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Aeronauts And Their Balloons It's a reasonable asumption to believe that when Americans are asked who was the most important person in the history of aviation, it wouldn't be just one person, but two: Orville Wright and his brother Wilber. A strong argument, however, for the most influential aviation pioneers could also be made for any member of a group of men and women collectively known as the "aeronauts" — the bold adventurers who took to the air decades before the Wright Brothers and the development of the fixed-wing aircraft of the early 1900s. These aeronauts included Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier who, on October 15, 1783, became the first person to successfully accomplish the long-held dream of flying as he rose 250 feet above the ground in aboard a tethered balloon where he remained for the next 15 minutes. Jean-Pierre Blanchard became the first man to cross the English Channel by air (124 years before Louis Blériot accomplished a similar feat in an airplane). James Glaisher and his colleague Jacque Charles ascended in balloons for scientific research and their discoveries are still important today. The legendary Sophie Blanchard, the "Queen Of The Fireworks," earned a fortune as an aeronaut in her spectacular shows. |
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