Campagni. Lunardi would subsequently invent a life-saving device for shipwrecked people. Called by the inventor his "aquatic machine" it was like a one-man lifeboat with an oar for steering. He successfully tested the machine in 1787. 1786 What was supposed to be his 12th launch at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1786 ended in a casualty, when Lunardi spilled sulfuric acid on the ground. Assistants restraining the already buoyant balloon fled from the place which caused it to take off. One of them, the son of Mr. Heron, under-sheriff of Northumberland, had a rope twisted around his hand and could not disengage himself in time. He was drawn up in the air. Eventually, he fell to the ground and died a while later from internal injuries. The critical responses following this death made Lunardi leave Great Britain. Italy, Spain, and Portugal Lunardi continued to make ascents in Italy, Spain and Portugal. He made an ascent by balloon near Mount Vesuvius in September 1789. He also made the first successful ascent by balloon in Sicily in July 1790. It lasted two hours. Lunardi never married. He died in Lisbon, Portugal in 1806. There are portraits of Lunardi in the National Gallery of Scotland (engravings by Francesco Bartolozzi and Mariano Bovi). He was portrayed by Laurence Olivier in the 1936 film Conquest of the Air and celebrated musically in Lunardi's flight : a rondo for the harpsichord by the Scottish/Italian composer Domenico Corri. Additional sources Leslie Gardiner Lunardi: The Story of Vicenzo Lunardi (Shrewsbury, England: Airlife Publishing, Ltd., 1963, 1984), 192p., illus. Massimo Raffanti Volare in mongolfiera (Viareggio, Italia: Pezzini Editore, SrL, 2013), 96p., illus. The historic North Mymms balloon landing References 1759 births 1806 deaths Italian balloonists Italian diplomats 18th-century Italian inventors People from Lucca