the headquarters of the corps are begging for balloons to be sent to them.”
IN 1913. residents of Perm province could watch the flight of a hot air balloon. A balloon with three German citizens landed near the village of Mysy, Okhansky district. According to them, they were flying to Constantinople, but the wind carried them to Russia. The German crew flew nonstop for 87 hours. The balloonists were sent to Moscow to the German consulate. Later it turned out that German balloonists were military in the recent past. It was never possible to find out whether these were simple balloonists or German spies. In a couple of months - already in January 1914 Another balloon with German nationals was detained near the Bisert plant. The travelers brought to Perm introduced themselves as the engineer Berliner, the architect Gaze and the merchant Nikolai, allegedly flying to Sweden. At the same time, they did not have Swedish money, but they had Russian rubles, and in a dream one of the travelers commanded: “Halt! Feuer! (“Stop! Fire!”). The trial held in Perm was unable to prove the espionage activities of the Germans, but accused them of deliberately violating the ban on flying over the Russian border. The balloonists were sentenced to 6 months in prison, and the balloon was confiscated to the treasury.
The 20th century democratized flight to the greatest extent possible. Including in the Russian Empire. A specialized magazine and flying club appeared.
The first All-Russian Aeronautics Festival took place in 1910, and the All-Union Aeronautical Competitions took place in 1924.
Based on materials from vokrugsveta.ru and others.
Even in ancient times, people dreamed of flying across the sky like birds and worked towards this for a long time. And now, sitting in the comfortable seat of an airliner, few people are interested in how people were able to build the first aircraft and master air travel. With the advent of airplanes, many forgot about this art of aeronautics, but recently balloon flights have attracted the attention of tens of thousands of people every year.
Absolutely all balloons differ in size and the number of people transported. So it’s logical that prices can vary greatly, but if we talk about a regular ball, it will cost 20-30 thousand dollars. But why, one might ask, buy a balloon if, say, you would like to fly out of curiosity, or give a gift to a loved one, or make a romantic marriage proposal to your beloved, it is not at all necessary. For this purpose, there is a Magic flight agency in Moscow, which has a variety of balloons in its assortment, including heart-shaped ones. Be with Magic flight and a hot air balloon flight will become an unforgettable moment in your life.
In 1784, James Tyler rode the Grand Edinburgh balloon 106 meters into the air and flew about a kilometer on it. It is noteworthy that Mr. Tyler worked as a simple pharmacist, but he went down in history not only as an aeronaut, but also as a person who edited the Encyclopedia Britannica (2nd edition).
Inflatable balloons appeared in 1824 and were invented by Michael Faraday. True, then his invention was used only as a “vessel” in which he stored various gases.
Well, the first living balloonists were: a ram, a duck and a rooster. They were launched into the air by the Montgolfier brothers in September 1783. The first balloonists survived the flight safely, only the rooster's wing was broken. However, everyone thought that the ram had done it.
In November 1783, inventors Marquis de Arlandes and Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier created a manned balloon that did not need to be tethered to the ground.
Two years later, in 1785, John Jeffreys and Jean-Pierre Blanchard became the first aeronauts in history to fly across the English Channel. It was a rather desperate act, because both did not know how to swim.
In 1808, the first duel using balloons took place in Paris.
In 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones went down in history as the first people to circumnavigate the world using a hot air balloon and never having to sit on the ground during the flight.
In 1794, there was a revolution in France and resourceful military commanders came up with a brilliant idea - to use a balloon for reconnaissance. This ball became "Entreprenant".
In 2010, at the next Bristol International Balloon Fiesta event, a non-trivial model of a ball with a thick glass bottom was presented to the public.
It is common knowledge that a hot air balloon is almost uncontrollable. Its movement is very dependent on wind currents; people controlling the ball can only change the flight altitude, thereby trying to find suitable wind currents.
Typically, the balloon flight lasts only two hours. However, if we take into account the preparatory procedures, the process itself will take three hours.
In 2013, an absolute record was recorded at one of the former French NATO bases: 408 balloons took off into the air in a few minutes.
Few people know, but a hot air balloon will not rise into the air if it rains.
For many years, one of the unattainable desires of people was the ability to fly or at least rise into the air. What kind of inventions have not been invented to make this happen? Once, the fact was recorded that objects of small weight can rise when exposed to hot air, this became the impetus for the development of aeronautics.
It is believed that the world's first hot air balloon was created in 1783. How did this happen? History sends us back to the distant XVI-XVII centuries. It was then that prototypes of the first balls appeared, which could not show themselves in practice. In parallel, in 1766, the chemist Henry Cavendish first described in detail the properties of a gas such as hydrogen, which the Italian physicist Tiberio Cavallo used in his work with soap bubbles. He filled the bubbles with this gas, and they quickly rose into the air, since hydrogen is 14 times lighter than air. This is how the main two lifting forces used in balloon flights even today appeared - hydrogen and hot air.
These discoveries did not solve all the problems of flight operations. To create a balloon, a special material was required that would not be too heavy and would also be able to hold gas inside. Scientists and inventors solved this problem in different ways. Moreover, several designers competed for the championship of discoveries, the main ones being the brothers Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, as well as the famous professor Jacques Alexandre Charles from France.
The Montgolfier brothers had no special knowledge about the properties and characteristics of various gases, but they had a great desire for discovery. At first they experimented with smoke and steam. There were attempts to use hydrogen, but they were affected by the problem of the lack of special fabric that would not allow this gas to pass through. Also, its cost was quite expensive, and Montgolfier returned to experiments with hot air.
The first hot air balloon was created in 1782. It was made by the Montgolfier brothers, although it was small in size, only 1 cubic meter in volume. But still, it was already a real ball, which rose to a height of more than 30 meters above the ground. Soon the experimenters made a second balloon. It was already much larger than its predecessor: with a volume of 600 cubic meters and a diameter of 11 meters, a brazier was placed under the ball. The fabric for the balloon was silk, covered with paper on the inside. The ceremonial launch of the balloon in the presence of a large public took place on June 5, 1783, which was organized by the already famous Montgolfier brothers. Using hot air, the balloon was raised to a height of 2 thousand meters! They even wrote to the Paris Academy about this fact. Since then, hot air balloons that use hot air have been called hot air balloons after their inventors.
Such achievements of Montgolfier prompted Jacques Alexandre Charles to intensify the development of his new invention - a balloon that uses hydrogen to rise. He had assistants - the Robert brothers, mechanics. They managed to produce a silk ball impregnated with rubber, the diameter of which was 3.6 m. They filled it with hydrogen using a special hose with a valve. A special installation was also made for the extraction of gas, which was obtained as a result of chemical reactions by reacting metal filings with water and sulfuric acid. To prevent fumes from the acid from spoiling the shell of the ball, the resulting gas was purified using cold water.
The first hydrogen-powered balloon was launched on August 27, 1783. It happened on the Champ de Mars. In front of two hundred thousand people, the ball rose so high that it was no longer visible behind the clouds. After 1 km, the hydrogen began to expand, as a result of which the shell of the balloon ruptured, and the balloon fell to the ground in a village near Paris. But they knew nothing about such an important experiment, and before the inventors had time to arrive, the frightened residents tore the unusual ball to shreds. Thus the great invention, worth 10,000 francs, fell into disrepair. Since 1783, hydrogen-powered balloons have been called charliers, in honor of Charles.